Kalamazoo Times

City of Kalamazoo issued the following announcement on Mar 9.

On March 7, the Kalamazoo City Commission unanimously approved two Foundation for Excellence grants to provide $750,000 towards affordable housing programs. The funding will support the Kalamazoo Attainable Homes Partnership (KAHP), which builds and rehabilitates housing in the city of Kalamazoo to create new quality affordable housing and provide home ownership opportunities.  

The KAHP is a collaboration between KNHS Housing Services, the Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC), and the Home Builders Association of Western Michigan (HBA). Since 2018, partners have been working together to provide home ownership opportunities for more than 38 homeowners.  

This year, the partnership goal is to build or rehabilitate 12 homes for homeownership in Kalamazoo’s core neighborhoods. The partnership will also strengthen lease purchase options with this grant. 

The $750,000 award is split into two agreements:  

• $250,000 will be allocated to acquire and rehabilitate four homes to be sold under lease purchase agreements. 
• $500,000 will be allocated to build eight new homes to be sold to qualified homeowners.  

To be qualified, purchasers must be at or below 80% area median income (AMI) and complete HUD-certified homebuyer education program and participate in homebuyer coaching at KNHS. Home must be purchased to be owner and occupied by the buyer. Buyers can also apply for down payment assistance of up to $10,000 through KNHS Community Development Block Grant funding.  

This FFE investment furthers our community’s goals. Most importantly it provides additional quality affordable housing, but it also attracts builders to neighborhood markets, and utilizes vacant lots which helps stabilize the values of properties. 

Original source can be found here.