KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – A Northside leader has blasted Kalamazoo County’s Housing Director for saying she has no plans to improve housing near the Graphics Packaging Plant.
Mary Balkema will be coordinating the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars over the next few years to provide more affordable housing. She has said that none of it will go to homes nearest the north side plant, where residents have complained odors are causing health problems, claiming it’s an environmental justice issue.
Maddie Jordan Woods, the Director of the Northside Association for Community Development, says Balkema’s declaration is premature until health testing is complete.
Woods compared it to redlining, the racist practice of using economic means to segregate black and brown residents, because it may have that effect on lenders.
The county won’t be only funding housing projects, but housing repairs and improvements and infill construction, programs that they say are sorely needed in the aging residential area near the plant.
The Board of Commissioners has already approved funding for a couple of housing projects in other parts of the Northside neighborhood.
(reporting from John McNeill)
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