Advocacy
Leading Change Together
The need for affordable housing at all income levels in Northwest Michigan has long been identified as a critical element of a strong and robust economy. With many residents struggling to make ends meet, living in housing that’s too expensive for their budgets, inadequate, unsafe, or too far from work and services, there is a significant need to address the shortcomings of our current housing stock.
Finding solutions to address the housing shortcomings of the region will involve policy changes at the local, state, and federal levels. It will also include unique and innovative partnerships and the development of relationships with decision-makers to ensure that the region's collective voice is heard.
Housing North is uniquely positioned to help address the issues and find solutions that will accelerate the availability of housing options for all residents in the region. As one of our strategic pillars, Housing North has led and participated in the development of initiatives, partnerships, and tools to help reduce the barriers to housing development in Northwest Michigan. Click here and access our 2024 Legislative priorities.
Advocacy Resources
At Housing North, we believe that creating stronger, more resilient communities starts with empowering individuals and organizations to advocate for housing solutions. Whether you're a community leader, policymaker, or passionate resident, you'll find resources here to support your efforts.
Together, we can champion innovative solutions and drive collaboration to ensure everyone has a place to call HOME. For additional resources on advocacy, click here.
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The Housing North Communications Toolkit is intended to help advocates and leaders build consistent messages around housing in public dialogues, and include memorable data points, clear messages about solutions, and context for how housing impacts our shared values. Download the toolkit here.
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Public comment is particularly crucial in finding housing solutions as it directly impacts people's lives and well-being. By inviting feedback from residents, stakeholders, and advocacy groups, local government can gain valuable insights into the unique challenges faced by the community. Public comment helps identify housing needs, preferences, and potential barriers to access, ensuring that housing initiatives are tailored to suit the diverse requirements of the population. Click here to access a handout on Public Comment and valuable insights on how to support housing solutions for your community.
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You me be wondering how you can be part of the action taking place in your community regarding housing or how you can really advocate for housing. Housing is a complex challenge. Land Use decisions are made primarily at local levels: City, Village, Township, or County. While it’s easy to agree that more housing is needed, there’s often disagreement on what type of housing, resources to be used, and quite importantly, how one can support and be part of the solution given that local officials like most to hear from the people living in their communities. Click here to learn where decisions are made and by whom and exactly how you can help Housing North and your community advocate. If you’d like the presentation from the training, click here or the handout describing the importance of messaging, for advocacy, click here.
Housing North and the Housing Michigan Coalition
What is the Housing Michigan Coalition?
The Housing Michigan Coalition consists of community, business, and government organizations who have joined together to support the increase of housing supply and affordability. Housing Michigan, a coalition of over 20 statewide organizations and dozens of other regional groups, including the Home Builders Association of Michigan, Grand Rapids Chamber, Michigan Municipal League, and Housing North work aims to drive consensus, policy changes, and discussions that lead to positive outcomes in regards to housing.
How is Housing North involved with the Coalition?
Since its founding, Housing North has made it a priority to engage in strategic state policy initiatives. In 2020, Housing North helped bring together statewide and regional housing stakeholders to advocate together on shared housing policy priorities to a group that became known as the Housing Michigan Coalition. Housing North is part of the Coalition’s Executive Committee.
2022 HOUSING TOOLBOX PASSED INTO LAW
In April 2022, the House Local Government and Municipal Finance Committee held a hearing and heard testimonies from Housing Michigan Coalition Members, Housing North, and Representatives behind each bill aimed at creating more housing opportunities for our communities. On December 14, 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law the bipartisan four-bill package that expands incentives to build more affordable housing across the state.
Legislative Advocacy
Other Policy and Legislative Initiatives
With input from the Housing North Advocacy Committee, Housing North has developed an Advocacy Strategy, and is continuing to work with Borealis Strategic to advocate for policy pillars:
Taxes: Develop a new and innovative tax structure for property owners seeking to provide long-term (greater than one month) rental housing for the workforce.
QAP Changes for rural communities: Amend the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) to better address rural housing needs in the region.
Vacation rentals: Mitigate impacts of short-term rentals on year-round housing stock.
Funding: Create new and preserve existing revenue streams that can be used for housing initiatives.
Rural Interests: Ensure that rural housing and related needs are considered part of the structure of state government.
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In collaboration with our partner Kent Woods from Borealis Strategic, LLC, Housing North has worked to propose legislation to create additional rural workforce housing from some of the region’s vast short-term rental property stock is before state lawmakers. The proposal would amend Michigan’s general property tax act to allow property owners to receive a homestead exemption - eliminating the 18-mill non-homestead property tax levy collected for Michigan school districts - for properties utilized for rural workforce housing. To learn more about this initiative, click here.
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The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program is the nation’s biggest funding source for affordable housing. In Michigan, it’s administered by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA). MSHDA awards funding for projects based on a “rulebook” - the qualified allocation plan, or QAP - that’s updated every two years. The QAP was due for an update in 2020 giving Northwest Michigan the opportunity to share our concerns and priorities for the program.
On February 6, 2020 Housing North held a round-table with developers, employers, local government officials and community organizations to provide an overview of the low-income housing tax credit program and QAP update process, identify barriers to using the program in Northwest Michigan, identify potential changes to the program that could benefit Northwest Michigan and provide advocacy recommendations and talking points.
Based on that input, Housing North recommendations for 2020 QAP update process focused on changes that would help address the needs of rural communities in our region:
Flexibility for walk-ability requirements
Lower points for certain financing approaches
Flexibility for transit requirements
Tier structure for proximity to amenities
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As a general policy, Housing North is not opposed to short term rentals (STRs).
STRs can be an important tool for attracting and accommodating visitors. We are, however, opposed to forcing a centralized planning system on this issue and removing the ability for local units of government to make key decisions in regulating STRs. Michigan lawmakers are currently debating two pieces of legislation -- SB 446 in the Senate and HB 4722 in the House. These bills would impose a one-size-fits-all approach to short term rental regulation in Michigan communities.
Essentially, these bills would allow short term rentals to proliferate regardless of the local needs that are unique to a community and those who live and work there.
Housing North is not opposed to STR’s, but we do want to ensure our communities have the tools and resources to first house those who live and work here year-round. We believe there
should be a balance of STR and year round housing. This bill does not help us as housing advocates to create a balance of housing in our communities. Here is a link with more information about this bill.
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Community land trusts are nonprofit entities that created and preserve affordable home ownership opportunities by retaining the ownership of land after a home is sold. By retaining the land, the home can be sold below its appraised value.
A legislative package with two bills is to be introduced:
Bill Draft 02903’21: This bill would create a refundable income tax credit for CLT homeowners. The credit is equal to all taxes owed on the land and up to 25% of the taxes owed on the structures.
Bill Draft 032461’21: If the owner choses, the credit is remitted directly to the local tax collecting unit in exchange for a reduced property tax bill. The local tax collecting unit defers levying taxes on the property until the state pays the amount. After the state remits the credit, the local tax collecting unit levies an amount to cover the difference.
Housing North is working with partners on these two bills to help with the property tax impacts on Community Land Trust properties. Currently Senator Stephanie Chang is the sponsor and we are hoping for a co-sponsor soon to introduce the bills in the next few months.
The COVID19 Pandemic changed our world and affected each and every one of our communities. As an avenue to alleviate the impacts of the pandemic, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) was launched. The Coalition for a Strong and Prosperous Michigan is a group of community, organizations, and business leaders who came together to design a comprehensive and strategic roadmap to invest the ARP funds. The plan capitalizes on the economic value of thriving communities, advances equity, builds community wealth, supports entrepreneurship, prioritizes the need for talent, and spurs business development. In the plan, Housing North and Coalition members propose the investment of funds to support Housing Ready Communities across our region.