affordable-housing

Housing NEXT Needs Update (2025)

In June the City Commission received, with remarkably little fan faire, the second major update to the 2020 Housing Next study. This time the study includes estimates for the years 2025 through 2029.

Affordability Tables 2025

Given that we are about to enter into a season of constant housing and land-use policy conversation it seems like a good time to update the "A"ffordable housing tables. The standard for "A"ffordabilty is for the total monthly housing costs not to exceed 30% of gross household income. For the state and federal governments this calculation is always made off of the median household income of the county; that is the number which matters in the context of block grants, tax credits, etc...

Southtown Lofts

A medium sized infill project is currently making its way through the Brownfield process. "Southtown Lofts" will replace an existing two-story building in an old business district with a new four-story Affordable housing development.

Kent County Affordable Housing Fund!

On 2023-08-10 the Kent County Board of Commissioners officially created the Kent Country Affordable Housing loan fund with a balance of $17.5 Million. In collaboration with IFF which will provide a ~230% match of the county's dollars to operational balance of the fund is $58.3 Million.

Housing NEXT Needs Update (2023)

The update of the Housing NEXT needs assessment has been released.

Document @ Housing Needs Assessment | Grand Rapids/Kent County, MI 2022 [PDF, 172 pages]

WMCAT's Housing [not] NOW Report

The WMCAT presentation to the City Commision with the results from the community out-reach events is available as PDF or ODP. The "original" Google Drive document is here.

The presentation to the City Commission on October 9th, 2018, is available on Youtube.

A Critique of NOW's ADU Proposal

It has been more than six months since the Housing NOW related zoning proposals were released, and then indefinitely tabled. I have yet to encounter a detailed critique of the proposals. Given the disappointing condition of the debate I've decided to offer one here for the topic of which I am most familiar: Accessory Dwelling Units [ADUs]. Are there problems with is proposal? The answer is "yes".

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