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Task force offers 14 recommendations to address homelessness; shelter consolidation and funding top priorities
Summary
The Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness presented a yearlong task-force effort that produced 14 recommendations; the leadership team prioritized a funding plan and a potential consolidation of emergency shelter operations (proposal includes a 165-bed option at Keystone Road) and will deliver a strategic direction in February.
The homelessness task force presented its yearlong findings to the Grand Traverse County Board, delivering 14 recommendations across safety-net services, emergency shelter and housing solutions and outlining next steps toward implementation.
"We decided, okay, a task force to really nail down a strategic direction to address and end homelessness is needed in our community," Ashley Halliday Schmitt, director of the Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness, told the board. She said the task force completed more than 40 meetings, held listening sessions with people with lived experience, and asked working groups to test recommendations through a "recommendation funnel" that demanded feasibility, data, measurable outcomes and alignment with housing-first principles.
Top priorities: Using an Eisenhower matrix, the leadership team ranked ‘‘develop a consolidation strategy and a funding plan for emergency shelter operationsand stabilize permanent supportive housingas the most urgent and important items. The emergency-shelter recommendation includes maintaining year-round shelter operations while planning for a consolidated 24/7/365 operation with approximately 165 beds, naming Keystone Road as the most feasible site pending validation and stakeholder engagement.
Other recommendations include expanding deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing (targeting 0-30% AMI, roughly $23,000 for a single household in the task force's description), piloting innovative financing tools (TIF, millage, pilots) and improving countywide outreach, mobile medical/mental-health services and system navigation.
Implementation pathway: Schmitt said the leadership team will finalize priorities and resource allocation, produce a strategic direction document in February and then shift to implementation planning with the county, city and funders. The emergency-shelter consolidation option will likely require a consultant to validate feasibility and costs; the leadership team flagged Keystone Road but said consultants will also examine alternatives if consolidation is infeasible.
Ending: The board asked questions about timelines and budgets; Schmitt said most recommendations will be accompanied by cost estimates when prioritized and that the implementation group will include county and city oversight alongside the coalition.
