(The Center Square) – The Michigan State Housing Development Authority released its 2024 annual report, highlighting $2.15 billion spent on “affordable housing” projects in the state last year.
“Last year we surpassed our ambitious goals by listening, removing barriers and making it easier to access MSHDA programs,” said Amy Hovey, CEO and executive director of the authority.
First founded in 1966, MSHDA offers down payment assistance, home improvement loans, and housing vouchers through state and federal funding.
According to the 2024 annual report, the $2.15 billion spent in fiscal year 2023-2024 supported the “construction, rehabilitation, and purchase of 12,421 homes,” making it the authority’s “most productive year ever.”
This is all a part of a Statewide Housing Plan initiated in 2022 by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to address housing affordability in Michigan. That plan set the goal of issuing permits for building or rehabilitating 75,000 homes across Michigan within five years, or Sept. 2026.
Anticipating meeting that goal in 2025, MSHDA increased the building permit target to 115,000 units.
“By building more housing, we can expand supply and lower costs; make our big cities and small towns better places to live, work, and invest; and we can attract and retain the talent we need to grow Michigan’s economy,” MSHDA stated.
So far, it has issued over 20,000 building permits in the past year.
Even with that progress, the program has not fully addressed Michiganders’ housing needs. The state still labels Michigan’s housing crisis as “acute,” with the National Low Income Housing Coalition reporting that there is a 190,000 shortage of rental homes affordable and available for extremely low income renters in the state.
Now three years into the Statewide Housing Plan, Whitmer highlighted ongoing housing struggles in her 2025 State of the State address on Wednesday, calling for the 2025-2026 budget to have “the largest housing innovation investment in Michigan history.”
“The way forward is clear. We got to build, baby, build,” she said. “Let’s invest $2 billion to build, buy, or fix nearly 11,000 homes . . . Getting this done will create more than 10,000 construction jobs, lower costs and help more people achieve the American dream.”
Already in 2025, MSHDA has announced the expansion of a number of state-funding housing programs. These included an $8 million down payment assistance program and a $10 million workforce housing program.
