History of Housing Matters

Building Trust and Community Engagement

Note: A good article on Housing Matters was written by Mark Wedel from Second Wave Media  on 3/14/24.

Housing Matters grew out of our community’s failure to place a millage proposal in 2012 on the Kalamazoo County ballot which would have helped many homeless families obtain affordable housing.  Many of us involved in the millage initiative saw that we were not working together; the many affordable housing agencies and organizations didn’t know each other, didn’t understand what others were doing, and were concerned that support for one organization would result in decreased funding for another.

Several of us in the spring of 2012 were motivated to address these failures by creating Housing Matters. The founding volunteers were (in alphabetical order) Paul Ecklund, Tobi Hanna-Davies, Lauren Harkness, Don Jones, Mary Lewis, Ann Perry, Rick Stravers and Norman Young.  Others who served on our Planning Committee since 2012 include Mary Balkema, Galyn Barnum, Shacara Burrel, Sarah Cain, Stephanie Hoffman, Ashley Davis, Michelle Davis, Eva Huddleston, Kathleen Garland Rike, Kathy Roberts, Joe Schmitt and Kathy White. 

We sought to create safe space where our community could gather once a month that was free from the corrosive dynamics of turf, competition, politics, and funding.  So we created Housing Matters with two goals: 

• To educate ourselves (and any anyone else interested) about the many programs, agencies and organizations endeavoring to provide decent, safe and affordable housing throughout Kalamazoo County. 

• To bring together everyone working on affordable housing so we could understand each other, respect each other, and work well with each other to make Kalamazoo County a place all residents can truly call home.

Overall, we believe we have accomplished both these goals with outstanding results.

Today, the many housing organizations in Kalamazoo County are working together much better than in 2011.  Hundreds of individual citizens are more deeply engaged and aware of our community’s housing crisis and the needs of their neighbors. We like to think we had a hand in fostering this unity and community engagement.

Twelve years of Positive Impact

Housing Matters held our first Forum on July 25, 2012. 

As of July 2024, our 12th anniversary, we have held:

•   132 Forums (either in-person or via Zoom.)

•    With over 200 speakers

•    And over 3000 total participants

Leaders from many housing agencies and advocacy groups, listed below,  have served on our Planning Committee (usually on their own time.) We believe this has encouraged working together and respect for each other.   

• Disability Network

• Housing Resources

• Kalamazoo Defender

• Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC)

• Michigan United

• ISAAC Interfaith Strategy for Advocacy and Action in the Community (ISAAC) Housing Task Force

• Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Housing Task Force

• Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity

• Kalamazoo County Housing Commission

• Open Doors Kalamazoo

• JustFaith

• Ministry with Community

Dozens of organizations and agencies have presented on many topics. Examples include:

• Kalamazoo County:  County’s Consolidated Plan (including affordable housing); Housing Commission

• LIFT Foundation: existing affordable housing

• Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services: Foreclosure Prevention

• Kalamazoo Public Schools: Homeless Students

• United Way: ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) and the Kalamazoo County Continuum of Care (CoC)

• Public Housing Commission:  Local Housing Assistance Fund

• Goodwill: Life Guides

• ERACCE: Eliminating Racism in Housing

• Public Safety Panel: Relationship with law enforcement and people who are homeless

• Integrated Services if Kalamazoo: The Impact of Mental Health and Substance Abuse on Housing

• YWCA: Human Trafficking and housing issues

• Local Initiative Support Corporation: Affordable Housing Initiative

• ISAAC:  Trauma caused by poverty and racism-ravaged neighborhoods

• MSHDA/HUD housing vouchers 

• Edison Community Partners

• Hollander Development

• Mt. Zion Baptist Church senior housing development

• Kalamazoo Promise recipients share their struggles with lack of housing 

• Pinegrove Housing / MSHDA/HUD housing vouchers 

• Building Blocks of Kalamazoo

• Nation Outside lobbing for better housing opportunities at the state level

• Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity: Home ownership, repair services, and financing

• Fair Housing Center of Southwest Michigan

• Support Organization Panel: What is it like to find housing while living on Disability

• How Finland addressed affordable housing

• Kalamazoo Housing Advocates 

• Layla’s Cool Pops helps to house teens

• Community Homeworks

•  Samaritas: Refugee housing needs

•  New affordable housing projects: The Creamery; Harrison Circle; Lodge House

• Housing Resources: COVID Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) Program

• Panel of landlords: Subsidized housing from the landlord perspective

• Panel of homeless or formally homeless: their experiences of homelessness

We have promoted community wide housing-oriented events. Examples include:

• HRI’s annual Walk to End Homelessness

• Project Connect, annually providing many free services at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center

• ISAAC Public Meeting on even years, asking candidates to pledge support

We have been supportive of healthy, respectful community conversations. Examples include:

• The Kalamazoo County 2015 “Vote Yes for Kids” millage targeting family homelessness (generating nearly $1M annually)

• The Kalamazoo County 2020 “Homes for All” millage targeting all types of homelessness and affordable housing needs (generating roughly $7.2M annually)

• The FUSE program – Frequent Users Service Enhancement

• The Kalamazoo County Local Housing Assistance Fund

All in all, we believe Housing Matters of Kalamazoo has been a positive influence in promoting affordable housing in the County