Sarah Lucas and Kent Wood have both spent considerable time dealing with the challenges presented by a lack of affordable housing in their communities. At Wednesday morning’s General Session, they shared their insights into the causes and possible solutions to “missing middle” housing.

Lucas, regional planning director for Networks Northwest based in Traverse City, has seen families decline job offers because they couldn’t find affordable housing in the area. So has Wood, director of government relations for the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce. He says the real challenge for the business community is that we’ve gone from talking about the affordable housing shortage in the abstract to the actual manifestation of the problem. Businesses are having trouble filling positions – everything from seasonal workforce to high-end skilled and executive positions. Housing is the key barrier to filling these positions. Companies are seeing the impact in dollars and cents.

Addressing the Housing Issue

Lucas attributes some of the problem to the building industry. Builders say they’d like to build affordable housing, but it doesn’t make economic sense for them. Local zoning ordinances can also be a barrier. There’s a need for smaller, multi-family units, but some communities only allow single family residences.

Public support can also be an obstacle. Without public buy-in, multi-family housing projects can go down in flames. She says everyone supports affordable housing until it’s happening in their neighborhoods. It’s important to employ community engagement approaches that bring the community together to talk about different kinds of development so they know what’s coming. Form-based zoning is one way to get the community to decide what they want. It’s important to help the community understand that the issue is providing housing for everyone.

Wood also stresses the value of communicating with the community. The chamber used to advocate for projects after they were proposed. Now they support robust community conversations in the beginning and utilize community advocates who understand the situation and can speak passionately in support of the project.

Target Market Analysis

Lucas saw the value in providing local governments with concrete data, so her organization commissioned a target market analysis. They’ve launched a dialogue on how to reach the goals outlined in the report, including presentations to developers and communities. Now, developers know where to get answers on where they can build the types of projects they’re interested in.

Financing

Wood says the biggest challenge is that it doesn’t make economic sense for builders to build affordable housing when there’s a strong market for high-end housing. The chamber relies on partnerships and incentives to help get the costs down to make market rate units feasible for developers.

Low income housing tax credits are the biggest form of subsidy, says Lucas. They’re very effective, but many developers don’t have the experience to deal with them. Plus, some subsidies allow for housing for unemployed people, but not for workers with relatively low incomes.

Types of Housing

Big, multi-story projects tend to generate lots of controversy in communities, says Lucas. When she talks to local governments, she emphasizes that affordable housing doesn’t have to be a huge building, it can be smaller, infill projects. One community now allows duplexes in all residential areas.