Baldwin House senior apartment tower in Birmingham ends daily meals, special bus in cuts

Decades ago, she imagined having a senior apartment tower near Birmingham City Hall. She fought for it as the embattled mayor.

These days, she's embattled again, trying to keep the quality of life she envisioned for that senior tower, where now she lives. But for how much longer? Dorothy Conrad, with a worried glance, deflects the question.

In 1978, Conrad was recalled as mayor by Birmingham voters, who feared that Baldwin House, with its segment of “affordable” units, would bring in Blacks. Her recall led to a lawsuit against the city by the U.S. Department of Justice, which charged Birmingham with violating the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968.

The verdict? Guilty. Birmingham was forced to build the tower, with 40% of its 131 units reserved for low-income residents. Fast forward: Conrad, approaching 90, is fighting again, but not against the racist bloc of voters that recalled her.

Now she’s up against the managers and owners of Baldwin House. Step by step, they've been chipping away at the lifestyle she sought. On April 24, Baldwin House managers announced that the building’s daily meal plan, which dates back decades, would end on May 31.

“I found a letter under my door. No explanation. They just said this was ending,” Conrad said, adding: “Can they do that?” The letter came along with other surprises: the Baldwin House van with its wheelchair lift was no more, as was the in-house hair salon.

A sign on the lawn outside says “Baldwin House Senior Living.” It may soon change to “The Baldwin on Chester,” Birmingham Planner Nick Dupuis said. Already, a receptionist in the office answers the phone with “Baldwin on Chester,” a link to the address − 200 Chester Street − and a break from "Senior Living." Dropping “senior” worries Conrad.

“I think they want us old people to leave. They want this to be a regular apartment building so they can raise the rents,” said Conrad. That might be the landlord’s ultimate plan. For now, managers still call Baldwin House in Birmingham “a 55+ Independent Senior Living Community” in recent advertisements. But the legal requirement to offer units at below-market rents is scheduled to end in 2025.

When the Free Press asked Baldwin House about the changes, a response came by email from Joe Schwartz, listed online as the chief investment officer of Baldwin House Senior Living in Birmingham. Schwartz also helps to oversee at least five other senior apartment buildings called Baldwin House, at sites in Clinton Township, Hazel Park, Pontiac, and Grand Rapids.

His email stated: “Please be advised that less than 50% of our current residents subscribe to weekly food plan (sic). We are simply making changes to how we make food service accessible to senior citizens who desire the optional food service program.”

Schwartz also said that “free van service will always continue via a traditional minivan," although he did not say whether a vehicle might again be available with a wheelchair lift, needed by some seniors who struggle to climb into vans.

Schwartz is one of five brothers. In partnership, the brothers own the Baldwin House in Birmingham, according to their father, Gregory Schwartz Sr., who described the partnership to the Free Press in 2022. Gregory Schwartz Sr. is the founder and chairman of Gregory J. Schwartz & Co., an investment advisory company in Bloomfield Township.

The situation sounds ironic: well-heeled renters upset by changes at their luxury apartment building. Yet, the tenants' worries and fear – some were seen weeping about the loss of meals, Conrad said – represent the predicament of many renters. Compared to most other states, Michigan has few protections for those who rent their housing. A “renters’ rights” bill is stalled in the Legislature, said state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, who visited Baldwin House last year to hear residents’ concerns, well before the current round of changes.

New business model

The owners of Baldwin House “would seem to have the right to change their business model,” McMorrow said. That assumes that tenants' lease agreements allow the change, she said. Oakland County officials said they had no jurisdiction over Baldwin House. It's one of numerous fully legal but unlicensed senior housing sites in Michigan, according to Julie Edgar, a senior advocate with federally funded AgeWays Non-Profit Senior Services, formerly the Area Agency on Aging. AgeWays, based in Southfield, aids low-income seniors in Oakland, Macomb, and five other counties, although not Wayne County.

AgeWays' income limits rule out helping most but not all of those living at Baldwin House in Birmingham, Edgar said. Although many low-income residents have moved out, “We still have three participants in Baldwin House. They have been getting home-delivered Meals on Wheels,” she said. Others there, regardless of income, could also begin receiving the free Meals on Wheels, she said.

“The only requirement is that someone is homebound,” and even that restriction is leniently enforced, Edgar said.

At the other end of the spectrum from free, Baldwin House residents could order from nearby restaurants, and then pay for deliveries. Management says it will help them do that. Tenants were recently offered the chance to order five days of restaurant dinners, delivered to their door, at $25 each – weekends and holidays not included. Conrad said that's too costly for some residents, and it eliminates socializing at meals.

“That’s why people move to a place like this, so you can be with other people, not eating alone,” she said. Whether managers can abruptly cancel services in residential leases might be vulnerable to a court challenge. But no one seems willing to step up with a lawyer, including Conrad.

“I’m tired of fighting them. I guess they can do this,” she said.

Conrad pays the market rate of $4,090 for her monthly rent and the daily meal plan for her one-bedroom unit. An on-site rental agent told her that her rent would drop by $600 when the meal plan ended, Conrad said. She thinks that’s not enough, after seeing recent advertisements for Baldwin House touting “Apartments starting at $2,450/month.” After the $600 discount, she'd pay $3,490. She planned to protest.

It’s not as if Baldwin House tenants are truly suffering. The building is luxurious, recently repainted inside, with thick carpeting, elegant furniture and a spacious library. What’s not visible is the tension among residents, several of whom said they’re afraid to talk to a reporter, afraid of being forced out of their apartments, as Conrad almost was.

Parking scandal

Two years ago, in an incident some now call "Dorothy-gate," Baldwin House managers suddenly tried to terminate Conrad’s lease. That happened after Conrad spread the word that management shouldn’t have been charging residents $90 a month to park in the city parking deck across the street. Parking should've been free for Baldwin House seniors, Conrad insisted, under a contract inked in 1990 between the city and the building owners.

To avoid being pushed out of her unit, Conrad called a reporter. She also hired a lawyer. News coverage sparked a one-day picket line of Dorothy’s friends, including city and county political leaders. Soon, the building managers backed down. They declared that Conrad could stay. After that, the city ordered them to audit their years of overcharges for parking. Eventually, after months of delays, the Baldwin House owners paid hefty refunds totaling nearly $100,000 to residents and former residents, and even to the heirs of those who’d overpaid but since had died.

The dust settled. The managers seemed chastened. Conrad said she’d go back to taking in her third-floor view, socializing with neighbors, enjoying the hot meals in the dining room, and occasionally riding to go shopping on the Baldwin House bus. But her hopes for a calmer future didn't last.

By the end of this year, even Birmingham’s limited city jurisdiction over the parking will end, when the 30-year consent agreement ordered by a federal judge expires, Birmingham City Attorney Mary Kucharek said, in an email.

“We too have heard the very serious and unfortunate concerns of the residents. The city manager and staff are aware and we have been discussing it,” Kucharek said, adding: “Unfortunately, the city of Birmingham has no legal authority or jurisdiction over the private corporation of Baldwin House."

Also seeing dim prospects for resisting the changes are members of Baldwin House Inc. It's an advisory board of representatives from five Birmingham churches, the successors of what some have termed “do-gooders” who, along with Conrad, pushed in the 1970s to see the senior tower built. In the consent agreement, the church board was given an advisory role, yet it has “no power to enforce anything,” said Linda Buchanan, vice president of the board. Buchanan represents First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham.

The impending end to the consent agreement means that, by this time next year, Baldwin House could discontinue offering apartments for low-income residents, at “below market rate,” Buchanan said. Members of the church group said Schwartz agreed to meet with them in early June. They felt good that he was willing to do that, they said. But at their board meeting on May 13, held at the Birmingham United Methodist Church, they wondered aloud about whether they could influence the owners to unwind any changes.

Profit motive

“You think they want to get rid of the low-income people?” said Janice Rowe, president of the board, and member of Sanctuary, formerly First Baptist Church of Birmingham. No one could be sure. A landlord's profit motive, at a time of skyrocketing rents nationwide, would seem to say, yes. A week later, speaking on the patio outside Baldwin House, Conrad said she hoped not.

“As far as I know, our low-income units are filled. I had a friend who applied and she was told there’s a waiting list a mile long.”

Conrad said she could well afford to move out of Baldwin House. But the expense of moving, as well as the difficulty of finding affordable options, would be hard on some of her neighbors, she predicted.

“What I want is a fair chance for everybody. That’s all I ever wanted, way back when,” she said.

Contact Bill Laytner: blaitner@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Baldwin House in Birmingham ends daily meals, special bus in cost cuts