DETROIT—Detroit, the center of one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, is forecast by public officials to hit its peak of new cases this week, and its neighborhoods of poverty and populations with poor health outcomes are compounding the outbreak’s ferocity.

In many ways, the Motor City might seem like an unlikely hot spot for such a concentrated outbreak: It lacks the population density of other major U.S. cities and, with fewer public transit options, residents are heavily reliant on the automobile to get...