Mid-Michigan races to address a regional and statewide housing shortage

With drills running and construction crews at work, the nearly century old Walter French Junior High School in South Lansing is a place with a lot of activity.

That hasn't always been the case—the school opened in 1925 and closed in the 1980's. The building operated a charter school for a few years before shutting down in 2004. A few years ago, part of the structure caught on fire.

During a tour of the facility, Emma Henry, executive director of the Capital Area Housing Partnership, acknowledged the building has sat vacant for many years.

"It's a gigantic building," she said. "No power, no water, people were doing graffiti, it's just been a dark spot on this corner for so many years."

Henry said her goal has been to bring new light into the old space. When CAHP gained ownership of Walter French about seven years ago, the non-profit began planning a major redevelopment effort to convert old classrooms and hallways into rental housing and a daycare facility.

The project also has an historic preservation angle, with designers working to make the interior appear similar to how it did as a school. That will include painting the walls of the wide hallways green to look like lockers.

When the work is complete, 76 apartments will begin accepting new residents, with the units reserved for individuals at certain income levels.

Henry said that reduces barriers to access and helps people get their lives started.

"You could move into this building as a starting nurse, police, officer, teacher," she said. "Looking at the housing market in terms of rental prices in our area, home costs, interest rates, a lot of those first-time employees and just getting started out of college individuals aren't able to acquire rental that's affordable."

The $35 million project is being funded through private donations as well as a mix of state, federal, and local dollars.

CAHP began taking waitlist applications last month, and People are expected to move in later this fall . Henry said she had a feeling there would be a lot of interest in the apartments.

"We've had thousands of phone calls. People have been coming in all day, every day for the past three weeks [saying] 'I want to live in Walter French,'" she said in an interview at the beginning of the month.

Henry said CAHP tried to include as many three-bedroom units as it could in the project, noting those types of apartments "are very challenging to find" in the community.

Tackling Michigan's housing crisis

But Henry said the project is just "a drop in the bucket" towards addressing the housing needs in mid-Michigan.

Studies estimate that right now, the Lansing area needs 7,500 housing units to meet demand. It's part of a nationwide housing crisis—one that state officials said has broad implications for Michigan's future growth.

"Housing is foundational to our mental health, our physical health, to our performances in schools, to our businesses success," said Amy Hovey, executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. "If folks don't have a place to live, everything else derails."

MSHDA works to make it cheaper to build, buy or rent a place to live in the state. Increasing Michigan's housing stock is a critical part of that goal, with estimates showing the state needs to build around 140,000 more housing units to keep up with demand.

But particularly since the pandemic, it's gotten harder to build. Hovey said ballooning construction costs make it more expensive, limiting the housing supply and making it harder for new residents to move or plant roots in the state.

Hovey said MSHDA offers tax credits and different support programs to lower housing costs to help people afford the homes that they want.

"If the market [were] working, we wouldn't need to be here," she said. "Unfortunately, we're just not at that stage in our state right now."

Hovey said Michigan needs to develop its construction workforce to bring down the cost of building new homes.

She said local governments can help by taking a closer look at the way they plan development their communities. Some towns are trying to tackle that challenge with more creative zoning.

In Delta Township, officials approved a 'cottage housing' ordinance, allowing more dense communities of single-family homes with a smaller than usual footprint. Under the ordinance, a single-family home could be built with 440 square feet.

"In the past, the...township board has expressed a desire to expand housing opportunities for township residents and provide different options to address varying needs," staff wrote in their agenda packet.

In recent years, The Capital City has also attempted to modify its zoning to allow a greater variety of housing types. In 2021, Lansing adopted a new type of zoning called form-based code that allows greater flexibility in planning city blocks.

This approach sometimes generates pushback from residents who don't want to see more housing density in their neighborhoods. Last year, an East Lansing proposal to convert a surface parking lot into affordable housing became controversial, with nearby businesses claiming they would struggle to operate if visitors lost the parking spots. The City Council narrowly rejected the plan .

Hovey said she hopes residents can understand why their communities are taking a closer look at zoning.

"We know it's more affordable to have denser housing in our in our cities," she said. "it's also better for the environment, and we're seeing [the] younger generation actually care about the impacts [that] their living is having on our environment."

MSHDA, for its part, is revising its guidelines to allow more dense construction. The agency had previously required affordable housing projects that receive state support to include a certain number of parking spots in their plans. Going forward, however, Hovey said MSHDA will default to local requirements.

"As a state agency, we no longer feel like we need to supersede what the locals see," she said. "In some areas like Kalamazoo, they no longer have parking requirements. And MSHDA will rely on the knowledge of the local government in making those decisions."

The clock is ticking for Michigan

State officials say it's urgent for communities to build more housing soon, particularly because it takes a long time for housing to get built.

The Walter French Junior High School project has been under construction for a year and a half. When it does open, executive director Emma Henry said the new housing will bring new energy to its south Lansing neighborhood.

"Even though no one lives here yet, I think we're really making a change on this end of town with the historic investment," she said.

That's the challenge for Lansing — and the state. If communities can find a way to address their shortage of housing, their solutions could be a source of population growth and economic development.

But if they don't find a way to build more homes soon, that could make it harder for people to continue calling Michigan home.