We Don’t Want You: Why the housing projects attached to the Amphitheater and the Soccer Stadium will exclude working class and poor people from living in those apartments

On Sunday, MLive posted an article entitled, Will housing near new Grand Rapids amphitheater, soccer stadium be affordable? The headline should have read, “None of the 735 new apartments that will be connected to the Amphitheater and Soccer Stadium project will be affordable.”

Reading the MLive article was rather instructive, since it was fundamentally an exercise in the justification of over-priced rental costs that will exclude huge sectors of society who do not make enough money to afford to live next to the Amphitheater or the Soccer Stadium. What follows are some of the justifications.

Justification #1 – “We’re hopeful that we will be able to provide some level of affordability within the project, but we understand the challenges that are being faced,” said Kara Wood, Grand Action 2.0′s executive director. What the Grand Action 2.0 spokesperson is really saying is, “Gee, we would love it if poor people could live here, but it wouldn’t make sense to have poor people live next to these amazing transformational projects. Such projects are really designed to bring more money downtown and primarily benefit the members of Grand Action 20 and our friends.”

Justification #2 – “A huge part of affordability right now is lack of availability,” Bliss said. “So, we know that building housing at any price point will increase supply and increasing supply will reduce costs across the board … and we need housing across the entire spectrum.” Really, so Mayor Bliss thinks that the “market” will just magically provide an adequate amount of housing that is current too expensive for thousands of families in Grand Rapids to afford? In the current NeoLiberal Capitalist market, the plan is always to funnel more public money to projects that are privately owned. Get the public to pay for stuff that the professional class and the Capitalist Class will benefit from.

Justification #3 – “What we’re trying to do is provide a path to getting to an affordable housing agreement,” said Jono Klooster, interim economic development director for the city of Grand Rapids. “It’s kind of a reflection of where we’re at in the development of those projects, and a way to provide options and flexibility as we continue to make progress on these and identify the developers we will be working with.” Sounds like trickle down economics, where these people use warm and fuzzy language about affordability, but rarely practice it, and when they do it is merely token.

What is also instructive about this project is that Grand Action 2.0 wants to get the Grand Rapids Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to provide subsidies to both the apartment buildings for the Amphitheater and the Soccer Stadium. Grand Action 2.0 is asking the City to use the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to grant $318 million in subsidies – $290 million for the amphitheater housing and $28 million for soccer stadium housing. I mean, why not. The MLive article already says that both Mayor Bliss and 2nd Ward Commissioner Ysasi support such a plan. Not surprising, Commissioner Ysasi sits on the Grand Rapids Brownfield Redevelopment Authority board, along with people who are part of the development industry, former elected officials, but all who are committed to NeoLiberal Capitalism.

Another person who sits on the Grand Rapids Brownfield Redevelopment Authority board is Brooke Oosterman, the executive director of Housing Next, which is an entity created by the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. Considering how viciously the GR Chamber of Commerce was able to get the City of Grand Rapids to adopt ordinances to criminalize the unhoused, it would follow that they don’t want more poor people hanging out in the downtown area. 

Near the end of the MLive article it states: 

Estimated monthly rental rates for the amphitheater housing show an income-restricted, one-bedroom apartment would be $1,888 per-month, according to the city. The same unit at the market rate would be a $126 more at $2,014 per-month. 

A two-bedroom unit in the same building would go for $3,157 per month at the market rate, and $2,267 per-month for an income-restricted unit. There are expected to be nine, two-bedroom income-restricted units in the amphitheater housing tower.

OK, so Grand Action 2.0 and the City of Grand Rapids wants us to provide $318 million in subsidies through the Grand Rapids Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, which is public money. Then they want to limit the number of income restricted apartments, which at the numbers listed above shows that what they mean by income restricted is restricted for those who don’t make a living wage. 

If you are paying $1,888 a month for rent, that equals $22,656 a year. If you are lucking to make $15 an hour, you would make $31,200 a year as a gross salary. Take out taxes and you pretty much are going to afford much after paying rent for an income restricted apartment, except maybe food and a phone, but that’s about it. 

All of this is to say that Grand Action 2.0 and the City of Grand Rapids don’t want poor and working class people to live in this city. On top of that, Grand Action 2.0 is happy to use public money to subsidize these so-called transformational projects, which is really code for – projects that will put more money in the pockets of those who are already disgustingly rich, like members of Grand Action 2.0. 

When will the public wake up to this shit and resist the ongoing plundering that the Capitalist Class does to the rest of us, just so they can have their downtown playground for themselves and their cronies? What we need instead is Social Housing, which is one of the demands of the Rent is Too Damn High coalition in Michigan.