TRAVERSE CITY - A new project, the first its kind in Michigan, is starting in Traverse City. Its focus is to help teachers find an affordable place to live.
“This, led us to an opportunity to try and build a housing project specifically for educators and support staff,” says Dr. John VanWagoner, TCAPS superintendent.
Traverse City Area Public Schools have partnered with other education organizations to be a part of an affordable housing project. Right now, the plan is to build it next Blair Elementary school in Grand Traverse County’s Blair Township.
“Over two years of looking at how can we help bring educators and support staff into our region knowing we have these housing issues so we’ve been working and trying to work with our state legislators and others, and be able to find the funding to. Be able to do that. And so, we’re really close,” shares VanWagoner.
The interlocal partnership between Traverse City Area Public Schools, Northwest Education Services, Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools, and the Interlochen Center of The Arts was just made official. Marking the first step in a housing project for educators.
VanWagoner is optimistic about the project’s future. It has already received $5 million in appropriation funding from the state and they are hoping to have a couple million more from the state housing authority.
“We’re excited to be able to show what that model can look like and be able to make sure that other school districts, maybe around the state and regions that are having housing shortages, are maybe able to provide this type of housing, to be able to recruit the best talent that we need for kids in our area,” he says.
The project will be focused on affordable housing with approximately 50 to 75 duplex units.
“Affordable is different for different people in the, in the, you know, amount of square footage, if it’s one or a two-bedroom apartment or what that looks like. So, we’re working with them and they have very specific standards that you have to meet,” explains VanWagoner.
The hope is that the project will bring more educators to Northern Michigan and also help ones who have been in here for years.
“We have our educators, we have professionals, that work in as both teachers but also support staff for our people that are food service that are maintenance and custodial, that are bus drivers. We want to make sure that we have something to be able to offer, to recruit those people and have them live right here in our school district and be able to afford where they live,” he says.
The next steps are getting more funding and potentially breaking ground sometime over the next year.