- Video shows two homes that are part of the 100 Homes program.
- Cory Mays, Grant Coordinator of the City of Jackson, shares about the progress being made with the 100 Homes program and the launch of the Homeowner Rehabilitation Assistance Program.
- These two programs, according to Mays, are the current steps being taken to help solve Jackson's housing crisis.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"The City of Jackson, just like most other communities in Michigan, and nationwide, is facing a housing crisis," said Cory Mays, Grant Coordinator.
A crisis that can somewhat be broken down into a couple key numbers:
81: the average age of a home in Jackson, compared to 41 nationwide
1,500: the number of new units that the Affordable Housing Development Board found that Jackson needs, in addition to the 3,000 that must be rehabilitated.
100: the city's efforts to build 100 single-family homes.
"We know that we need to construct new units, either owner-occupied, non-owner occupied, single-family, all the way up to multi-story apartment buildings." Since launching the 100 Homes program, the city has seen over 500 applications, 22 approved buyers, and one home fully occupied, but it doesn't stop there.
"We also know that we need to rehabilitate existing homes, to give them things like roofs and gutters and furnaces and water heaters. We need to tackle both of those things."
Using money from federal funds, American Rescue Plan Act dollars, and Michigan State Housing Development Authority, the city has been able to leverage one million dollars of rehab funds to help neighbors with home improvements. With the average age of a home in Jackson being double what it should be, Mays hopes programs like this will continue to keep neighbors in their homes.
"I drive through the city every day on my way to work, and every day I can look at a home and think, 'We put a roof on that house. We put a furnace on that house. We're building that house!' These are real differences we're making in the community every day."
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