Oakland County's Neighborhood & Housing Development Division is supporting the development of affordable rental housing and award up to $1 million in gap funding for new construction, acquisition, rehabilitation, or preservation of affordable rental housing.
"Increasing the stock of affordable housing in Oakland County is one of our strategic goals because it is key to keeping residents here and attracting new and younger people to the county," Oakland County Executive David Coulter said. "Being a welcoming community means that anyone who wants to make Oakland County their home should be able to have a safe and affordable place to live."
Oakland County is using a portion of its annual funding allocation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) for the program, which will focus on housing that also offers access to supportive services and sustainability such as walkability to jobs, groceries stores and transportation. The HOME Program is the largest federal block grant for state and local governments designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low-income households.
To qualify as affordable housing, HOME unit rentals must be available to households at or below 60 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), which is approximately $53,700 for a family of four in Oakland County.
"Neighborhood & Housing Development Division (NHD) works to create livable neighborhoods and affordable housing throughout Oakland County," said Shane Bies, NHD manager. "We are again happy to offer gap funding for affordable rental housing developments."
Past funding of this kind was dedicated to renovations of 234 units within the Carriage House Apartments, one of Pontiac's largest housing developments. Updates included improving the building's infrastructure, such as electrical work and elevator replacement, plumbing, roofs, windows, HVAC systems, landscaping, and installing a playground.
The work was led by Pontiac-based nonprofit Lighthouse in partnership with the Pontiac Housing Commission and funded by Michigan State Housing Development Authority tax credits, with support from Oakland County HOME funds and reserve funds from the Pontiac Housing Commission.
In addition, a project pending funding is the development of the Raymond E. Shepherd House, a 53-unit housing development in Ferndale to create an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ older residents. The project will provide affordable housing to low-income tenants and will include a community meeting hub available to the public. This project represents an example of the inclusionary projects NHD is looking to fund.
For more information on funding and qualifications, click on oakgov.com/rentaldevelopment or contact Oakland County Neighborhood & Housing Development at nhd@oakgov.com or 248-858-0493.
Original source can be found here.
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