Michigan Planning for Affordable Housing Production

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has spent the past few weeks pushing for reforms that will make it easier to build affordable housing in the state, also sending significant resources from the state to fund construction.

Gov. Whitmer on Monday, February 6 signed an executive order to speed up the process of building and renovating affordable housing in the state by giving the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) more authority over housing resources.

“This will allow MSHDA to have more flexible funding to promote housing innovation and ensure funds are allocated faster to build affordable housing quicker,” according to an article published by WNDU.

A few days later, on February 8, Gov. Whitmer announced her budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, including a proposal for $437 million in affordable housing funds. “Her new $437 million affordable housing proposal comes on top of an additional $300 million for housing the Legislature recently approved for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30,” according to an article by Andrew Roth for the Capital News Service.

According to Roth, Gov. Whitmer’s affordable housing budget proposal includes funding for a “Missing Middle Housing” program. More details on the state of the state’s housing market are included in the Roth article, linked below.