Michigan has a serious housing shortage — and most acutely, it has an affordable housing shortage.
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority says it is eager to help housing developers ease that shortage.
One way it's doing that is with a new "accelerator" loan fund aimed at increasing the number of multi-family apartment buildings.
The Michigan Housing Accelerator Fund will offer loans at a below-market interest rate, between 2% and 4%, for developers of the multi-family projects.
At least one-fifth of the apartments will need to qualify as affordable for families making 50% or less of their county's area median income — or, developers can aim for 40% of the apartments being affordable for families at or below 60% of the AMI.
Amy Hovey is CEO and executive director of the state housing development authority. She said it's possible that this particular program won't be able to help some developers, but her agency may have another program that will.
"Just reach out to us," she said. "It may be just one program you qualify for, it may be many programs you qualify for. If you have an idea for a project, if you have a housing project that's not moving forward, let us help you go through it and see how we can help."
Hovey said unfortunately, there are quite a few housing development projects that are stalled in Michigan.
That's because the cost of construction has risen so much that developers have to price the housing above the ability of most residents to afford it.
Hovey said initially, the new accelerator fund could help build 500 new apartments for families. There's $75 million in the fund now; the state is seeking private contributors to increase the fund, she said.
