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To help build an understanding of why affordable housing is so important to families and their communities, Community Housing Choices has created resources to answer some fundamental questions on the region’s affordable housing issues. Here you’ll find facts on housing needs, policies, and ways to get involved.
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Community Housing Choices Fact Sheets:
Many Ways You Can Help From drywall hanging to homeowner education, there’s plenty to do! Many organizations depend on people's labor and sweat equity to help keep housing prices low. If you'd like to hammer nails, hang drywall or paint a house, organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Benzie Housing Council and Freedom Builders can put you to work. If you have a specialized skill like architecture, plumbing or roofing, a few hours of your labor and expertise can really help any of these organizations—as well as a few others..
A Great Need, A Community Opportunity Building homes that working families can afford also builds a town’s prosperity Seven months ago, Corina Bilicki, a certified nursing assistant, was spending $500 a month to rent a ramshackle house in Benzie County that was so poorly insulated that it cost an additional $400 a month just to heat it. That left little to pay for car repairs, gas, the dentist or food and clothing for herself and her five children, even with $360 per month in food stamps. Her situation is hardly unusual.
Local Governments Can Do a Lot By making some simple changes to zoning ordinances, towns can attract new, much needed neighbors Hopefully, local officials know that teachers, firefighters, home health aides and cashiers make fine neighbors and should be welcomed to the community, not zoned out of it and pushed into the countryside. They should understand that affordable housing helps public school enrollment, provides year-round customers for local businesses, cuts traffic congestion, and saves money by avoiding expensive, sprawl-driven school, road, and other utility construction.
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