Whitmer visits Habitat for Humanity’s Alanson subdivision

ALANSON — New modular homes are popping up at Northwest Michigan Habitat for Humanity’s Meadowlands subdivision in Alanson on a near daily basis.

Plans for a neighborhood in the area were stalled more than a decade ago, and in 2020 Habitat for Humanity jumped in to take on the project and build as many houses as they could as quickly as they could to help address the housing crisis in the region.

“We just really came up with an aggressive plan,” said Sarah Ulrich, executive director for the Habitat chapter. “We knew that housing is the number one need here in our community, and so we just came up with a plan to get as much housing built as we could in a short timeline. Our overall goal for our organization is at least 43 homes by 2025, and I hope that we will do more than that as well.”

Progress is easy to see at the site, where Sold and Apply Today signs dot the lawns of several homes that are under construction. In May, the VanSloten family became the first to move into the new development. The family’s two young children now have plenty of yard space to run around and play.

More: First home sold in Habitat for Humanity Meadowlands subdivision

Habitat is still raising funds for the project through its Foundations for our Future campaign, but they have also gotten support from the state for the housing initiative. They received around $1 million from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) through its Missing Middle Housing Program.

On Tuesday, MSHDA representatives, local officials and Habitat staff welcomed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the Meadowlands site for a tour.

Whitmer said it was “so encouraging” to see the project coming to fruition.

“It is amazing to see not just Habitat working so close with MSHDA, but to meet a family who moved into one of these homes in May,” Whitmer said. “I asked them ‘Where were you living beforehand?’ And they were living in an apartment with two children. It was very small and cramped, and now they’ve got three bedrooms and a lot of land around them. I think that’s one of the things that I love about Northern Michigan is when we build up this affordable housing stock, it’s really a very high quality of life for people. That’s why it’s so needed and it’s so important that we’re doing this work.”

More: State, local officials laud Petoskey housing projects

Whitmer noted that you can look around and see that “the growth is happening and it’s happening fast.”

Ulrich said she hopes the governor’s visit will bring new awareness and attention to the housing crisis in the area.

“It’s just a great opportunity for us to feature the work we’re doing here and also just to continue talking about housing throughout the state,” she said.

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Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) also toured the Meadowlands project with his family on Tuesday. He described the development as one of the most exciting projects happening in his district.

“This is terrific to have the governor’s eyes on this,” he said. “We need to get some funding for this project to help not just with the current construction but with future projects like this. The fact that she was willing to come here is a really good thing for our district. I think she and I can work well together to maybe further what they’re trying to do here and maybe use this as a model for around the state.”

Officials routinely field questions and concerns about the housing crisis, both locally and at the state and national levels.

“I’m glad people are starting to pay attention to this because literally everywhere I go affordable housing is either one or two on people’s priority list, with the second one being mental health,” Damoose said. “This is something that people are hearing over and over again, and finally in the House and Senate we’re starting to pay attention and do some things about it. There’s good funding coming out, the governor seems all in on this, the Democrats seem all in on it, the Republicans seem all in on it, so I think we might actually start to chip away at the problem.”

In order to sustain momentum on housing projects, and encourage others to address the problem as well, Whitmer said you need both a sustained strategy and dedicated resources.

“We know all across the country we don’t have enough housing stock. This is a universal need,” she said. “That is why I’m grateful that we’ve got some resources from the federal government. I’m grateful that we had the ability to make these investments. But we can’t stop now. We can’t assume that the job is done. Our goal is to grow the population in Michigan, and to grow the population specifically in rural parts of Michigan. We’re not going to be successful if we don’t have enough good housing options for people. To continue this momentum, it’s got to continue to be a priority in our state budget.”

— Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com.  

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Whitmer visits Habitat for Humanity’s Alanson subdivision