housing

Matthew Desmond’s book “Evicted” is being read by incoming MSU students and East Lansing residents as this year’s “One Book, One Community” selection. Desmond tells stories of how poor renters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin struggle to pay rent, how even one eviction can change their lives for years, and how landlords deal with tenants who fall behind. 

Tonight, the East Lansing City Council is expected to make a symbolic gesture that’s taken 50 years to materialize.

The Lansing Housing Commission has been under new leadership since late February. Martell Armstrong was hired as executive director, leaving a similar post in Inkster, Michigan. He also has management experience from previous jobs with housing authorities in Texas and Ohio.

Amy Haimerl and her husband wanted to move from Brooklyn to Detroit, so they bought an old house at a rock-bottom price. The fixer-upper has become the subject of her book “Detroit Hustle”. Current State's Scott Pohl went to see the house for himself and talk with the author.

Michigan State University is expecting thousands of students for the fall semester. The official move-in begins this weekend. We talk with Dr. Ray Gasser of MSU's Residence Education and Housing Services department and resident assistant Anneka Hart.

Elected officials in the city of Lansing are grappling with security at the HUD subsidized South Washington Park Apartments and with creation of a city marijuana ordinance. The city council’s Public Safety committee is involved in both issues. We talk with two of the committee’s members, Carol Wood and Kathie Dunbar.

Public officials are working with the residents of Lansing’s South Washington Park Apartments, trying to improve living conditions there. We learn more about the challenges from two members of the Lansing Housing Commission, Patricia Baines-Lake and Tony Baltimore.

Lansing is waiting to learn more about the status of a discrimination complaint with HUD involving city officials. We talk with city council member Carol Wood about that and about Jim Smiertka, the appointee awaiting confirmation as Lansing’s next city attorney.

Ingham County Register of Deeds Derrick Quinney talks about a new law that will benefit homeowners, and about how his office can be a resource for residents.

Some MSU students are thinking big and building small with the campus's first tiny house. We talk to Tiffany Pupa about the "Sparty's Cabin" being built inside the MSU Surplus Center.

Current State talks with Frank Altman of the Community Reinvestment Fund about the Detroit Home Mortgage Program.

Anyone who’s ever bought or lived in an older home knows there is always something to fix. In an ideal situation, it’s a patch here, some paint there, but older homes are sometimes plagued with environmental problems that can threaten the health of their occupants. These issues run the gamut from lead paint chips to mold to leaky stoves and furnaces. A new program in Lansing is now training assessors to not only document those defects, but to help improve residents’ health.

Federal officials consider housing “affordable” when it costs less than 30-percent of its residents’ income. By that measure, affordable housing is outside the reach of more than 60,000 families in Ingham, Clinton and Eaton counties, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As of this morning, there’s a new game plan for to increase quality, affordable housing in the Lansing area.