Launched Program to Build 1,200 Affordable Housing Units
In the past four decades, the income gap in the Ann Arbor Metro Area has grown 33.2%, widening the divide between our wealthiest and poorest neighbors. At the same time, average rents continue to rise 16% year over year.
Because housing is one of the largest expenses a household faces, I launched Ann Arbor’s largest-ever program to construct affordable housing. This collaboration between elected officials, housing experts, and private capital is projected to create over 1,200 housing units and change over 3,600 lives.
Led City Council to Acquire Developable Real Estate
In 2008, the demolition of the old Ann Arbor YMCA building resulted in the closure of 100 affordable housing units.
Ten years later, I laid out a new vision for the site: Mixed-income, mixed-use development that would maximize the number of affordable units on site and serve an an anchor for the redevelopment of a long-ignored downtown corridor.
Read more about this initiative here.
Created a Framework for Building Affordable Housing on Publicly Owned Land
Since 2015, the City has had tremendous success utilizing public-private partnerships to rehabilitate, operate, and maintain its 400 affordable housing units. Building on the vision for the Old YMCA Lot (see above), I scaled the approach to two other publicly owned sites that sat blighted and dormant for years.
In the last two years, this model for planning affordable housing on publicly owned land has further been applied to seven other sites. In total, the City of Ann Arbor now has an overarching plan to develop 1,200 units of housing across these properties.
