The State of Housing: Addressing Michigan’s Housing Shortage

• Housing needs have changed, and despite Michigan’s population decline, housing shortages continue due to regulation and slow movement to address them.
• Cross-functional collaboration is key to developing and completing much-needed housing projects.
• While there are many differing opportunities to address the state of housing, there is no blanket solution, and it will take time to address.

The discussion surrounding Michigan’s housing situation focused on the importance of local, state, and federal cooperation, maintaining dialogue with Michiganders about the state of housing and actively planning opportunities to attract and retain young residents, which is vital to combatting the state’s housing crisis.

Opening the panel discussion, Hovey noted that some progress has been made at a statewide level to reduce the housing shortage by nearly 90,000 units, but that further work is needed.

Jemison noted that rising housing costs have exacerbated the shortage despite its progress. Jemison noted that the Detroit Housing Commission voucher program does not go as far as it used it and “we need to recognize we still have a long way to go and that we need…Detroit to get stronger,” as it rebounds from bankruptcy.

One way that communities can cultivate their housing pipeline is to tap into area residents and work to bring in the types of development projects they want to see. Lunger noted that Grand Rapids is “seeing this focus on vibrant environments; creating those walkable individual neighborhoods that are magnetic that when someone experiences it, the want to live there.”

In what he dubbed “urban vibrancy,” Lunger noted that seeking residential feedback and actively engaging them with development options puts into perspective what their communities can be to streamline projects, clarify investment needs, and ultimately ensure buy-in, in addition to catering to what younger generations seek in housing.

As an example of this, Hovey asked Bergman what he hears from his constituents about their housing concerns.

“The simple answer is that we need more housing – but what is ‘more housing’?” he asked. “We use the word affordable a lot of times, but I think the real word should be attainable, because whether it’s affordable or not, it may not be attainable.”

To ensure that the solutions to addressing the housing shortage are implemented, Bergman said that stakeholders “must come with their expectations but a willingness to negotiate.”

On a smaller scale within Detroit, Jemison shared that it was vital for Detroit to prove itself to appropriately spend funding, highlighting that for the projects they sought assistance with, they focused on how it would best reflect the new, multi-faceted approach to Detroit’s rebirth. “Let’s show people what we can do to track federal resources … because we know how to spend it and layer it with other work … it’s important to be a good partner.”

“It’s important to find the core group that wants to take action and is excited,” Lunger said. “Those who have the knowledge to [address housing]. We need people to see that [housing] is not a zero-sum game and that doing these projects, they actually have to support each other…to move forward.”

As the conversation ended, Hovey asked each of the three panelists what key opportunities or incentives were missing to solve the housing crisis.

“Every year, stop and evaluate your situation,” Bergman said. “What you’re doing that’s working, keep doing that. But what are you not doing or need to start doing? [But] the hardest thing, especially for a governmental entity, is to stop doing things that no longer add value to the proposition they’re trying to move forward.”

“We’ve got some tools and some ideas – you know, coding and regulatory, and other factors,” Lunger said, “But at the end of the day, we’re still going to have a housing problem to solve.”

“You know where you have well-located housing developments, densify them,” Jemison said. “But then also add other players…densify it in a way that brings in a range of different populations together.”

This 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference session was hosted by Michigan State Housing Development Authority.