Community leaders here in northern Michigan are getting some support from partners across the state to address the housing shortage.
The eighth annual Northwest Michigan Housing Summit is a two day event in Traverse City that’s bringing 200 stakeholders together in one place.
“It’s really important to be able to share success stories and solutions, and new ideas for addressing housing shortages here,” says Sarah Lucas, the Director of the Michigan Office of Rural Development.
“We feel it’s really important to work regionally to solve the housing crisis. It can’t be solved by one individual or one city,” says Petoskey Mayor John Murphy. He made the road trip to Traverse City with several other Petoskey City leaders. “We brought several city council members, we also brought the chamber as well as the City Manager,” he says. “It’s more than a big city issue. Every city in northern Michigan has a labor crisis right now. And that falls back to housing.”
Builders, developers, elected officials and housing leaders from all corners of the state are in Traverse City participating in the two-day summit.
“Our goal is really to just build a coalition of people looking to build more housing in Traverse City, or the region as a whole. Because at the end of the day we can’t do it alone. At the end of the day it takes everybody pushing together to work towards that goal,” Trae Allman from Innovo says.
It’s a chance to share ideas about what works well (and doesn’t work), and what others could try in their own communities.
“This collaboration allows us the opportunity to compare notes on what’s working in one location, and can we try it in our location? There’s a whole network that needs to happen in order for any housing to happen within the state,” Murphy says.
Clarke Lewis from Detroit-based development firm ‘The Platform’ also made the trip to the summit. “Housing affordability, cost to construct new housing. It’s becoming harder and harder to access quality housing,” he says.
The summit includes panel discussions and breakout sessions. State agencies like the Housing Development Authority, Rural Development, and Economic Development Corporation also sent leaders from Lansing to work with those attending the summit. Lucas says, “We need to have multiple partners at the table in order for these projects to work. So local stakeholders, nonprofits, local governments, employers. All of those people need to be at the table as well as other partners like the state.”
Solving the housing crisis is a steep hill to climb, but the developers, builders, and state and local leaders we talked with say, we are making some progress. But of course there is still more work to be done.
“I think supply could still catch up to demand. It takes time and development is complicated, so we still have a ways to go to meet demand,” Lewis says.
“There’s a lot of catchup that needs to happen. There’s been a big backlog of demand for a long time. And then demand has gone up for a variety of reasons,” Lucas says. “But it’s really encouraging to see the new developments that are approved and under construction and know that a lot of community stakeholders are onboard and participating in solutions.”
Mayor Murphy says there’s no immediate fix. “It’s a process. This problem is not just a local problem. This is a countrywide problem.” Allman says, “The region as a whole could probably do 500 units a year for the next 20 years and not meet the demand.”
Housing North is hosting the summit. To learn more, .
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