Community Resource: Battle Creek Housing Commission

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I'm Richard Piet.
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This is the BC City Connection Podcast.
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We come to you twice a month from the City of Battle Creek, the official podcast from City Hall.
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We dedicate some of these episodes to the focus of housing, the idea that more of us need a housing and affordably so in Battle Creek.
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And really, this is not a Battle Creek exclusive issue.
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This is something that's being dealt with statewide and nationwide.
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But we take a moment anyway to talk about some of the solutions out there and talk with some of the experts who are here to try to help solve the issue.
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Along with Darcy Schmidt from the City of Battle Creek, we're joined today by Chris Lussier, the new Battle Creek Housing Commission CEO.
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Hello, Chris.
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Hello, Richard.
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It's good to be with you.
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Congratulations on uh your new post.
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Housing is not unfamiliar to you, right?
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No.
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So I have a housing background going back uh 20 years or so.
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Previous to my position here uh at the housing commission, I worked for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, and then for 17 years for the city of Battle Creek as well, doing housing work.
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So what has been uh one of the most prominent observations you've made about just housing in general?
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And as you come back into it, what stands out about the climate now?
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Yeah, so I don't think it's uh surprised anyone that we're in the middle of a housing crisis.
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And you know, when I was working for the state, uh it there was just the the governor laid out a plan to uh build 75,000 units across the state.
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And then uh that that's the year that I started there, maybe three years ago, and then last year up that uh to well over a hundred thousand units across the state.
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So there's a clearly a need for new units, uh also a variety of housing units, new development, uh, as well as preserving housing units.
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Uh the state of Michigan has a lot of older housing supplies, so preserving those units is an important aspect as well.
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And then just coming back to Battle Creek, I was away for three years and coming back, uh, I've been really excited to see how much new activity there is.
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And that's nonprofit housing organizations that were doing work when I left, but they've increased the scope of their activities.
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So new construction happening in neighborhoods where it wasn't happening when I when I was last here.
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And then also a far more advanced housing ecosystem uh that's attracting developers to do larger new development projects within the city.
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So that's super exciting.
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Glad to see that kind of activity and excited to be a part of it.
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Is that, do you suppose, a direct result of the state saying we need 100,000 more units?
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And so this whole effort trickles down.
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There's probably more to it than that, right?
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Well, I definitely think it's a product of the times we live in and what we're experiencing with the economy.
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So it's more than likely happening in a in a variety of places.
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I would say before I left, there were a lot of there were efforts to uh create a more robust housing ecosystem in Battle Creek.
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And that was happening in nonprofit housing organizations.
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It was happening amongst builders, uh, it was happening with uh at the city of Battle Creek and BCU, uh, the Battle Creek Unlimited.
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Uh so a lot of different stakeholders in that conversation were active.
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The state shining a light on it and also contributing resources may have helped, but uh some of it's the marketplace.
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As the market heats up, our markets change some, and it's made it more attractive to developers to come in and do some housing development.
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And I think a lot of the stakeholders around the housing issue in Battle Creek have been taking advantage of that over the last couple of years and capitalizing on it.
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So that's encouraging.
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And Darcy, this is what the city's watching, right?
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The idea that uh this challenge has to be managed, and the city's interested in knowing what those challenges are and how to handle it.
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Exactly.
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And that's that's the whole impetus to the housing strategy and working with all these organizations and people that are working toward getting more housing built.
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Um, it's important that we find out what the obstacles are when they are trying to build housing and how can we help you with that?
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Yeah.
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So, Chris, how does the Battle Creek Housing Commission fit into all of this?
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What's happening there?
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The Battle Creek Housing Commission has been active in providing affordable housing opportunities for since the 1960s, really.
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So uh they've been uh a a player in in helping families, uh close to a thousand families every year uh afford housing.
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We operate two main programs.
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One is we manage the housing vouchers.
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Uh we can support anywhere from 600 to 800 families in a given year to make their rents affordable.
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And then we also own and and operate public housing.
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So about 320 units of housing largely benefits seniors, folks with disabilities, and and then our parkway location helps families with children.
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Yeah.
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What do you suppose as you're absorbing what's going on there in your early days here, what are you seeing as some of the challenges associated with that?
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This can't be a hundred percent easy.
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Well, I mean, there's a lot more need out there than we actually have units or support.
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So that's that's obvious.
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I mean, our our housing choice voucher program has a wait list.
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We're currently helping folks that uh joined the wait list in 2024.
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So there's incredible need.
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Our housing developments, however, are are doing well.
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They're they're an option option for folks if it there's seniors or folks with disabilities looking for assistance or families.
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Yeah, this is an option that uh makes the difference for them entirely.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Our housing's a little bit older, so one of the things we're looking to do is to make improvements.
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Uh, and so the the housing commission here has positioned itself to do uh a larger redevelopment project of its units, and that's part of what uh attracted me to be a part of the job and this work was to come in and be a part of a project like that.
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That's a significant undertaking where we will be accessing uh resources from the state and uh some some other resources to do uh a renovation of uh all 320 uh units of our housing inventory.
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So looking forward to that.
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I was about to make a little bit of a joke.
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I I'm sure there's a bunch of money just sitting there waiting to be spent on all that, right, Chris?
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But uh to some extent there is, but this it isn't that easy, of course.
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No, it can be really challenging to get resources to redevelop or preserve affordable housing units that we currently have, or to go out and get the units built that could be very competitive going for those resources.
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Housing commissions are actually in a pretty good place, though, when it comes to redeveloping their own properties.
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Uh they can access resources that are a little less competitive, and so it makes it uh more likely that that we'll be able to secure those resources and get the project done.
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So Darcy, I imagine the the city watches this, right?
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I mean, these are resources, as we've noted, that um might be the only option for some folks.
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And on a waiting list, waiting for renovations, let's say, the all these factors are something you're watching, right?
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Yes, and absolutely.
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Um, and Helen Guzzo, who is our current community development um uh supervisor, and Marcy Um Gillette, who was our former director in this division, um, have been an integral part of uh the housing commission.
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So to connect the two entities and and be able to help on both ends, right?
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Yeah.
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And provide input.
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So and uh Chris uh I'm sure was a big part of it when he was uh here at the city in one way or another as well.
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Yeah, the uh lines of communication have to be open, don't they, Chris?
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They uh you have to know from a a different perspective what the challenges are.
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You can also deliver information on that too.
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And so uh this is important.
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Yeah, that's one of the things that's great about coming back to this improved housing ecosystem in Battle Creek, is that there are a lot of different folks doing interesting and exciting projects.
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Uh they convene regularly to exchange ideas and and talk about how we can support each other.
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Um, and it's turning into units being built.
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So they're actually happening.
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I just sat in a meeting earlier today with a group of those stakeholders in this housing discussion.
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And I think when you have a housing crisis, nobody wants to hear about creating a housing ecosystem.
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They want to hear about units getting built.
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And I think it's encouraging that both are happening.
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So yeah.
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Help us understand the process that folks who come to the commission go through.
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You mentioned a waiting list, but once they get to the top of that list, now the ball is rolling.
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Yeah.
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So they'll they'll go through uh an application process.
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Once they get on the wait list, then they'll be invited to make application.
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They'll provide their application and it's reviewed by our team.
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And then a decision's made.
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Usually they'll get an opportunity once once they've been determined eligible.
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Uh there are income requirements and some other requirements that they'll have to meet.
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And then they'll get an opportunity to tour the available unit or units and make a choice.
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And then we we uh we get the ball rolling and get them housed.
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And that's happening every day.
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Uh unfortunately, folks do often have uh, you know, a wait for a little bit of time.
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But it's a great, it's a great assist for folks that need to come up with a solution long term.
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They oftentimes they're working towards this opportunity.
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They've figured out some solution that's gonna help them in the short term, and then this is a way to have long-term affordability or longer-term affordability.
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Is it the intent that folks stay there as long as they need to?
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They renew their leases uh and they're there, which explains right the the waiting list.
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Yeah, I mean, on average, folks are and I I don't have all these numbers at my fingertips, but I I was interested to find out uh as I've been getting acclimated to this new position, that the average stay is just a few years for folks that receive this benefit.
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So certainly a lot of folks are uh staying in this housing, getting stabilized, and as their situation improves, they're moving on and doing something else.
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That's that's actually happening on a pretty regular basis, and that's kind of the norm.
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But for some folks, it is a long-term option.
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And that could be uh seniors on a fixed income or folks uh dealing with a disability or some someone else who's in a situation that isn't likely to change uh dramatically uh over the long term.
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This can be a longer-term option for some families or or individuals.
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Aaron Powell You talked about renovating the units that exist.
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Is there a a vision that you could build more?
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I think the the Battle Creek Housing Commission board does want to see the housing commission be involved in creating new housing.
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And it may not be the same kind of public housing that we've had in the past, but we could be involved in helping to develop the units.
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And to some extent, that's already happening.
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So the Battle Creek Housing Commission can do things like uh commit some of their vouchers to a new development.
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So you have a developer coming in, they're gonna build some new housing, and we can strengthen their ability to secure other resources.
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We can help them with uh uh it basically creates a revenue stream for them uh to have these subsidies uh for the families.
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And that's a way that we can support new developments, and that's something we're actively engaged in uh with a couple of proposed developments now.
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So and then I think our board does envision us getting involved more directly in helping to uh fund some projects or be co-developer on projects.
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So I expect we'll be getting into that in the future.
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Yeah, that certainly would be interesting.
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Do you have connections with landlords?
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Uh we certainly do.
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So it's on our website.
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If someone goes to the the website, you'll see a list of landlords that participate uh with our programs regularly.
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So they're housing uh families that we're supporting and we interact with them regularly.
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If there's a landlord listening and and they're saying, you know, uh maybe I ought to have this connection, maybe my property will be occupied more consistently.
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Can they just call you up and talk to you about it?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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We would love to hear from landlords if they want to participate or be more involved.
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Uh battlecreekhousing.org is the website, by the way, and we'll put the link in the show notes so uh folks can click through if they uh want to.
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Uh, there's also a section on your website about homeownership.
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Do you generally speaking try to help some people who might be interested in becoming homeowners to recognize that path?
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Well, I think it's an interesting opportunity for us at the Battle Creek Housing Commission.
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We have families, like we talked about a second ago, families that do well in our housing and move on to other opportunities.
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And it's certainly an area where we can help folks move towards homeownership if that's something they want they want to pursue.
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And our homeownership program is relatively small now.
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That's largely the result of the Battle Creek Housing Commission's success.
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They built hundreds of homes throughout the city of Battle Creek, modest sized housing that folks went through that program, were able to become homeowners and have since purchased their homes.
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Oftentimes they'll rent them for a period of time, part of their payment gets set aside to go towards purchasing the home.
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Most of those homes have sold, and we have a few that are still out there, have families in them.
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Occasionally one of them comes available if a family decides not to complete the purchase, so we're able to offer that for sale to a lower moderate income family.
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Um and maybe we do some of that in the future.
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I would say, you know, that's certainly a possibility.
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There's been discussion about that.
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Um, but I also would note that there are lots of other really good organizations in town that are creating new homeownership opportunities that didn't exist when we first started this program in the 90s.
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Yeah, that's another way the landscape has changed a little.
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That's right.
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And maybe for us it would just be, you know, maybe it's a partnership, maybe that we're helping to supply, uh, you know, helping to connect families that are doing well in our housing and ready to move on to the next opportunity with those nonprofit partners or other opportunities.
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So we'll see.
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Yeah.
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And Darcy, the city is uh probably happy to bring all these players to the table.
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Absolutely.
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And like I said, um, we want to know how we can help them make things happen as well.
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Yeah.
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All right.
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Well, a terrific uh opportunity to connect uh in uh the way of housing with the Battle Creek Housing Commission.
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Again, that website, battlecreekhousing.org.
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Just click through and look at some of the information there and reach out if you end up with questions about any of those aspects.
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Chris, thank you for uh telling us about it.
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Thanks for the opportunity.
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Chris Lucy at Battle Creek Housing Commission, Darcy Schmidt from the City of Battle Creek here on the BC City Connection housing episodes.
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We have more episodes coming.
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Take care.