Kalamazoo County staff present updated housing study and recommend targeted 2025 millage funding

Kalamazoo County officials on May 7 heard an update to the county's 2022 housing plan and a set of funding recommendations for the 2025 housing millage that would focus limited county millage dollars on multifamily housing and supportive services while reserving funds for The Landing Place project.

Emily Petz, an analyst with the Upjohn Institute's regional practice, summarized an update that covered two chapters of the original plan: the housing assessment/community profile and projected market demand. Petz said housing prices in the county continue to rise faster than wages and that housing cost burdens are concentrated among households earning $50,000 or less. She said the county's earlier estimate that 7,750 new units would be needed by 2030 has risen to 8,000 units, in part because of expected population and employment growth tied to the Blue Oval Battery Park project in nearby Marshall.

"Our price index is still increasing as our weekly wage is almost leveling out. That gap is getting wider and making it more challenging for people to afford what they need," Petz said. She told commissioners the updated demand projection includes a continued preference for single-family housing but an increasing share of demand for "missing middle" housing types — duplexes, triplexes, accessory dwelling units and low- to mid-rise apartments.

Kalamazoo County deputy housing director Willa D'Tarantino reviewed three rounds of allocations from the housing millage and the department's recommended approach for 2025. She reported the millage has funded roughly 1,492 units across categories to date, with multifamily projects receiving the largest share of dollars and single-family projects the second-largest. D'Tarantino said the county has allocated more than half of the locally permitted housing units since 2022 through millage-supported projects.

For the 2025 round D'Tarantino proposed narrowing the application categories to multifamily and supportive services because the remaining available balance in the millage pool is modest. She recommended holding $2 million from the 2025 millage funds as a reserve for potential capital or programming needs at The Landing Place and reallocating existing award funds to create a down-payment assistance pool. She explained a reprogramming proposal for Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services (KNHS): reallocate $200,000 of KNHS's previously awarded funds to down-payment assistance and move other previously earmarked KNHS dollars back into the application pool to create more available grant dollars for the 2025 round.

D'Tarantino said the county's current unallocated millage balance was about $4.8 million before the KNHS reprogramming. After the staff recommendations (including the $2 million reserve), D'Tarantino said the staff-proposed funding pot for the 2025 competitive round would be about $2.8 million and recommended splitting that largely between multifamily and supportive services with some creative housing/"missing middle" funding targeted if commissioners directed it.

Commissioners pressed staff for more detail on project readiness, the sizes of remaining award balances from prior rounds, and how the land bank and Brownfield authority might accelerate single-family or attached-single-family production. Several commissioners asked for written reports showing which award recipients have billed and spent allocations and suggested shifting supportive-services funding toward attached single-family or "creative" projects (triplexes/duplexes) that produce owner-occupied opportunities and could build generational wealth.

After discussion commissioners directed staff to place a reprogramming item on a future agenda to reallocate $400,000 toward down-payment assistance (the staff presentation described this as money moved from KNHS allocations into a down-payment pool) and to return a more detailed proposal for the 2025 funding round that includes exact fund balances, proposed category splits, and the status of outstanding awards.

Why it matters: county staff and outside consultants told commissioners the pace of housing construction has not kept up with demand, leaving thousands of households cost-burdened. The commissioners' direction to prioritize multifamily and supportive services while pairing some funds to owner-occupant assistance reflects a choice to balance near-term production with programs that help lower-income households stabilize housing and build wealth.

What's next: county staff will return with a more detailed memorandum and a reprogramming item for the board to consider at a future meeting. Commissioners also invited Upjohn Institute staff and county housing staff to brief municipal partners at upcoming intergovernmental meetings.