Chaldean Town, Detroit

Chaldean Town is an historic Chaldean neighborhood in Detroit located along West Seven Mile Road in a segment in between Woodward Avenue to the west and John R St. to the east. The population of the district are mainly low income elderly people and recent immigrants, who are mostly made up of Chaldeans. The neighborhood is usually just a stop point for newly arrived immigrants, who then typically prefer to move to the suburbs of Detroit once they gain financial well-being.

Chaldean Town was founded in the 1920s by Chaldean immigrants from Turkey and Iraq (former Ottoman Empire) who wished to work in the automobile factories. After the 1967 Detroit riots and the downfall of the automobile industry, much of the area's wealthy residents and business owners left, leaving the Chaldeans with a monopoly over certain businesses such as grocery stores. Due to a stream of immigrants attracted to the already pre-established Chaldean community and the monopoly they had over certain industries, the neighborhood boomed in the 70s. Unfortunately, after the 1970s the neighborhood has suffered from crime and abandonment of property caused by the crack epidemic during the 80s and 90s- a fate common amongst Detroit neighborhoods. The residents now are typically only recent immigrants, business owners, and elderly.

Around 1979, after Jacob Yasso, the reverend of the Sacred Heart Chaldean Church (Aramaic: ܥܕܬܐ ܕܠܒܗ ܕܡܪܢ ܕܟܠܕܝ̈ܐ‎‎ ʿēttāʾ d-lebbēh d-māran d-ḵaldāyēʾ) congratulated Saddam Hussein on becoming the President of Iraq, Saddam gave $250,000 to the Sacred Heart Chaldean Church. In 1980, Saddam gave Yasso $200,000 after Yasso told Saddam his church had $170,000 in debts. WDIV-TV (Channel 4) wrote that the funds "reportedly helped build" the Chaldean Center of America, a building on Seven Mile Road adjacent to the church. The building houses some of the offices of the church, an English-language school, and a Chaldean cultural museum. In honor of Saddam's efforts, Yasso presented Saddam with the "Key to the city", procured by then Mayor of Detroit Coleman Young.

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