Children were at risk so Detroit promised to halt demolitions. But that didn't happen.

Lyriq Wilson shut her eyes and clutched the stickers in her hand.

It was mid-October 2019 and a fall chill swirled through the air in Auntie Na’s community health clinic on Detroit’s west side. Outside, children shrieked as they painted pumpkins during the neighborhood’s annual bazaar.

But inside the clinic, the tension was palpable.

“We’re almost done, just one quick poke and it’ll be over,” a Detroit Health Department employee told Lyriq in a soothing voice, as she prepped the machine to prick the 6-year-old’s finger. “See? All done.”

In the background, Sonia Brown, the founder and no-nonsense visionary of the community-centered Auntie Na’s Village, watched, her eyebrows furrowed with worry, as the small group of health department staff huddled to await Lyriq’s lead test results.

Read more: https://www.freep.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2020/10/16/detroit-demolitions-stopped-neighborhoods-lead/5975230002/
(Detroit Free Press)