Lawmakers hear MSHDA report on $2.1 billion in recent housing investments; experts urge zoning and permitting reforms

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor and Economic Opportunity heard April testimony from Amy Hovey, executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, who described recent state and federal spending and new programs intended to increase housing production and homeownership.

Hovey told the committee MSHDA put out about $2,100,000,000 into housing in the last fiscal year and that the agency is tracking permit activity that it counts toward the governor’s five-year production goal. She said the governor set a goal of producing 15,000 housing units over five years; based on permit data MSHDA uses, "we are about halfway through that five-year period" and the agency is showing roughly 67,000 permits pulled to date (MSHDA counts an estimated 95% of permits as resulting in development, Hovey said). She said recent state appropriations, combined with federal and private financing, have allowed MSHDA to leverage substantially more investment.

The authority reported a suite of programs and outcomes. Hovey said MSHDA supported more than 5,000 families into homeownership last year with about $772,000,000 in program activity; she described a rate-relief mortgage product at about 5.5 percent and a $10,000 down-payment assistance product…