I always have a problem with social design challenges like this. Outsiders always have some notion that they're more capable of coming up with solutions for these "problems" than the people who actively live with them. It typically ends up being over-engineered or flawed due to ignoring some cultural reasons for the status quo.
Working as a designer at social enterprise dedicated to water purification in India clued me into one particular case of this over engineering. A well-known design firm did a month-long visit at my company to design a new carrying method for the water cans that people used to transport filtered water back to their homes or businesses. They did many of these same "studies" and prototypes and came up with this plastic clip to hook a 20 liter jerry can to the side of a bike or motorcycle. They distributed them to customers, took some pictures and left. Within a month most were lost, broken, or found too difficult to use. In the end what was the solution that people ended up using? A simple piece of sheet metal bent into an s-curve and hooked over the sides of the bike frame. Cheap, simple, and easy to manufacture. It was designed and made by a customer of the company, by himself. You don't need a college education and a design background to come up with the correct solution; most people know what they need, and they will go out and make it happen. These shoulder poles are a perfect example of Jugaad solutions, an innovative fix or work-around. It might just not be as sexy as one you'll find in a design studio or classroom.
I'm not sure about numbers of those business, so I can't really speak to how prevalent that is, but I'd imagine that sort of fraud is pretty small in both number and dollar value compared to the higher-profile and the larger tax breaks given to the Ilitches and the like. There just isn't the same amount of money going to minority business owners/neighborhoods vs. white business owners/white(r) neighborhoods in a city that is 92% Non-white.
One thing you definitely see is the problem with professional networks. They're pretty racially divided. You walk around the tech hubs in Detroit and you'll find that one is primarily white, and another primarily black. Networking events are often pretty similar. I don't think a lot of the lack of hiring of minorities in Tech Startups in Detroit is anything malevolent, but more a product of a lack of awareness of people who exist outside their professional networks. There are a number of great colleges in the Detroit area (Wayne State, Lawrence Tech, UofD Mercy) but I've rarely seen people get hired out of those colleges and into the tech startups around town. It's often the interpersonal networks which tend to align themselves around the race and class of the person hiring.
tl;dr It's not about racism, but about personal networks that often align with race
Detroiter who works at a tech startup here in the city: great bit of photography and a really interesting message, but there is one notable absence in the contrast between the haves and have-nots is in the city of Detroit. There's a huge wealth gap between Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, but there's a pretty big one in the city as well.
There's plenty of investment and activity happening in the "Downtown Development District" than the surrounding neighborhoods, which were hit the hardest from population decline. There's plenty of money and attention that goes to typically young and white tech startups that have recently located (myself included) while other (typically minority) entrepreneurs are left out of the narrative of the "rebirth" of Detroit. It's a lot about race, politics, and access to capital, but it's going to be readily apparent in a few years which areas have been given preferential treatment from state oversight (and tax-write-offs) and local investment.
Working as a designer at social enterprise dedicated to water purification in India clued me into one particular case of this over engineering. A well-known design firm did a month-long visit at my company to design a new carrying method for the water cans that people used to transport filtered water back to their homes or businesses. They did many of these same "studies" and prototypes and came up with this plastic clip to hook a 20 liter jerry can to the side of a bike or motorcycle. They distributed them to customers, took some pictures and left. Within a month most were lost, broken, or found too difficult to use. In the end what was the solution that people ended up using? A simple piece of sheet metal bent into an s-curve and hooked over the sides of the bike frame. Cheap, simple, and easy to manufacture. It was designed and made by a customer of the company, by himself. You don't need a college education and a design background to come up with the correct solution; most people know what they need, and they will go out and make it happen. These shoulder poles are a perfect example of Jugaad solutions, an innovative fix or work-around. It might just not be as sexy as one you'll find in a design studio or classroom.
This op-ed from NY Times about a $300 house design contest from a few years back does a similar job articulating the point, too. It's worth a read: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01srivastava.html