Last Week at Rotary Feb 3, 2022

The Afghan refugee family being sponsored by our club, Holland After Hours Rotary Club, and Central Park Reformed Church has been here a week. The family was taken around the Holland area and shown many of the significant places. There is also a possible lead on housing. If you have any household items that you want to donate, hold onto them until we know what will be needed.

 

Rotary contacts for the resettlement project are Elizabeth Scott, Kent Fry, David Beatie, and Sandy Hansen.

Ryan Kilpatrick updated us on the work of the Housing Next organization. They are a 4-year-old organization that is part of the United Way. Housing Next works with municipalities, developers and other organizations to facilitate the development of needed housing in Ottawa County.

 

Because of the price of construction most houses currently being built address the high end of the market. In order to lower housing prices there needs to be either an oversupply of homes or subsidized housing.

 

Housing next is currently involved in 3 developments in Holland. Hom Flats in Holland Township and Lakewood Flats in Holland are targeted for families with incomes between 40% and 80% of mean income. Currently this is $25,000 - $65,000 annual income. Hom Flats on Waverly is targeted for 40% - 100% of mean income. These developments are funded using Low Income Housing Tax Credit. Housing Next is also involved in the Habitat for Humanity/Jubilee Ministries development that we heard about 2 weeks ago.

 

They have also developed housing in Grand Haven that can be replicated. This development has family homes with a selling price of $140,000.

 

With the large increase in jobs in the Holland area housing is still behind. Rental housing has increased so that it is almost keeping up with demand. However, new housing is lagging way behind what is needed.

 

Ryan showed statistics comparing homogeneous developments with mixed housing developments. Mixed developments have more housing units per area, a higher taxable value, more students, and a lower price.

 

As part of the LG Chem expansion there will be $10 million for long-term low-interest housing loans.