Six mayors from Michigan and Ohio joined Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on Tuesday to look at some of his city’s new affordable housing developments.
It was part of a nationwide tour organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors designed to draw attention to what those officials call the country’s most pressing issue: a lack of affordable housing that’s plaguing communities across the country, including relatively affordable areas such as the Midwest.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said all the tour’s stops have been in swing states — and that’s not by chance. “We are trying to get the attention of the presidential candidates and those who make decisions in Washington to elevate this issue in the first hundred days of the administration of whomever happens to be elected president next week,” he said.
The mayors argued that the federal government urgently needs to pass what they call a “Marshall Plan” for housing — a reference to the massive spending program undertaken by the United States to help rebuild western Europe after World War Two. Among other things, the mayors say that Congress and the next presidential administration need to quadruple Community Development Block Grants and allow them to be used to rehab existing housing units, significantly increase federal housing assistance vouchers, and boost the federal low-income housing tax credit.
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said his city has managed to develop some new affordable units with state and nonprofit help — but because of a growing gap between affordable rents and rising labor and construction costs, there remain many sites ripe for redevelopment.
“But unless we get the help from the federal government, then it's just not going to happen,” Schor said. “You're going to see empty properties that could very easily be converted into housing that will stay empty in our downtown."
“These are all things that our federal government should be taking up and they should be taking it up now. They should be taking it up as soon as they come back in January. The Marshall Plan for housing is the easiest and best way to say it. This is so important," said Schor.
The mayors highlighted various local initiatives their cities have undertaken to deal with the affordable housing gap, but stressed that federal intervention is now a critical need and should be a bipartisan issue.
Duggan took the mayors — who also included Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett, and Lima, Ohio, Mayor Sharetta Smith — on a tour of new city-led affordable housing sites in Detroit’s North End Neighborhood. Among them is the new Ruth Ellis Center, a housing and community space for LQBTQ youth experiencing housing insecurity.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, who’s also the current U.S. Conference of Mayors president, was in attendance. Kicking off the affordable housing tour in Philadelphia last week, Ginther said in a UCSM publication that housing is not just a moral issue, but an economic one.
"Insufficient building and escalating costs have pushed buyers and renters to the brink. As a result, cities have struggled to attract and keep important sectors of the workforce, such as teachers, firefighters, public safety officers, and health professionals," Ginther said.
"No doubt, America needs more housing to fill the “missing middle” between low-income housing and million-dollar homes."
