MSHDA Board approves proposal to allocate American Rescue Plan funds

Media Contacts:

Katie Bach, [email protected]
Anna Vicari, [email protected]

Lansing, Mich. - The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) Board has approved a plan to use more than $63 million in funds allocated by the federal government through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to provide homelessness assistance and supportive services to at-risk individuals and families across the state.

The HOME-ARP allocation plan will use the funds, which total $63,793,681, to develop affordable rental housing, offer financial assistance to qualified renters to prevent evictions, provide support to local homeless service agencies, and acquire and/or rehabilitate existing structures for non-congregate sheltering.

"Some individuals and families still need help recovering from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Kelly Rose, MSHDA's chief housing solutions officer. "The HOME-ARP allocation plan puts into place numerous strategies to help those in need now while also identifying and supporting longer-term opportunities to end homelessness for Michigan residents."

The board also delegated authority for MSHDA to issue grants and administer its new $50 million Missing Middle program, which will launch next month.

The ARP-funded program will start taking applications September 19 from nonprofit developers or nonprofit/for-profit partnerships seeking to create or rehabilitate rental or for-sale properties for workforce housing (often referred to as missing middle housing).

"After engaging stakeholders and the public, I believe we are setting up the program in a way that is productive and collaborative," said Chad Benson, MSHDA's director of development. "There has been a lot of interest and feedback, and we anticipate this will be a key housing resource for those working to address the acute workforce housing needs of our state."

The MSHDA Board also authorized loan approvals for several projects during its August meeting, including:

• Grandmont Rosedale Park Collective II in Detroit will receive $7.9 million in loans to support the rehabilitation of an existing vacant historic apartment complex containing 35 units.
• LaJoya Gardens will receive $8.9 million to support construction of a four-story, mixed-use development in Detroit, which will feature 53 residential units and 8,366 square feet of commercial space.
• Springwells Properties, a scattered site development in Detroit's Springwells neighborhood, will receive $10.7 million for property rehabilitation and modernization for this 89-unit development.
• Trumbull Crossing, which offers 245 affordable family units in Detroit, will receive $38.3 million for unit refurbishments and property rehabilitation.
• Union Suites at Michael in the City of Wyoming will receive $28.4 million to construct 30 senior and family townhomes and transform an existing 50+ year-old, 80,000-square-foot, two-story administrative office building into a 98-unit adaptive reuse apartment building.

"These new programs and development projects get us closer to reaching Governor Gretchen Whitmer's goal of creating or preserving 75,000 units over five years, and helps move the bipartisan Michigan recovery plan forward," MSHDA Acting Director Gary Heidel said. "They are also job creators, expected to produce hundreds of good-paying jobs for Michiganders."

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