PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The Portage City Council is expected to initiate phase two of their Stanwood Crossings Housing Development tonight calling for the construction of 12 more “workforce” single family homes.
It’s a city owned development, and they have done what they can to make them affordable, and still the units are priced between $300,000 and $360,000, aimed at young professionals, teachers, police officers and other average income earners.
Local officials say it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible in this market to build new housing that’s affordable for below average income earners. That’s why Kalamazoo County is looking at vouchers, direct subsidies to supplement what a renter would pay.
They are considering using $7.2-million from a recent donation of over $23-million to subsize a 3-year pilot that would create two kinds of housing vouchers.
One for renters in apartment complexes subsidized by the Kalamazoo County Housing Millage.
Deputy Housing Director Willa DiTaranto says that could be in place later this year.
The other would be for renters in other properties and take longer to organize.
Housing Director Mary Balkema says the currently available subsidized units in their projects fill up quickly, much faster than the market rate units, vouchers would make more of them affordable.
Vouchers would be just one of the initiatives of the new intergovernmental housing framework that the County Housing Department is now designing to address the housing crisis, with the participation of the city of Kalamazoo and local housing agencies.
Commissioners expressed concerns that recipients could become dependent on the assistance, that income limitations could make them ineligible as incomes rose, and whether the program could artificially inflate rental rates locally by reducing vacancies. All things that will have to be weighed before the program is greenlit.
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