Sustainability, Housing And Homelessness Achievements And Plans Shared

Press release from the City of Grand Rapids:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – During the review of the City’s Preliminary Fiscal Plan for fiscal year 2022 (FY2022), the City Commission recently received updates on the City’s sustainability, housing and homeless efforts. The presentations demonstrated how the City has made investments in the environment and housing despite setbacks from the pandemic. They also revealed how the City plans to continue investing in programs and infrastructure to achieve the goals in its strategic plan.

Sustainability

During the Committee of the Whole meeting, Sustainability and Performance Management Officer Alison Waske-Sutter highlighted the City’s programs and initiatives that are in alignment with the sustainability goals in the strategic plan.

Since adopting sustainability as a city-wide priority in 2005, Grand Rapids leadership and communitywide commitments to protect the environment have guided policy, infrastructure and action. The citywide allegiance to climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience encompasses many fields including the Vital Streets millage, environmental service and stormwater system, green space creation and more.

“Because the City has had such a longstanding commitment to sustainability, all of our departments have embedded sustainability into their operations,” said Waske-Sutter. “That is something that not every city or municipality can say, so I want to applaud my colleagues who have taken proactive measures and incorporated them into their daily work.”

Ongoing projects such as the new biodigester, implementation of solar panels at the Lake Michigan Filtration Plant, LED streetlighting and utility carbon commitments contribute to the City’s strategic plan objective to reduce carbon emissions. It is estimated that Grand Rapids will achieve a 47 percent carbon reduction by 2025, which exceeds the Paris Climate Accord targets. By 2030, the City estimates at least a 59 percent emissions reduction. If it achieves 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, the City’s carbon emissions will be reduced by 84 percent.

Moving forward, the City plans to evaluate not only its own municipal carbon emissions goals but also to take inventory of all the carbon emissions throughout the community. By doing so, it can also assess which communities are most vulnerable to climate change impacts for a Hazard Mitigation Plan. City staff has been partnering with a diverse group of community stakeholders to formally launch the Community Collaboration on Climate Change (C4) – a group of community leaders, experts and environmental advocates focused on processes and planning to address climate change and environmental justice in a way that prioritizes the disparate impacts that Black, Indigenous and People of Color have been and continue to experience when it comes to exposure to environmental pollutants and climate change impacts.

To view the full Sustainability presentation, CLICK HERE.

Housing

As the City continues to address the growing need for affordable housing throughout Grand Rapids, Housing Next and the City’s Community Development Department highlighted the growth of new and renovated housing units over the last year. They also noted the growing priority to create more homeownership opportunities, especially in Neighborhoods of Focus (NOF).

During the upcoming fiscal year, the City is expected to invest $19.5 million from the FY2022 budget in coordination with $79.6 million from federal, state and local housing and homelessness funds. Substantial investments will go toward increasing the affordable housing supply, improving the conditions of existing housing and lead-based paint remediation in homes.

In FY2021, the City continued to focus on increasing the housing supply. Many new housing units were made possible through incentives for developers such as Brownfield redevelopments, the Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act (OPRA) and tax exemption and payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) as well as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). While the City focused on creating new housing units, it also emphasized housing rehabilitation and lead hazard control in existing housing. In the last year, 49 homes were made lead safe and another 12 units will be completed by the end of FY2021.

In FY2022, Housing Next and the City plan to further develop the Housing Fund – a non-endowed fund to preserve existing affordable housing while also helping assist low- and moderate-income residents and making bridge loans for acquisition and pre-development costs with developers. The Housing Fund will have an 11-member board to represent community interests with deep background in housing and finance. They will prioritize the use of limited funds to achieve maximum impact while continuing to grow the Housing Fund through partnerships with the Grand Rapids Housing Commission, nonprofit and for-profit developers. The City anticipates the Housing Fund to grow to over $20 million by 2025.

Homelessness

The City’s Community Development Department also gave an update on its response to homelessness and rehousing efforts for FY2021 and anticipated programs for FY2022. Despite the housing stresses and financial setbacks caused by the pandemic, the City has developed effective tactics – such as creating the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) and expanding affordable housing availability – to support to those who experience homelessness and those who are at risk of homelessness.

“We know that affordable and safe housing along with having access to support services are key to addressing issues of homelessness,” said Connie Bohatch, managing director of community services. “By connecting with unsheltered individuals through HOT and working with community partners to break down barriers to affordable housing, we are making an impact.”

In the proposed FY2022 budget, the City plans to invest $2.42 million in homeless response in three categories: the Homeless Outreach Team, the Homeless Coordinator position and grant-funded programs for eviction prevention, rapid re-housing and short-term rental assistance. These City investments combined with pandemic-related federal funding such as the COVID Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), will provide $99.1 million total in housing and homelessness efforts.

To view the full budget review workshop presentation featuring the update on housing and homelessness, CLICK HERE.

Members of the public continue to have an opportunity to provide feedback on the FY2022 Preliminary Fiscal Plan at the upcoming May 18 Public Hearing and May 20 Special City Commission meeting. Residents already have had a chance to weigh in on budget priorities at the May 4 Budget Review Workshop, May 6 Virtual Budget Town Hall and yesterday’s Budget Review Workshop.

All work sessions and meetings are streamed live on the City’s Facebook and YouTube and broadcast live on Comcast Channel 26. They are also streamed live in Spanish HERE.

This press release was produced by the City of Grand Rapids. The views expressed are the author's own.