Northport, REACH find affordable housing solution

Leelanau REACH rendering by Jeffrey Schwaiger Design

By Chris Loud

Sun contributor

Affordable housing is a hot-button issue across Leelanau Country and up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline. In fact, the Detroit Free Press recently published statistics showing Leelanau County having the most expensive housing in Michigan. While several towns across the county are dealing with understaffed restaurants and small businesses, each community comes with their own unique challenges and advantages. In Northport, the nonprofit housing development corporation Leelanau REACH project hopes to establish a model for sustainable, quality affordable housing in both physical development and community philosophy.

Let’s start with the problem on the surface. You may have heard this before, but it’s worth repeating. Businesses in the area are struggling to keep the doors open, not because of lack of interest, or inability to attract customers, but because they don’t have enough staff. In a country where many people struggle to find meaningful work, this duality can be frustrating, especially when it stifles the very economic drivers that brought people to the area in the first place. People are willing to pay high prices for homes in Leelanau County, thanks to the natural beauty, the thriving small communities, and the network of small business owners who provide quality products and services that bring people to the area from all over the country. The same economic cogs that move the local economy machine, and created a successful economy, are now suffering from that same success.

Basic economics tells us that when demand goes up, then prices should go up, which will then allow the business owners to pay their employees a wage that matches their cost of living. If that’s the case for local restaurants, we should then expect to pay exponentially more for our food and drinks. Suddenly longtime locals cannot afford to go to their favorite places. In the summer especially, many locals know this problem already exists at some establishments. So how do you curate a successful and sustainable small-town community without driving away the very people that created the groundwork for that success? The answer is complicated, nuanced, and different for every community, but in the very least, it takes a village.

“This year, I’m not able to be open Monday and Tuesday during the daytime,” said Martha Ryan, chef/owner of Martha’s Leelanau Table in Suttons Bay. “Normally I would be open seven days and seven nights during the summer, but I don’t have enough daytime kitchen staff to be open seven days.” Bill Collins, owner of Tucker’s of Northport, also confirmed his business is struggling to fill up staff to operate at full potential.

The problem is not isolated to certain businesses.

“The Leelanau Chamber of Commerce did an employer survey through all the business owners in the county, and they identified three challenges to doing business in Leelanau County, and workforce housing was number one,” said Ty Wessell, county commissioner and board member of REACH.

It’s also clear there is not one solution. Not only do there need to be more options for affordable housing, but there are different levels of affordable housing needed to satisfy various demographics in need of housing. In Northport, the idea is to focus on one specific need that promotes a long-term, community sustainability concept.

Rolf Von Walthausen of REACH broke down how a lack of housing goes deeper than just long commutes or low-staffed businesses.

“When you have people living in one community and working in a second, that divides their time and their resources in a way that they’re unable to invest in either community meaningfully,” he said. “By investing I don’t mean just dollars, but also time. They’re not able to sit on the PTA, they’re not able to participate in community or civic organizations, or the life of the community. They’re not able to walk to work, or easily bike. So there’s a missing piece, because people then aren’t able to engage meaningfully in either place. One place is their bedroom, one place is where they work, and they spend the rest of their free time commuting. It’s something that we suffer from culturally as a country, but if you bring it down to the small towns, our communities are suffering.”

“Not only do we have the most expensive county in the state for housing, we also have the oldest county in the state,” Wessell note. “Part of what we’re trying to do is address the need to bring back some of our younger families.”

Von Walthausen described their initial goal. “It’s really important for us to focus on local, year-round, and ideally families who bring young children with them, that can also be part of that broader community engagement piece.”

He also outlined the makeup of a “vibrant” community, which is a one-word way of labeling a town that encompasses many facets that keep it desirable for longtime locals, new residents, young people and visitors. One of those aspects includes accommodating people of all income levels and socioeconomic status.

With no shortage of community collaboration and effort, REACH has developed four well-built, owner-occupied houses just outside Northport that will not only be constructed by local builders, but also designed to match the aesthetics of the village. Attention was paid to every detail, including things like roof lines, to ensure the design of the homes visually fit well within the surrounding area. The main goal for these four homes is to provide affordable housing to young families who work in the area, but also to create a living situation that the owners will be proud to call home, and the community will be proud to support.

“We could build something really cheap, but then in five years’ time, the maintenance could become an issue,” said Von Walthausen. “All of a sudden the furnace goes, the windows are falling apart, so we’re putting real quality into this. So the owners will be proud and the community will be proud.”

To make this possible, several stars had to align. REACH was generously donated the land, and the nonprofit worked on discounts and set prices with the builders and suppliers. In addition, they found creative ways to save money during construction, such as eliminating garages, sharing a driveway, and building all four houses at the same time. All of these concepts are the result of extensive research and a community-wide collaboration.

The price goal was to hit a cost that fit into a median household income reflective of the region. They wanted to make the houses affordable for dual-income families, making $15 per hour, or roughly $60,000 a year. The normal cost of these homes is estimated to be about $250,000 each. The houses are being offered at $159,000 each. It’s still at the top end of the affordability for the median income, but for the goals of the project and the community, this a laudable feat that will hopefully set an example for other communities looking for a similar collaboration model.

In order to keep these homes affordable and community supported, there will be caps on appreciation based on inflation, to prevent house flippers and overpricing. The houses must be owner occupied for 12 months a year, so they cannot rent out the entire home. However, spare bedrooms can be offered for rental to help supplement the owners’ income. The small development will have its own association, governed by the homeowners. Also, some landscaping will be provided so the new residents can be proud of their new home inside and out as soon as they move in. If the right families and residents are found, they are on track to break ground this fall, with a spring 2019 completion/occupancy date.

REACH also intends to create similar projects for other income demographics, including potential long-term rental housing, but these projects need time, effort, and cooperation from the community. The hope is to promote progress in addressing the affordable housing issue, and to set an example for Northport and surrounding towns. Though the problem feels daunting and the goals may seem unattainable, REACH shows it’s possible for the community to come together for a common purpose.