It’s hard to find a home in Leelanau County. And a Bowen National Research study suggests that the most acutely affected people are teachers and first responders — essential workers who tend to get underpaid.
Leelanau County has several housing nonprofit organizations. Each of them plans to add a handful of new affordable housing options to the market in 2025. But progress towards meeting the need is slow.
Homestretch Nonprofit Housing in Traverse City is developing three single-family detached homes this year, one each in Elmwood, Centerville, and Northport. Homestretch serves people at or below 80% of the area median income (AMI). In Leelanau County, the AMI is $71,900.
Homestretch Executive Director Jon Stimson said they are breaking ground at each site this winter. Once completed, the homes will be sold for approximately $240,000 each. Stimson said they are still looking for applicants to purchase these homes.
Prospective buyers can confi rm that they qualify and get in contact with Homestretch by completing a form at homestretchhousing. org.
While three single-family homes in three townships won’t resolve the housing crisis on their own, Stimson said his organization is aiming for incremental change. He said their main obstacle isn’t opposition from the “not in my backyard” types, or tax abatements like conservation easements, but the price of land.
“Land values are so high that it’s hard to acquire land to make it affordable,” said Stimson. “Land cost is the biggest barrier. We’ve exhausted all opportunities from land bank authority. At this point, there is no additional land that is available for us to acquire. As far as zoning and tax abatements and things of that nature – I don’t have anything negative to report in that area.”
“If a municipality calls us and they have land available, we will always pursue it and get the grants,” Stimson added.
Homestretch is actively pursuing land elsewhere in the county as well. Stimson said they have long been interested in acquiring land in Empire Township and the village, and hope to make progress towards that goal in 2025.
Stimson described this year’s projects as Homestretch’s “foray into homes for sale.” Homestretch previously opened the Vineyard View apartment complex with eight rental units in Suttons Bay Township in late 2023.
And when Leelanau Christian Neighbors acquired land in Lake Leelanau for affordable housing last year, they partnered with Homestretch, with the latter organization managing the property and ensuring rents stay affordable.
Stimson said that Homestretch may also partner with Peninsula Housing, another nonprofit organization, to manage properties in Suttons Bay Township that the latter is currently developing. Peninsula Housing owns a 10-acre farmstead and a neighboring parcel on Herman Road in the township.
Peninsula Housing President Larry Mawby says their current design for this site includes 40 residential units, with a mixture of rental apartments and single-family homes. They plan to develop this parcel in five phases over several years. Mawby hopes to complete the first eight units this year, but Peninsula Housing still needs financing and permits before they can start construction.
As a community land trust, Peninsula Housing will retain ownership of these parcels while selling or renting homes on them for less than their appraised value. They will then lease the land to the homeowners for a “nominal yearly fee.”
“There isn’t infinite land, and it’s not cheap, but that’s not a consideration that eliminates the possibility. There are always going to be neighbors who don’t want (affordable housing), but there are also neighbors that do. The regulatory barriers are there, but they’re not insurmountable,” Mawby said. “The biggest obstacle is the difference between the cost of housing and what people can afford.”
“The cost of all the components of housing here - the land, the buildings, all that stuff keeps going up faster than peoples’ incomes. The gap between what people who are working in Leelanau County can afford to pay and it what it costs to afford a home keeps getting bigger and bigger, and we need to figure out a way to close that gap,” Mawby continued.
Mawby said that Peninsula Housing will also work with yet another nonprofit, New Community Vision (NCV), to develop affordable housing on a 25-acre parcel of the former Timber Shores campground. NCV and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians acquired the property Dec. 20.
The New Waves affordable housing project is still ongoing in Elmwood Township. But now, 13 of its 14 homes are under the sole management of Habitat for Humanity. As of New Year’s, four of the New Waves units are completed and occupied.
Habitat for Humanity welcomed two families to their homes in summer 2024, and another two real estate transfers were recorded Dec. 17. Thomas Kachadurian, marketing director for Habitat for Humanity – Grand Traverse Region, said partners qualifying for Habitat homeownership can purchase the other New Waves units through affordable mortgages.
Kachadurian said they are still looking for occupants for seven units. An eligibility test is available at habitatgtr.org. When most of the units are occupied, the project will be managed by the new homeowners.
Construction manager Curtis Cobb added that another two units are currently in progress, and work on another four New Waves homes will start in the spring. Overall, the regional Habitat for Humanity hopes to finish five or six units in the development in 2025.
The project started in 2021 as a partnership between New Waves United Church of Christ and Habitat for Humanity. Last year, the church withdrew from the project due to funding and management difficulties.
Habitat purchased seven of eight properties from their partner and is making them available to own, rather than affordably rent under church management.
Habitat for Humanity also completed six homes in Maple City last spring. After the New Waves project, Cobb said the regional Habitat will concentrate on developing projects in Kalkaska and Grand Traverse counties.
According to the nonprofit organization Housing North, Leelanau County needs over 2,300 new homes by 2027 to address the housing shortage. Just 196 housing permits were issued in the previous year.
