Affordable housing effort getting underway
City manager: ‘The average cost of rent is becoming unattainable for the average person’
Ferndale’s effort to keep affordable housing in the city is expected to soon bear fruit in upcoming development projects.
City Council members and officials made affordable housing a priority, said City Manager Joseph Gacioch.
They adopted new policies requiring any housing developer building residential units on land owned by the city to include some affordable rental or housing units.
Ferndale officials also tax and other incentives they can use to spur affordable housing units to be included in private developments.
“It’s important because the average cost of rent is becoming unattainable for the average person in our area,” Gacioch said.
Hot housing markets like Ferndale have become expensive to the point it makes buying a house in the city more costly, driving up the cost of living in the region.
Median income for the biggest demographic in the city — those ages 35 to 44 — is no longer in sync with average rental rates, Gacioch said.
“Our key demographic is becoming priced out of the market,” he said.
The city is negotiating with Versa-Wanda LLC to build up to 15 residential units on the west side of the mixed- used parking deck known locally as the DOT on West Troy in the downtown.
Rents at the development will start at less than $ 1,000 a month, said Jordan Twardy, the city’s director of community and economic development.
Rents will range from 80, 60 and 50 percent of what is affordable based on the average median income of about $60,000.
“Rents in Ferndale can be $1,500 a month,” Twardy said. “With new construction and rentals, rates are above that and what people can afford.”
The development proposal will likely go before the Planning Commission within 90 days.
A larger development proposal on privately owned land at 503 E. Nine Mile Road near Paxton is before the Planning Commission on Jan. 20
he 53-unit Full Circle Communities is proposed to be all rented at a mix of affordable rates with commercial space on the first floor.
“It is targeting (the
market) of LGBT seniors to create a safe and welcoming environment,” Twardy said.
The developer is seeking incentives from the state and city, which gives the city leverage to push for affordable units.
If the developer charged market rates for the proposed development it “would be hundreds of thousands of dollars more in rent each year,” Twardy said.
Cities like Ferndale and others cannot dominate the free market rates that prevail for rents, he said.
“But we can help nudge it along to make it easier for the market to deliver what we want,” Twardy said. “This is a pushback against gentrification.”