HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — Three developments are bringing more much-needed income-eligible housing to Ottawa County.

Ottawa County, as several other local communities across Michiganfaces a housing shortage. A Housing Next Assessment 2021 found that Ottawa County needs an additional 15,500 housing units, both rental and for sale.

County Takes Advantage of Council Tax Increment Financing Program for Three Housing Projects, a program created by the state last year. The program allows tax revenues from the redevelopment of brownfields – blighted or dilapidated properties – to fund affordable housing costs.

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Ottawa County’s three projects address the community’s need for additional rental housing and the need for workforce housing. The housing needs assessment found the county needs approximately 1,600 affordable workforce rental units.

“If we can get more inventory online, even at market rate, that alleviates some of the demand problem,” Becky Huttenga, Ottawa County economic development coordinator, told News 8. “But if we can bring more housing units online and have some held so that workers can afford it, those are two great benefits that come from these housing projects that we have. So we’re generating more inventory in general and then revenue eligible units in particular.

Terra station, planned for 3302 Prospect Street off Chicago Drive, will be a 12-building project totaling 131 new rental units in downtown Hudsonville. Of these, 35 will be eligible for income.

There will also be 4,600 squares of retail space on the 4.5-acre site. The project leaders hope to have it completed by July 2026.

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In this same Hudsonville neighborhood, Prospect Flats along 32nd Street and Prospect Street is expected to provide 41 new apartments spread across two three-story buildings. The project has already started and is expected to be completed by May. It will include five income-eligible units.

Finally, Winsor Place at 106 S. Buchanan Street near US-31 in Spring Lake is a three-story project that will have 41 units, five of which will be income-eligible. There will also be 2,700 square feet of retail space.

This project is expected to take between one year and fifteen months.

Developments focus on walkable areas. The Spring Lake development, for example, is within walking distance of downtown and a farmers’ market, Huttenga said.

“It creates more vibrant grassroots communities that offer many of the amenities and benefits of living in a resort compared to the green fields that are on the outskirts of town and aren’t really close to the things people need and where they want to go,” she said. “It’s about creating nice density and creating community.”

Huttenga expects Ottawa County to see more multi-unit projects utilizing the TIF incentive as communities work to address the housing shortage. She said approving the use of TIF for projects was a fairly simple process that included a lot of dialogue with the community.

The “tricky part” was the funding gap, she said. Along with the Housing TIF program, the state also created the Pilot Housing TIF Gap Lending program, which provides financing to income-restricted housing projects. This helps address the potential loss of rent a developer faces by offering housing at income-appropriate rates instead of the market rate, Huttenga explained.

“It’s this loss, ‘I’m only going to charge a certain amount of rent, which means I won’t have enough money to make this a solvent and financially feasible project,’ that’s where this comes in. funding gap,” she said. . “So we need to incentivize developers to build the type of housing we need at affordable rates so we can alleviate some of the housing shortage more quickly. »

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