Homeless await subsidized apartments

TRAVERSE CITY -- Ken Renaudo is on multiple waiting lists for affordable housing, but he doesn't expect to find an apartment anytime soon.

He checks the ads, but rent for most one-bedroom apartments in town is "way too high." He earns $7.40 an hour -- minimum wage in Michigan -- by working part time at the Salvation Army thrift store.

To Renaudo, who is homeless, the issue is simple: Create more low-income housing, and more people would have an address. More of them, in turn, would be able to find work, and they wouldn't need to depend so much on public assistance.

"They can't possibly find more housing unless they build more housing," said Renaudo, who has spent two months at the Goodwill Inn shelter in Garfield Township. "It's not like it's going to turn into a slum."

He will be watching this summer for ground to break on Keystone Village, a 24-unit, subsidized apartment complex that will rise on 1.5 acres next to the inn.

Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan and local nonprofit housing developer HomeStretch are working together on the $3.8 million project. The first tenants are expected to move in next year.

When completed, potential renters can apply for housing vouchers to subsidize rent on the one- and two-bedroom units. They will be referred from area human service agencies.

Tenants won't need to have stayed at the inn to qualify, said Robert Randall, Goodwill's chief operating officer.

In January, 583 people were considered homeless in the five-county region during one 24-hour period, according to a count taken by the Greater Grand Traverse Area Continuum of Care, but the number likely is larger.

Part of the goal, Randall said, is to increase access to affordable housing for people needing to re-establish independence.

Known as supportive housing, tenants will be able to access a variety of programs and services, including employment training, counseling or addiction treatment.

Housing vouchers will be attached to the property, meaning residents can receive them only while living there -- a difference from federal Section 8 subsidies that tenants can transfer between residences, said Bill Merry, HomeStretch executive director.

To be eligible, people need to earn 30 percent or less of the area's median income. For a two-person household, that would be a combined income of $15,200, Merry said. For a family of three, it's $17,100.

"It's really to help them have stable housing," he said. "This is going to have a significant impact."

HomeStretch soon will accept tenants into four subsidized apartments in its Ridgewood development, off LaFranier Road in Garfield Township.

Similar to the Keystone model, the Ridgewood apartments are converted townhomes that will offer renters supportive services.

But the need for affordable housing is far-reaching, said Ilah Honson, executive director of the Traverse City Housing Commission.

The commission has 198 Section 8 housing vouchers that typically are offered to residents when someone leaves the program, Honson said. It also is limited to spend about $82,000 a month on current recipients.

She reopened the waiting list for the voucher program June 15 with about 100 names. There were 257 as of Wednesday. The economic recession, she believes, has made it difficult to finance new construction projects.

Supportive housing in the region is believed to have started in the mid-1990s with 21 units located throughout the area, said Carol Moorman, executive director of the nonprofit Foundation for Mental Health.

The foundation helps find supportive housing for people who are homeless, low-income and dealing with such issues as mental health or addiction. They receive both rent subsidies and services from a number of local agencies.

Currently, the foundation assists 96 people in 77 units in Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim and Kalkaska counties.

Moorman's organization worked to build two supportive housing buildings this decade -- Woodmere Ridge Apartments on Woodmere Avenue in Traverse City, and Bay Front Apartments on E. Front St. in Traverse City, near The Blue Goat wine shop.

Rent typically is set by the area's fair market value, she said, and tenants pay up to 30 percent of their adjusted monthly incomes.

A recent poll of residents indicates between 82 and 87 percent of them stayed in their housing for at least a year, and 82 percent saw their earnings increase once placed in a unit, Moorman said.

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Ken Renaudo has stayed at the Goodwill Inn homeless shelter for 60 days. His name is on waiting lists for affordable housing. Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan is working with local nonprofit housing developer HomeStretch to build Keystone Village, which will include 24 subsidized apartment units. Record-Eagle