Homeless in Traverse City
TRAVERSE CITY — Apartments in a former hotel in Traverse City could soon become home for as many as 27 people currently without shelter.
That’s if city commissioners agree to a $360,000 service contract with Goodwill Northern Michigan that City Manager Liz Vogel is planning to request on Monday.
Goodwill Northern Michigan is seeking to bridge a year long gap in funding for East Bay Flats, an apartment building on Munson Avenue that it bought in November, Vogel said.
The city commission will meet six days after Safe Harbor, a seasonal overnight homeless shelter on Wellington Street, closed its doors until fall. Each of its guests had to find somewhere else to spend the night, and several went to a wooded area near Eleventh and Division streets called the Pines.
“I just think that this is a moment in time to step up to the mark,” Vogel said, “and Goodwill’s come and made an ask that’s going to help get 27 people who are chronically homeless, most of whom will be in the Pines – if they aren’t there already – into housing.
“I mean, that’s real, that’s as real as it gets, and that’s incredible.”
Goodwill Northern Michigan already secured Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the state in April, and a tax break from the city in November, as reported in the Record-Eagle.
Both of these combine to help underwrite the nonprofit’s plans to turn up to 63 of East Bay Flats’ apartments into homes for people facing chronic homelessness who have a documented disability or who are fleeing domestic violence.
But the state housing agency won’t award those tax credits until June 2025, Vogel said. So the service agreement between city and nonprofit could fund and start the program even sooner.
Services will include housing-based case management at East Bay Flats, Vogel said. Residents there could also access services for mental health, substance abuse or employment assistance for as long as they need it.
“The goal through HBCM is to make sure that the people who are moved in, that they successfully retain their housing and they have opportunities for personal growth and development,” Vogel said.
Separately, the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation helped raise about $50,000 to place two rental portable toilets, two “festival sinks” — like the plastic, foot-powered sinks on East Front Street during its 2020 closure — and two solar benches, Vogel said. Those benches will have one outlet on each end so people can charge their mobile phones.
This comes after community members and organizations working on homelessness issues told city administrators The Pines needs sanitary solutions, Vogel said. Although the eventual goal is to end camping there, in the meantime, the city must acknowledge that people are staying there, she said.
Both sinks and portable toilets should be in place by mid-May, Vogel said. Plans are to place them in a more visible location and have them under surveillance to avoid the previous problems of vandalism and misuse.
Check Record-Eagle.com for updates to this developing story.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct a reporter’s error giving the wrong number of apartments in East Bay Flats that will house people who were homeless. It is 63. May 2, 2024