GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — There was a push for fair housing in Grand Rapids Thursday night. Community leaders want the public's input as the city works to create the Fair Housing Equity Plan (FHEP), a framework to identify barriers to fair housing.
"It wasn't easy for my mother, and I'm second generation and it's not easy for me," Miracle Watkins said.
Watkins recently moved into her first home.
"I've been a renter for a few months now. I just turned 18," Watkins said.
A housing voucher made the biggest difference for her, covering more than 30% of her rent.
"I was very lucky to even get one. It means a lot to me because the voucher is the reason that I'm still here today," Watkins added.
The city of Grand Rapids wants more stories like Miracle's, so it's developing a Fair Housing Equity Plan. At the last public engagement session, just more than a dozen people showed up. The room was set up to hear from several dozen people.
"The Fair Housing Equity Plan is going to drive five years of meaningful action steps that the city is planning to undertake related to housing access and making sure that community members have equitable access to housing," Grand Rapids Community Development Department Administrative Analyst Johanna Schulte said.
The FHEP will anaylze:
- Patterns of segregation and integration
- Resident access to community assets, affordable housing and homeownership opportunities
- Issues related to housing accessibility among residents with disabilities
- Housing discrimination
"We're pretty early in the equity planning stages, so there's still plenty of time to provide input on the project," Schulte said.
If you didn't make it to the public engagement sessions, you can still provide input through an online survey here. There are a couple dozen questions.
"We're always hoping for more community input," Schulte said.
The city continually works on bringing opportunities to create housing stock.
"We're excited to find creative strategies to address barriers that particular community members may face, inequitable access to housing," Schulte said.
The city's most recent data shows a higher concentration of new housing built with 20 or more units. The problem is that the total number is the lowest in nearly a decade except for 2020.
"[It's] a challenging housing market; it's certainly important to look for creative ways to make our community's housing market more equitable," Schulte said.
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