'Major housing problem': Pontiac activist, lawmakers fight high costs, poor conditions

Yahoo

28-03-2025

Leona Patterson, a Pontiac resident and community activist, is trying to help so many people find a safe place to live, that she is convinced could be, for many she knows, a looming housing crisis.
Her worry, she said, is that renters, homeowners and many people a paycheck or two away from homelessness already are facing tough times, and their struggles will get even harder if government agencies and and private charities scale back their programs.
"We have a major housing problem in the City of Pontiac," Patterson said, adding that residents are not only facing the consequences of inflation but lax — or reduced — oversight of housing agencies and property managers. "It's only going to get worse."
To try address this, lawmakers have proposed new legislation.
They also are holding more events, like the Renters and Homeowners Resource Fair from 4-6 p.m. Monday at the Bowen Senior Citizens Center, 52 Bagley St., in Pontiac.
State Rep. Brenda Carter, D-Pontiac, who organized Monday's fair, told the Free Press this week the concern — often referred to as housing insecurity — is not limited to Pontiac. What's more, she said, she's wants to help organize similar events throughout the state.
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Still, Carter said, the needs in Pontiac, which is often considered an island of poverty in one of Michigan's wealthiest counties, are greater than in other communities because of the city's high poverty rate.
In Pontiac more 40 percent of children and a quarter of all residents live in poverty.
Carter said she organized Monday's event partly because renters kept calling her office for help.
Among their challenges: mold, bedbugs, and a lack of heat and running water.
Moreover, rents have gone up and residents are struggling.
Some residents, Carter said, have no home at all.
One of the most heartbreaking stories was two years ago when a mom and two of her three young children froze to death in a Pontiac field. The kids had been seen wandering the streets bundled in bedsheets with temperatures in the 20s.
And last month, two children — ages 2 and 9 — died when a family seeking shelter from the freezing cold huddled in a running van in a downtown Detroit casino parking structure. They died, the medical examiner found, of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Carter said she has invited Patterson and various officials, including State Rep. Emily Dievendorf, D-Lansing; Oakland County Treasurer Robert Wittenberg; and Pontiac Code Enforcement Manager Jack McIntyre to speak at the fair.
And, she said, she expects representatives from Congresswoman Haley Stevens' office, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the Catholic Community Response Team, to also be on hand.
Carter said she wanted to "include everyone from the federal level all the way down to the advocates in the community who deal with the housing crisis first-hand" and is eager to try to hep connect people with problems with officials who can help them.
Still, Carter said, she also foresees more trouble ahead.
Consider this:
Rent.com, a California-based apartment listing company, recently found the median rent price in the state was $1,671, and rents, on average, edged up nearly 10% in the past two years, nearly twice the percentage nationally.
In late December, the Legislature passed — and the governor signed — bills aimed at preventing landlords from denying renters housing based on their source of income, which some hope will help more people find affordable housing.
As for homebuyers, they still are facing mortgage rates higher than they were just a few years ago, a lack of new homes on the market and increasing market uncertainty caused, in part, by the Trump administration's tariff threats.
It could be a while before rates come back down.
On top of that, the U.S. treasury department said earlier this year in a report that homeowners' insurance costs are "rising fast across the nation," with policy premiums increasing nearly 9% faster than the rate of inflation.
If that weren't enough, Carter said she is concerned that government cuts will result in fewer resources for watchdog agencies and efforts, which will add to the woes renters and potential homeowners already face.
The Trump administration, for instance, has plans to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency charged with overseeing financial services — credit cards, checking accounts and home loans — Americans use.
And just this week, the bureau was in the news for dropping lawsuits against banks and lenders it brought on behalf of consumers and seeking to return money that a mortgage lender paid to settle racial discrimination claims last fall.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or [e-mail].
Renters and Homeowners Resource Fair
When: 4-6 p.m. Monday
Where: Bowen Senior Citizens Center, 52 Bagley St., in Pontiac
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Renters and Homeowners Resource Fair: Housing help at Pontiac event