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Land Trust Brings More ‘Attainable’ Housing to Frankfort

Thanks to a new initiative more housing is on the way to Benzie County.

The Frankfort Area Community Land Trust (FACLT) is preparing for construction on their first housing project later this year.

“As anyone who live in Northern Michigan knows, we have a paucity of affordable housing or what we call attainable housing,” FACLT Treasurer, Liz Negrau, admits.

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The lack of attainable or workforce housing has been an issue Frankfort officials have been trying to solve for decades. Frankfort’s Superintendent, Joshua Mills, says they hope the new land trust is a step in the right direction.

“The City of Frankfort created the Frankfort Area Community Land Trust and they created the housing commission with the sole purpose of developing these partnerships to enhance our overall social and economic well-being,” Mills states.

The new housing development will have four homes. Each house measures about 1,200 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

“This is a start, this is our first project, but it certainly won’t be the last we’re talking to a couple of other organizations who are very kindly donating land, time and talent,” Negrau hopes.

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The land trust will allow an individual or family to purchase a home at 75% of the appraised value. If they ever decide to move, they sign an agreement with FACLT to sell the home at 75% of the appraised value to keep the home affordable for the next owners.

“We’re lucky in that we’re a small community and a lot of this has moved so quickly because we’ve been able to be scrappy and get after the funding we needed, but we could not do it without the partnerships of the city of Frankfort, County commissioners and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority Middle Housing Grant,” Negrau says.

The first two home will be ready to move in by August with the other two ready by Spring of 2024.

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