“Finding land, particularly in the city of Grand Rapids, but even within the county, is challenging.”
Sarah Hotchkiss is Director of Development and Communications for Habitat for Humanity of Kent County. She says it’s not only difficult to find property at a price point that their organization can afford, but also one that’s affordable to the buyer of the homes they build.
“Looking at infrastructure, costs, zoning, things of that nature. So, there’s a lot of variables that we have to look at when we’re acquiring property, but most certainly, I’m sure many other organizations are in that same space of just trying to find land that we can repurpose for affordable home ownership. It’s going to be a challenge.”
It's one of the reasons Habitat chose to use land it already owns at its Roosevelt Park headquarters. An unused construction warehouse will be demolished. In its place: Pleasant Hills condominium featuring 27 multifamily units.
“So, these are folks that are in our community right now that just are struggling to compete in the open market, and so we’re really focused on how do we build this pipeline and get people in so that when this home is ready, that they can get into this home ownership opportunity.”
According to Housing Next, a West Michigan group that works with organizations to help create housing at all price points, Kent County needs 35,000 housing units by 2027 to meet demand, with 14,000 of those units needed in Grand Rapids.
