The new house 100 people in 100 days campaign is just the latest false solution to the current housing crisis in Grand Rapids

“In March, a delegation of public, private, and philanthropic stakeholders from Grand Rapids traveled to Houston to meet with leaders who helped lead a significant turnaround in homelessness outcomes over the last decade.”

This comment above was from the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce quarterly government affairs information. None of this was presented during this afternoon’s announcement of the house 100 individuals in 100 days campaign at the Grand Rapids Public Library.

Besides not providing any background information on how this effort came to be, the staged event from Thursday was just another private/public partnership that claimed to want to end homelessness, but offered no actual solution besides a partnership between housing providers, the governments of Kent County & Grand Rapids, along with private partners such as the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce (the same people who got Grand Rapids to adopt policies to criminalize the unhoused), the DeVos Family Foundation, the Frey Foundation and Trillium Investments (which owns apartments in Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon County – not the affordable kind.)

I’m not saying that some of the housing partners involved don’t do any good, but they can not and do not address the root causes of the current housing crisis. The house 100 people in 100 days might address some of what was referred to during today’s event as assisting those who are chronically unhoused, but it will only be another bandaid approach to addressing a systemic problem. It was a lovely performance, with comments from housing providers, government officials and those in the private sector, but since there was no opportunity for the news media or the public that gathered to ask questions, the housing crisis that plagues thousands in this city will continue.

The problem, as many people have pointed out for years, is fourfold. 

First, the problem is not homelessness, the problem is housing insecurity, which impacts more than those who are unhoused in this city. Thousands of individuals and families are housing insecure, because they cannot afford the cost of rent or a mortgage. 

Second, those who were in the room for today’s announcement, particularly those who were on stage, were primarily public policy decision makers, representatives of the Capitalist Class and those who work in the Non-Profit Housing Industrial Complex. This means that the 100 in 100 days campaign is being designed and implemented by those who are not affected by the housing crisis. 

Third, is the fact that there is a widening gap between the haves and have nots, so much so that large numbers of people simply cannot afford the cost of housing in this city, as I noted in a post yesterday. This is in part because the minimum wage in Michigan is only $10.33 an hour.  In fact, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has made it clear that in 2024, for someone to afford the average rental costs in Grand Rapids, they would have to earn no less than $25.50 an hour. No one on stage today mentioned anything about the wealth gap or the fact that people’s income level does not match up with the cost of housing.

Fourth, – which is very much tied to point three – is the fact that housing is driven by “the market”, that forces of speculative capital which only seeks to make profits and never sees housing as a fundamental human right. The market is exactly what the GR Chamber of Commerce created Housing Next organization operates in, as does Trillium Investments, along with the DeVos and Frey Foundations. 

Therefore, the house 100 in 100 days might work, but it does nothing to solve the larger housing crisis. If we are serious about confronting and ending the current housing crisis, then we need to acknowledge and act on the four points laid out here. Failure to do so will just see an increase in housing insecurity, despite the performative false solutions being offered by those who have too much control in this city.