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State legislature introduces bills to increase affordable housing in Michigan

Apartment buildings in Lansing
ForRent.com

Michigan lawmakers have introduced a package of bills to allow local governments to use rent control to keep housing affordable. Under Michigan law, local governments are prohibited from enacting rent control policies. But some Michigan lawmakers want to change that. Democratic State Senator Jeff Irwin says rent control is an effective way to keep housing in Michigan affordable.

“But I think we need to give our local governments as many tools as possible especially while the state is doing such a poor job of investing in affordable housing.”

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates Michigan is short roughly 200-thousand affordable rental homes for extremely low-income renters. For 70 percent of extremely low-income renters, housing is considered a “severe” cost burden - meaning it takes up over half of their income.

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