Detroit native buying homes in childhood neighborhood — and bringing them back to life

DETROIT – Several abandoned homes. A large street flood. Trash covering the ground. Overgrown grass and weeds. An almost completely deserted neighborhood.

This is what Detroit contractor Alonzo Ramon, who goes by his rapper stage name King Yadee, saw when he returned to see the neighborhood where he grew up. The area was a disaster. Yadee wanted to fix it.

So he put his music career aside to begin doing what seemed like the impossible: buy up his entire childhood neighborhood and bring it back to life. His brother encouraged him to go to school to learn how to accomplish it all.

"He was like, 'Go back to school and get your license,' " said Yadee. " 'If you want to buy the 'hood, let's buy the 'hood.' That was 2018."

And so far, it's working. His company has been able to purchase three abandoned homes with two more homes on the block owned by investors. It has been working to renovate them for about a year.

When Yadee first entered the abandoned homes, they were trashed and had been vacant since 2010. He and his team began knocking down the walls to see what the structures looked like and immediately started the renovation.

The well-connected team calls each other brother and sister, with two being Yadee's actual siblings. Each person was brought on to the crew because of their passion for fixing the neighborhood, where almost all of them grew up.

"We don't ask for no handouts and we definitely don't wait for nobody to do nothing for us," Yadee said. "I'm building my community, my school and my culture."

This passion for fixing started when Yadee was young. He and his siblings lost both of their parents when they were very young. His aunt and uncle took the kids in and bought their home. After a while, they decided to leave the area.

Then the 2008 financial crisis hit Detroit, and that's when Yadee said the neighborhood started to go downhill. He said that contractors and the city of Detroit didn't fix the neighborhood, so he felt it was up to the people to create a change.

"Through my music and street career, I have influence over like 50 people," said Yadee. "So I was like, 'come help me do this.' "

And people did come to help. About 30 people helped with the first house, which is near completion and will be used as a contractor-training school. A rotating crew of about 10 people come on a regular basis, including his brother, Aaron Stallworth, who quit his chef career in Colorado to come back and rebuild homes full time.

He put his rap career to the side, and Th3 Block Development started bidding on homes to purchase from the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

What's special about his team is that there are young people involved.

With Yadee and his team being positive influences in the area, the neighborhood kids started to see them as parental figures.

The kids now volunteer with Th3 Block Development and they are trained to do renovations.

Yadee wanted to involve women in his home-renovation company. There are now three working for Th3 Block Development, including Lisa Johnson, who wanted to contribute to helping the young. "Once I got on board with Yadee, he showed me how to tile floors and drywall. It's not as hard as it seems at all."

Th3 Block Development is currently filming its own home-renovation TV show, which will be available through two streaming platforms. It also plans to pitch its ideas to DIY, HGTV or Revolt TV.