City unanimous in support of homeless housing
May 6—TRAVERSE CITY — In what Traverse City Mayor Amy Shamroe called "probably the best vote I will ever say passes unanimously," city commissioners agreed to help up to 27 people facing chronic homelessness get apartments by January.
Commissioners on Monday agreed to a $360,000 service contract with Goodwill Northern Michigan to place three to five people per month at East Bay Flats. City Manager Liz Vogel said the nonprofit will use the funds to bridge a gap where its Low Income Housing Tax Credits, while already secured, won't be in place until June 2025.
"This is not just an investment, it is a lifeline for those desperately seeking stability and security," Vogel said.
Goodwill Northern Michigan recently bought the former hotel turned apartments. Nonprofit Executive Director Dan Buron previously said the plans are to house people with the most acute need — that is, facing the biggest risk of death if they remain homeless, have been without one for a year or more and have a disability.
The risk of death is all too real, with Commissioner Mi Stanley citing a statistic that losing one's home shortens their lifespan by 20 years. "That's a greater impact than a cancer diagnosis, that is more lethal," she said.
The service contract is part of an array of actions Vogel presented to commissioners aimed at both short-term, "triage" fixes and mid- to long-term solutions to tackle the issue of homelessness.
She presented a budget for July through June 2025 that would add another community police officer. It would also add a second social worker to the city's Quick Response Team that intervenes after overdoses to prevent future ones and address the overlap between substance abuse, homelessness and mental health issues. Commissioners will discuss the draft budget at a future study session, and must pass it by June 3.
More immediately, Vogel said temporary bathrooms and sinks should be in place near an encampment of people without homes known as the Pines at Division and Eleventh streets. Solar-powered benches that can charge up to four phones at once will ship that day.
Those amenities are thanks to a $50,000 donation through the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, and includes money Rotary Charities of Traverse City, the Oleson Foundation and other philanthropists chipped in, as previously reported.
Vogel said Monday these will help meet basic needs for people camped at a spot that, ultimately, the city would like to make unnecessary. A place to use the bathroom and wash one's hands provides not just hygiene and sanitation, but human dignity. And a charged phone is a lifeline for people with no homes, as it's a crucial link to medical services, family, job placement and more.
Commissioners applauded Vogel's efforts in less than half a year on the job, and others in the audience, who were currently without shelter or who have faced the situation before, said they did as well.
Amanda Siggins, who helped organize an effort to help Safe Harbor guests move to the Pines after the seasonal overnight shelter closed last week until fall, thanked commissioners for the help to people facing chronic homelessness. She said she had been living in her car in Traverse City and Cadillac at one point.
Audrey Ouillette, like Siggins, said she's part of Traverse City Housing Justice and also has had stints without a home. The most recent, she said, happened after losing her job during the pandemic. Then she lost her driver's license, a devastating development as she had hoped to sleep in her van. She ultimately opted to stay homeless so she could go to school — she couldn't afford both housing and education.
Ouillette told commissioners 27 apartments isn't enough.
"My fellow homeless friends are suffering in the woods and they're dying," she said. "More and more and more people cannot make it with this economy. We have to come together as a community to help."
