Ingham County officials consider millage to help address affordable housing crisis
LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - The rent is high not just in Detroit, where, according to nonprofit Higher Ground Abodes, the city has just a quarter of the affordable homes needed, but also across the state.
In Ingham County, officials are considering a millage to help fund affordable housing.
"I mean, it's going to be, you know, tens of millions of dollars. Certainly," said Joe Enerson, of how much money it could take to get out of the affordable housing crisis.
Enerson serves as the executive director of the Allen Neighborhood Center, a nonprofit organization in Lansing that focuses on housing and food security.
"I think part of it is single-family zoning, which is not flexible," he said. "In Lansing, a lot of our housing stock is older and in need of investment. So, I think it's really a lack of investment over decades."
According to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, Michigan is short nearly 200,000 units. In Ingham County, officials are toying with the idea of a millage to help fund more affordable housing because building is an expensive undertaking.
"A lot of times it's hard for a developer to make a project pencil out, and if the rent is low, you can't recapture the dollars you need in order to pay for the build," said Lansing Mayor Andy Schor. "When there's a finance gap, that's where they seek dollars like this."
Millions of dollars would go towards filling that gap, so projects could still be financially plausible.
"It's a tax increase, and people are going to evaluate that based on a lot of factors. But it is important when people walk around and they see folks that are homeless or that that are in need; housing is one of our biggest needs," said Schor.
Ultimately, if the millage makes it to the ballot, it would be for the voters to decide.