Housing North is teaming up with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to help develop the state’s first statewide housing plan and bring more attainable housing to Northern Michigan.
MSHDA announced the first ever statewide housing plan last year, and recently announced 15 regional housing partnerships across the state to make sure the plan implemented effectively.
Close to 200,000 living units are needed across the state, but each region has different needs. That’s where a local appointee for the Statewide Housing Partnership, Nikki Devitt says the new partnerships come into help.
“We know how many units are estimated in need in our entire state, but it’s different how that’s going to look,” Devitt explained.
Devitt says some regions need more rentals, while others have declining homeownership.
The statewide housing plan is a five-year rolling plan, and the new partnership is designed to gather the needs and priorities from regional partners and relay the regions goals back to the state to ensure the regions housing needs are met.
The Executive Director of Housing North Yarrow Brown says they will be a facilitator and coordinator for the region.
“[We’re] making sure that we’re having input on all those priority areas and then meeting with our stakeholders to figure out what those top goals and strategies are for northwest Michigan,” Brown described.
There’s around 130 action items in the housing plan, but Housing North and the state want to first make sure they get input from residents before moving forward. The state has already heard from at least 7,000 people.
Devitt says the key to having a successful statewide housing plan is more feedback from residents about what they feel their community needs in terms of housing.
“[We’re] working with citizens in each of these 15 regions and really understanding where the hurdles are, where their needs are, and where they may already be making great strides,” Devitt stated.
Housing North says while it will take some time, they say their input in the statewide housing partnership will eventually help bring more attainable housing to the region.
“We will have an opportunity to report back to MSHDA and say this is what we need for our region, and in turn hope that will include funding and resources, specifically to meet our housing needs in northwest Michigan,” Brown said.
