Local Media Leave off Big Part of the Story About the New Bowling Alley Block Development

[XLFD]

On July 12, 2016, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) approved Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) of around $1.5 million to construct two apartment buildings in downtown Ludington on the west end of the old bowling alley block.

The City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) reported in an article, Downtown apartments a go: MSHDA approves financing plan for Ludingt..., the following apparently coming from the Ludington's city manager: 

Only one of four applications is accepted by MSHDA, and City Manager John Shay said it’s an honor for the Ludington project to be selected.  “This will allow us to sell the fire station parcel to L.C. Consultants and build a new fire station on Tinkham at the former Lakeshore Lumber site,” Shay said. “This is a big win for Ludington.”

Half the apartments will have one bedroom and half will be two-bedroom units. One building’s apartments is to be rented to people 55 years old or older (rear building) and still have to meet an income criteria, while the other building’s apartments would be rented for low-to-moderate income families (i.e., facing Ludington Ave).

The Mason County Press also came out with a story earlier, State approves funding for new downtown Ludington building project., with some of Ludington's community development director's help in explaining the project:

LC Consultants of Ann Arbor has proposed building two four story buildings on the parcel that consists of West Ludington Avenue, West Loomis Street, South Rath Street and South Robert Street. Each building will contain first floor commercial space and 30 apartment units on the top three floors. The apartment units will be a combination of one and two bedrooms.  The building on Loomis Street is proposed as senior housing for people ages 55 and older. The Ludington Avenue building will be designated for family housing with no age restrictions.  Both buildings will offer subsidized rents and require residents to be below certain area medium income levels...

“With current construction costs, subsidies are absolutely required to get a project built that has affordable rents,” said Heather Tykoski, Ludington community development director. “We need the workforce housing."

Unfortunately, both news releases failed to paint the full picture for the citizens and visitors of Ludington, leaving out some of the details of the deal.  The 'big win for Ludington' on this 'workforce housing' project worth $16 million has plenty of limitations imposed by MSHDA in order to qualify for family housing with affordable rents.  But you can't find these in the local media.

If you go to the source of the news, MSHDA, you get a better picture of what these housing units will amount to.  In the news release "Two downtown Ludington apartment buildings to be constructed using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits", MSHDA gives us the big picture of what we have to do to get these credits:

 

"Both apartment buildings, at 225 Ludington and 200 Loomis, will be situated just a few blocks east of Lake Michigan. Eight of the 30 apartments at 225 Ludington will be set aside for permanent supportive housing and three of those will be designated for the chronically homeless. All of the 30 units at 200 Loomis will be senior housing with half of the homes reserved for residents with 60 percent area median income (AMI) and the other half for those with an AMI of 40 percent."

Supportive housing is housing that facilitates those with very low incomes (at or below 30% of the median income level of the area) or who have a describable "special need".  Eight of the units on Ludington Avenue will be for these tenants permanently, not just for 15 years as it was marketed to the people.  Three of these $267,000 units will be granted to the chronically homeless, again on a permanent basis. 

While you struggle just to make greatly increased tax payments on your less vibrant hundred year old house in a neighborhood far away from the beach and downtown amenities, up to eight households who couldn't do what you do are living in opulent splendor in their condos subsidized by you and other fools trying to live the American Dream.  The people who set up this situation have the nerve to call this social equity or social justice. 

This is how socialized housing works, and the City of Ludington is doing its part by jacking up the average rents in Ludington and displacing tenants from Ludington by enacting their Rental Inspection Ordinance, then further inconveniencing the landlords by making their taxes go way up for all their properties by the tax-increment financing scheme and needful costs of infrastructure improvements necessitated by the construction (while the developers pay little or no taxes). 

It looks great for short-term hopes and economics if you limit your vision, but how does our community recover from this over the long term, particularly if this becomes the accepted way to do things like this?

[Willy]

The only people I know about who are "chronically homeless" are bums who live on the streets. So am I to understand that a portion of these units will be used as a "flop house". This project is a big mistake but as long as voters keep committing the biggest mistakes of all and that being the electing and reelecting of corrupt politicians, we can only continue to expect these kinds of scenarios.

[XLFD]

Over a fourth of the Ludington-Avenue-fronted are permanently assigned to very low income residents.  Over $2 million worth of the project will go to house these otherwise indigent folks, some likely to be ones that have been forced out of their homes and the local housing marketplace by the consequences of the Rental Inspection Ordinance.  The current leadership of Ludington listen to progressive idiots who peddle power-and-wealth-for-the-now scenario and skip seeing the readily apparent disaster-for-the-future scenario.