As I understand it, tomorrow (Friday) at 9:30 AM, there’s going to be an open meeting at the Presbyterian church on North Washington Street, south of Cross, to discuss changes afoot at Cross Street Village, the senior housing development located in Ypsilanti’s old high school building at the intersection of Cross and North Washington. It would appear that the owners of the building, American Community Developers of Detroit, have either decided to significantly raise the rents themselves, or sold the 104-apartment development to another company that has announced that course of action, in spite of the fact that, when they purchased the property from the Ypsilanti school district some 20 years ago, they pledged to keep it low-income senior housing for a term of 99 years. Well, it would now seem as though the building’s owners are now trying to renege on that promise, taking advantage of a back-out clause in the agreement they’d signed with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), the entity through which they requested and received a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). As I don’t know the whole story, I’m reluctant to suggest that this is simply a money grab, and that the owners don’t care for the at-risk seniors that are already being put on the street, but it certainly looks that way.
Over the past week, I’ve heard several stories of people being forced out, and of rents rising by as much as $127 a month. I’ve also heard that they’ve already started moving in younger tenants, so it would appears as though the transition from senior housing is already well underway. With that said, though, our State Representative, Ronnie Peterson, has called for this public meeting tomorrow to discuss what, if anything, can still be done at this point. [I’m told that our Mayor, Amanda Edmonds, County Commissioner Ricky Jefferson, as well as several members of City Council will be in attendance as well.]
While I’ve yet to see the Regulatory Agreement that was signed with MSHDA, the sense I get, having now talked with a few people, is that it’s unlikely we’ll be able to hold them to their promise. As Ypsilanti Councilwoman Beth Bashert told me, “This is a national problem, not just with this situation. Some of these loopholes are being closed, but not enough.” As for those changes, according to former Ypsilanti City Planner Teresa Gillotti, MSHDA amended their LIHTC contracts around 2005, to better ensure that agreements concerning “affordability periods” are honored, but I think it’s safe to say that probably won’t really help us in this situation… As I see it, the only real leverage we probably have is the fact that American Community Developers is still applying for, and receiving, tax credits from MSHDA for there developments in the state, but I can’t see our current leadership threatening to blackball a developer for taking advantage of a loophole. If anything, I suspect, they’d applaud it. [Remember, this is the same administration that, shortly after coming to office, raised taxes on pensions, while, at the same time, slashing business taxes.]
At any rate, I just thought that you should know that this was happening. Elderly people in our community are being pushed out, and their apartments are being rented to those who can afford to pay considerably more… As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t had a great deal of time to look into this yet, but I’d be interested to know what people were told when the moved in, and whether or not prospective tenants and their families were made aware of this eventuality. Furthermore, I’d be interested to know why it looks as though this took us completely by surprise as a community. As others have noted, developers around the country have been taking advantage of these 15 year LIHTC back-out clauses for some time now, and I’d like to think that, knowing this, the folks at MSHDA, or our elected officials, could have done something to head this off, or at least prepare for the eventuality that this might be happening. Regardless, now that it’s happened, I’d like to think that, because of what we’re seeing take place at Cross Street Village, we might start thinking proactively about other developments in the region that could follow suit.