River’s Edge Apartments expected to help relieve demand for housing

A Way Home — Housing Solutions: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave’s series on solutions to homelessness and ways to increase affordable housing. It is made possible by a coalition of funders, including Kalamazoo County, the ENNA Foundation, and Kalamazoo County Land Bank.

Seven years and $64 million later, what was a contaminated brownfield site is now home to 228 new, modern apartments, with 184 kept affordable for families earning at or below 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI). 

River’s Edge Apartments is open and accepting lease applications. 

The development is in the Northside Neighborhood, on Harrison Street and Gull Road.

One of the two main buildings is complete, as is the property’s clubhouse. Four live/work units are set to accept residents and their businesses, with storefronts on the sidewalk of Harrison. 

Though construction isn’t finished on the site, families have been moving into the apartments of Building #1. Building #2 is scheduled to open this fall. 

Kalamazoo County’s Housing for All millage paid for $1 million of that $64 million, plus $500,000 came from the County’s ARPA funds. River’s Edge will help relieve some of the demand for housing in the County. 

But some participants in a recent tour of the apartments had that nagging question heard at nearly every opening of a new housing development — what is “affordable?”

It takes a village of public entities

Kalamazoo County Housing Department and property developers River Caddis invited Housing Matters Kalamazoo, a housing advocacy and discussion group, to an Aug. 12 tour of the new apartments.

Local advocacy and housing-solutions groups including Open Doors Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Housing Advocates, HOPE thru Navigation, and others packed the River’s Edge clubhouse before the tour. 

Kalamazoo City Manager Malcolm Hankins was on hand. Representatives from the City of Portage were also in the room — the County has a similar project for 130 units that should break ground next door across from the Portage City Hall, Kalamazoo County Housing Director Mary Balkema says.

Mary Balkema spoke to participants before the tour.

“This is one of the county’s largest housing millage projects to date,” Balkema says.

“It’s the largest deal that the housing millage has funded, and the total cost of the project is $64 million. So it’s a really large investment on the Northside of Kalamazoo, and we’re super, super happy.”

The Kalamazoo River is an asset for the property, Balkema says. “This is a really beautiful place.”

Before it could become an asset, the river’s industrial history and tendency to flood first had to be remedied before any construction took place. The project took seven years because it started with the removal of contaminants, including PFAS, and the land had to be built up so it’s above flood levels. 

Debone points out that many public programs all made the project possible. “It really took a village to make this deal happen,” she says.

She sent Second Wave the full list of public support that led to River’s Edge: The majority of funding for River’s Edge came from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) Direct Lending and Gap Financing programs, and Low-income Housing Tax Credits.

Additional financing gaps were closed via the City of Kalamazoo’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, and a 5% Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT); Kalamazoo County Housing Millage dollars; EGLE Brownfield grant funds; and the City of Kalamazoo’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

Affordable?

On the tour, people could see that the units weren’t luxury living, but were not constructed to be cheap.

Each unit includes all kitchen appliances, a washer/dryer, high ceilings, and walk-in closets. Some include an outdoor balcony. 

There were security systems for apartments, hallways, and outside the property. Fencing separates the property from the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail and River.

Other amenities include a dog park, playground, outdoor socializing areas, a fitness center, business/computer center, and a community room.

The property also touts its connection to the KRVT and neighborhood with shops, restaurants, and downtown’s cultural happenings within walking distance.

Clearly, there’s a balancing act where public investments and private business work to keep rents low, yet property standards high. Balkema tells the audience that it’s long been a choice for the County to not build public housing — she brings up the example of Chicago’s Cabrini Green, a public housing project notorious for crime and neglect in the last half of the 20th century. As an alternative, the County has invested in a number of private developments across Kalamazoo County.

Some in the audience were concerned about how affordable the rent at River’s Edge is for some income levels. One woman speaks about how her daughter applied for a unit. She says the rent quoted was $1,900, and with her daughter’s income of around $45,000, that’s “a lot of money. I’m just trying to understand what is ‘affordable.'”

Debone responds, “Yeah, those limits are really set by HUD, and there’s a lot of complicated pieces that go into making a financial capital stack work for a project. At the end of the day, we can’t exceed the HUD limits, minus the cost of utilities.”

For rent to be considered affordable, it shouldn’t be more than 30% of a family’s income, Balkema points out. 

The 184 units are meant to be affordable for those at 60% of the area median income. For Kalamazoo County, one person making $44,280 is at 60%, AMI, which is in the “moderate income” category. 

Balkema says those meeting the 60% AMI criteria could get a one-bedroom unit at $1,185.  

The River’s Edge site lists units from $1,024 for a studio to a $1,950 two-bedroom, two-bath floor plan.  

Balkema says there are plans in the works for a Kalamazoo County voucher system to help people get to homes that are just out of reach. Brandon Mion, former Homeless Navigator for ISK, has recently been hired as the County Housing Department’s Voucher Program Specialist. 

The department is developing a voucher program funded by the $7 million Keys to Kalamazoo anonymous donation. Mion tells Second Wave that a presentation on the program to the County Board is expected to take place in the fall.

‘One step at a time’

We spoke with Gwendolyn Hooker after the tour.

Hooker, who founded and leads HOPE (Helping Other People Exceed thru Navigation), says she likes what she sees, but has doubts that the rent could be considered affordable for Northside residents.

Affordable — “For who? If you make $25 an hour, it’s affordable. But when you look at the numbers of the Northside, and the average person making $27,000 to $33,000 a year, it’s not affordable for the people that live in this neighborhood,” Hooker says. “It’s affordable for a different demographic of people.”

Hooker’s HOPE works in combating violence and homelessness, and is currently building tiny houses in the Northside, planned to go for $400 a month, which will include wrap-around services, for people with criminal backgrounds or substance use disorders. 

There is a need for many levels of housing, she says, “so it’s good to see that there’s more units becoming available. But is it going to help the people that need the units?”

“Meantime, they are kicking people out of the encampment tomorrow,” she says of the people removed from N. Edwards Street the next day, Aug. 13. “Where are they going?”

She adds, with some hopeful determination, “But, you know — one step at a time. We’re just going to do one step at a time!”

Related — See Second Wave’s analysis on housing affordability. Housing pros answer the question: Are these places really affordable?