LANSING, Mich. — A Lansing community group wants to bring attention to the lack of affordable housing in the city.
517 Can't Wait delivered several eviction notices to Ingham County and Lansing officials on Friday. The notices are aimed at highlighting what the organization calls a failing system.
“We have a housing crisis in this area. We have to agree we all have to come together and understand that this is a crisis. Lansing residents are struggling with prohibitively high housing market prices, abusive landlords and unsafe conditions," said group member Lamont Stephens.
Stephens says the organization hasn’t received a response from any of the government agencies they delivered eviction notices to but hopes the demonstrations will be a conversation starter.
“If we can stop getting to a point where people are getting evicted and have a dialogue and have people getting resources that they need because housing is something that is the basic building block of human life," said Stephens.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Lansing is $1,020 a month, according to Rent.com. The median household income is just over $44,000 a year, according to U.S. Census data.
Just last month, the Lansing Housing Commission talked to FOX 47 about their struggles with getting landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers and the need for larger units.
“A lot of the new affordable housing that’s getting built is one or two bedrooms. It works for certain size families but doesn’t work for lots of families. So we’re going to be working on that. That’s one of our strategic initiatives going forward," said Doug Fleming.
Fox 47 News reached out to Lansing city officials, but they declined to comment on the eviction notice.
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