Emmet Housing Solutions Fund
Everything starts at home: health, well-being, learning, safety. Yet finding a safe, affordable home remains a significant challenge for many individuals and families in Emmet County. Homes and apartments across price ranges are in short supply, and construction and material costs continue to rise alongside land costs.
In recent years, the Little Traverse Bay Housing Partnership, a collaborative of local individuals and organizations, has taken a look at the various challenges to creating attainable housing. One main challenge for creating new housing is simply the cost of purchasing land and ensuring that it meets environmental and zoning requirements for development. Additional costs may also include legal and engineering fees, designs and site plans, to name only a few.
In order to help overcome some of these barriers to building homes, the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation established the Emmet Housing Solutions Fund in December 2019 with support from the Frey Foundation. This fund provides a financial resource to address the costs of creating homes, focusing in part on the early development costs. The fund also provides grant support to existing nonprofit organizations and local government agencies who are actively working on housing. The fund makes both grants and loans, and will actively partner with others to leverage additional resources to meet these challenges.
Since its inception, the Emmet Housing Solutions Fund has provided grant funding to partners working to create homes in Emmet County. Northwest Michigan Habitat for Humanity received two grants for infrastructure at three Habitat build sites in Emmet County (one in Oden and two in Alanson). Northern Homes Community Development Corporation received a grant in support of the new community land trust called HART (Harbor Area Residential Trust). The Emmet Housing Solutions Fund also aided the Community Foundation in fundraising for and purchasing the land that will soon house the Lofts at Lumber Square, a 60-unit apartment building within walking distance to downtown Petoskey.
To learn more, please contact David (DJ) Jones, Executive Director, at djones@phsacf.org or call 231-348-5820.
BARRIERS TO CREATING NEW HOMES:
- Land acquisition costs
- Material costs
- Labor shortages
- Local zoning restrictions
- Uncertainty and perceived risk at pre-development stage
- Limited capacity of local organizations and municipalities