TRAVERSE CITY — There were two topics of discussion during the study session, one was regarding a request from The Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness for a one million dollar allocation from the city in support of ending chronic homelessness.
The request was brought forth by Commissioner Jackie Anderson and Commissioner Mi Stanley, with the goal to ask Traverse City to set aside $1 Million for future use, meaning they weren’t asking for it now, but later.
City Manager Elizabeth Vogel tells us ”Now the task force is coming up with different efforts to move the needle forward. The task force is meeting now with the goal of being done in October. But the reason why they came to make the ask now is to leverage moneys in this year’s fiscal cycle that the city just approved, rather than waiting until next year.”
The request also gave more of a general look at what the money would be for.
Vogel says “That $1 million would be put towards funding gaps for permanent supportive housing, incentives for landlords to have more units of those nature, converting underutilized properties and filling the support services. ”
Vogel adds that city is working hard to help those suffering from homelessness.