LANSING — A Lansing City Council member wants to create a new fund to help people stay in safe housing.
The fund, if approved, could make about $500,000 each year available for programs, grants or staff that prevent residents from losing their housing, help people regain housing or provide services for people who are without a home.
Lansing City Council President Peter Spadafore, who represents the city’s 4th Ward, said the fund is intended to target the smaller factors that, with a large number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, can still lead to someone losing safe housing.
Spadafore doesn’t believe his ordinance would solve all housing or homeless issues for the city, but instead is part of “continuum of solutions” that doesn’t reduce funding for other city services.
“This is part of what I would hope is us thinking outside the box,” he said. “We haven’t always done it this way so let’s give it a shot.”
Spadafore compared the fund to the city’s plan to set up a small community of 50 modular tiny homes, often called pods, that would address housing needs and also connect residents with the proper services. That program has cost about $600,000, and city officials have said they hope it’s up and running by winter.
Spadafore filed the draft ordinance to create the new fund in early May, and this week said it’s been tabled for a month to allow for more discussion with experts inside and outside “because the more voices we have the better.”
The ordinance calls for a portion of the budget for the Department of Human Relations and Community Services to be dedicated solely to the fund. Spadafore said he looked at how much money historically could be directed to the fund without decreasing money earmarked for an active program.
Earlier this year, Spadafore introduced an ordinance that would have used 10% of any money received from a proposed downtown data center for eviction prevention, housing assistance and support services. Deep Green, the United Kingdom-based company that wanted to build the data center, withdrew its proposal hours before City Council had expected to vote following weeks of pushback from residents and some members of council.
Advocates, residents and people who are without homes have spoken to City Council during meetings over the past months with many asking the city to do more.
The city previously filed a lawsuit against 113 W. Michigan LLC, of Jackson, and JAJ Property LLC, of West Bloomfield Township, to break up the camp and have the companies’ wooded properties near Dietrich Park cleared of debris and people. Some people who had been living there were moved to temporary housing at an area hotel, and the city and Ingham County covered the associated costs.
Some who have spoken during City Council this year have asked the city to put in place a moratorium on camp sweeps, which advocates have said causes people to lose personal belongings and their familiar place to live.
Spadafore said he’ll consider any proposal that reaches council, but added that the city and its police department could be legally required to act if a camp is on private property and the property owner wants it removed.
Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at mjmencarini@lsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Spadafore proposes new fund to help Lansing residents stay in safe housing
Reporting by Matt Mencarini, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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