FeedsHousing commissioners seek private funds
Inkster Housing Commissioners voted to seek private financing to study the feasibility of building affordable housing in the city that would come under the auspices of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Affordable housing projects – in the form of single-family homes or condominiums throughout the city – could help meet the goal of some Inkster City Council members, who want to see some public housing apartments torn down.
Dr. Terrel LeCesne, the chairman of the housing commission, said investing in affordable housing is a strategy that has worked in other communities.
However, he also said that it’s a long-term prospect that does not take away the need for $4 million in grant funding blocked by the Inkster City Council.
“It’s a four- or five-year proposition,” he said. “It’s not something that meets our immediate needs. (Some council members) have said we’ve been unwilling to look at demolishing units – we need to have something in its place.”
Tony Love, the director of Inkster Housing, said a “mixed financing” development would help increase the commission scores, and meet city goals of changing the face of publicly-subsidized housing.
“We’d be able to upgrade,” he said. “It would be something the city could be proud of.”
Mixed financing would allow low-income people to purchase a home.
Two months ago, commissioners asked the city council members to change an ordinance to allow them to apply for loans through HUD. Four council members refused to vote in favor of any change that does not include demolition of units.
Private financing and a new concept may be able to fill the chasm between the two camps if some existing apartments are torn down.
Councilwoman DeArtriss Coleman-Richardson said she’d like to learn more about the prospect for development.
“If this is something they’d like to, and it will result in the reduction of the number of units, then I’d like to find out more about this,” she said. “But if it’s going to maintain the number of units, then I’d say no to this. The goal of the council is to have fewer units.”
The city has about 700 publicly-subsidized units, which is more than Dearborn or Westland, which are cities three times as large as Inkster.
The council and commission have been at war over the number of housing units. Council members believe the commissioners have overstated the need within Inkster; commissioners claim the council is not taking a realistic look at the economic conditions in the city.
Inkster Housing has a waiting list of 180 applicants looking for shelter. Thirty-five of those have an Inkster address, and the majority are from metro Detroit, Love said.
