MSHDA to Build New Senior Development in Michigan Suburb

By Keith Loria, Contributing Writer

Lansing, Mich.—The Michigan State Housing Development Authority will open The Lake Pointe Apartments, a planned $4.2 million affordable housing development for seniors in downtown Hart, Mich.

The MHSDA’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program will fund the apartment community, with occupancy expected by late summer.

“This project is a striking example of how the LIHTC program positively impacts the state’s economic recovery by leveraging further investment in a community,” Scott Woosley, MSHDA’ executive director, says. “We anticipate that the $4.2 million in housing tax credits will leverage, conservatively, more than $4 million in private equity for the city of Hart.”

Located at 26 N. State St. in Hart’s downtown area, overlooking Hart Lake, the new development will promote a high quality of place in a walkable community and an expectation of increased economic activity, investment and job creation for the entire area.

Lake Pointe Apartments will consist of 19 one-bedroom and six two-bedroom apartments in a 26,000-square-foot, three-story building.

“This sort of investment and community building is possible in other communities throughout the state through the program,” Woosley says, as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 effectively extended the fixed 9 percent housing credit rate for projects allocated by the end of 2013.

The change now authorizes Housing Finance Agencies, including MSHDA to apply housing credit allocations made before January 1, 2014, rather than to developments placed in service before December 31, 2013, as current law requires.

“The Housing Credit is the fundamental housing resource used to transform communities,” Senator Goeff Hansen, who was on hand for the project’s official announcement, said at the time. “That is clearly demonstrated in this project and what it has done and will do for the city of Hart.”

The MSHDA provides financial and technical assistance through public and private partnerships to create and preserve decent, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents and to engage in community economic development activities to revitalize urban and rural communities.

In 2012, MSHDA allocated approximately $35.3 million in 9 percent tax credits to 37 developments throughout the state, creating 2,982 units of affordable housing.

“Severe cuts to this program when spending talks come before Congress in March will cripple our efforts to rebuild our state’s cities, neighborhoods and urban centers into thriving communities,” Woosley says. “We intend to do whatever it takes to promote the preservation of the program.”