517 Can't Wait

ential to each of our lives, it's the largest monthly bill, and it's something we all care about regardless of who you are. For many who live here, housing affordability has been a benefit of the Lansing area. This has been a place where many can live comfortably, without having to work yourself to the bone to keep a roof over your head. But that’s changing fast. Housing supply is not keeping up with demand. The projects that do get built are upper-end developments that most of us can’t afford. Average rent has increased by 30-40% in the last five years, and it’s the same for new mortgages. Young adults who would be becoming homeowners are stuck paying climbing rents instead. It all adds up to more housing insecurity — more people having to choose between food, rent, and medicine, if they have a choice at all. Lansing and Ingham County have a housing crisis, and it needs to be addressed now. The worst thing we could do is accept the status quo because it’s not as bad as other cities. Try telling that to the parents skipping meals to feed their children. Try telling that to the houseless people who the city tries to keep out of sight and out of mind. Try telling that to the would-be entrepreneur who is stuck delivering DoorDash to pay rent instead. Maybe it doesn’t look that bad from the mansions on Moores River Drive, but the reality is that people are suffering. Even one person in this situation would be too many. Housing is a human right, and should be guaranteed through public policy, rather than left to the whims of rich developers and short-sighted politicians. This is why we are taking up the demand of Good Housing for All. The Good Housing for All platform is an ambitious but practical roadmap to make Lansing a national leader in making housing a human right. It includes six different policy areas — building over 10,000 new homes in Ingham County over the next 10 years, protecting renters from exploitation through a Tenants Bill of Rights, supporting the unhoused population, banning back-room development deals, fighting racism in housing policy, and building green for energy efficiency, cost savings, and climate protection. To be fully implemented, this plan will require leadership from the county, city, and township level. Even if our elected officials started moving today, this plan will take a decade to fully accomplish. There’s no time to waste in getting started.