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Equitable Community Development Project

Individuals and families deserve to live in a vibrant, thriving community that fosters entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and economic growth. In Southwest Michigan, many community-based organizations and municipalities have made some strides to create a more inclusive and equitable community development process to ensure every voice is heard and valued.

About The Project

The Equitable Community Development Project is a solutions-oriented journalism initiative covering community development and quality of life issues in Southwest Michigan, created by the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative. Our reporting will focus on Southwest Michigan organizations, projects, processes and development that uplift equity and on areas where these issues need to be addressed.  

Community development is the work of building neighborhood assets to create healthy places that help residents reach their best health and well-being. 

It touches on:

  • Infrastructure development and place improvement such as roads, schools, and parks
  • Affordable housing
  • Skill enhancement and job opportunities for better livelihood
  • Quality of health services
  • Public safety and policing
  • Local businesses and entrepreneurship
  • Cultural and art institutions and recreation opportunities
  • Policies and advocacy that reduce poverty, low wealth, racism, health, marginalization and other disparities.
 

This is a new project built to:

  • LISTEN to Southwest Michigan community members about what assets are needed in the realm of community development that will improve their quality of life
  • LEARN about how we can create more equitable community development processes and about what is working to boost equity
  • REPORT on effective approaches to community development that create an equitable playing field for all community members

The Problems We Seek to Address

Gaps remain in the community development process to ensure transparency and authentic engagement with community members. More specifically:

  1. Current decision-making processes lack inclusivity, often excluding marginalized voices—such as people of color, youth, seniors, and grassroots organizations—from key discussions. 
  2. Barriers to engagement, including limited access to technology and transparent conversations, further prevent true community participation.
  3. Systemic and structural challenges, such as bureaucratic red tape and a lack of resources for entrepreneurs of color, hinder progress toward equitable development.
  4. Lack of awareness exists around the role small businesses and entrepreneurs play in the development of neighborhoods and overall economic vitality of a community. 

By reporting on equitable community development programs, projects and processes, we hope to uplift effective approaches to the problems and uncover idle, unhelpful work in this arena.

MEDIA PROJECTS

A Credit Union in a Banking Desert

Community Promise Federal Credit Union, a tiny but mighty credit union in the Edison Neighborhood, is determined to bring essential banking and financial services to an underserved neighborhood and beyond.

Created by Public Media Network.

Tiny Houses of Hope: A Discussion with Gwendolyn Hooker

An in-depth conversation with Gwendolyn Hooker, the CEO and Founder of Hope Thru Navigation, and the developer of Tiny Houses of Hope. The three tiny houses on the corner of North and Westnedge Ave., are the first of 24 tiny houses hoping to provide housing for people with few to no options to ever have a home.

Created by Public Media Network.

Check Out Our Latest Stories From This Project

Kalamazoo’s next move to make homes affordable could be its most controversial one

Kalamazoo is a few thousand residents smaller than it was a quarter-century ago. Despite that, the city has a housing shortage. That’s because household size is shrinking. More people are living alone. There are more empty-nesters in the homes once filled with children. With fewer people under each roof, the city needs about 2,300 more housing units by 2030 to accommodate future growth, based on a 2022 Kalamazoo County housing study by the Upjohn Institute. To get there, Kalamazoo officials have spent recent years taking a hard look at its zoning codes, so that zoning is part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Density debate: How Kalamazoo-area communities are thinking beyond single-family homes

Developer Matt Watts went to Comstock Township last year with a proposal to help address the shortage of affordable homes. His specific ask: Change the township laws to allow for smaller houses on smaller lots. Watts offered compelling arguments for the zoning change. Most importantly, it would lower the costs of new construction, he pointed out. Land is typically 15 to 25% of new construction, and smaller houses are cheaper to build. Plus, there’s a growing market for smaller homes: More households today have only one or two members. Yet another benefit: More homes on the same amount of land increases property tax revenue for the township. Still, Watts faced plenty of resistance. People worried the increased housing density would hurt both nearby home values and the community’s character.

Portage targets 3 areas for ‘walkable villages,’ higher density housing

Portage has long had the hallmarks of a post-World War II suburb, with residential neighborhoods separated and distinct from the city’s commercial strips. Now city officials are looking to shake that up by creating “walkable villages” and mixed-use neighborhoods that should provide Portage residents with a new kind of housing option and simultaneously address the city’s shortage of affordable homes.
Dr. Nakia Baylis

‘A connector of people’: Village Network turns voices into action in Battle Creek

Now, the Village Network of Battle Creek funds initiatives, plans events, goes to bat at the state level, and clears the way for others to take action, all with the end goal of allowing everyone an equal shot at participating in their economy. The organization’s name reflects its intent to build communication networks ― not just uniting leaders of on-the-ground organizations, but also building bridges that give individuals access to systems, funders, legislators and decision makers.
Maliha Raza

Encore Profile on Maliha Raza, Director of Development & Operations at Kalamazoo Housing Advocates

A world traveler who has found a home in Southwest Michigan, Maliha Raza is devoted to Kalamazoo, her family, her faith and her work as an activist and servant to others — not necessarily in that order but passionately on all fronts. Born and raised in India, Raza arrived in Kalamazoo in 2008 and has worked throughout the community in fields including refugee resettlement, foster care, nonprofit strategic planning and grant writing, often as a volunteer.

‘Everybody needs help sometime’: Rural eviction drives cycles of housing instability

Local housing agencies work with what they have to improve rental options and keep the county’s renters in their homes, including tapping a state program meant to stabilize housing insecure people as quickly as possible. But, to truly combat evictions and the physical and mental instability that accompany them, rural communities need to address housing, jobs, transportation, mental health care, and the other root conditions that lead to eviction in the first place, housing advocates say.

Neighborhood Inc. helps the unhoused find shelter in Battle Creek and St. Joseph counties

They are among about 100 individuals and families in Calhoun County and St. Joseph County that seek assistance from NIBC each month to move from being unhoused into stable housing situations. NIBC is home to a Housing Assessment and Resource Agency (HARA), which enables NIBC to provide services to house the unhoused in Calhoun and St. Joseph counties.

Their Own Patch of Blue

For the past 80 years the Mitchell family has been growing blueberries on land that has been passed down through the generations. At one time in their part of Van Buren County, that wasn’t unusual. Today it is.
YMCA Northside Early Childhood Center

La segregación racial y la crisis de vivienda asequible en Kalamazoo

A pesar de que la segregación en la vivienda fue prohibida legalmente en 1968, sus efectos han persistido por décadas, afectando el acceso a vivienda digna, el valor de las propiedades y el desarrollo comunitario. En los últimos años, la revitalización de Northside ha traído tanto oportunidades como desafíos, en particular el riesgo de gentrificación y el desplazamiento de los residentes históricos del vecindario.

How Kalamazoo racial segregation fueled today’s home affordability problem

The massive white and middle-class flight out of the Northside and the neighborhood‘s economic decline was no accident. It was a result of public and private policies — including racially restrictive housing covenants, steering and redlining — explicitly designed to keep Black residents out of white neighborhoods and segregate Kalamazoo housing by race, all the while starving Black neighborhoods of resources.

Sí, la vivienda es realmente más inasequible en Kalamazoo – aquí está el porqué

Desde 2019, los ingresos han aumentado un 19 %, pero los precios de la vivienda han subido un 46 %, lo que ha convertido la compra de una casa en un desafío incluso para familias de ingresos medios. Actualmente, el 30 % de los hogares en Kalamazoo y casi la mitad de los inquilinos destinan más del 30 % de sus ingresos a la vivienda, superando la recomendación del gobierno federal.

Yes, housing really is more unaffordable in Kalamazoo — here’s why

Hatfield is looking around Kalamazoo County for affordability, hoping to stay in Kalamazoo Public Schools, without sacrificing too much in areas like safety. She scours Zillow and other websites to find homes for sale before they disappear. They often go quickly, she said. It’s a common tale in Kalamazoo County. Incomes have risen 19% since 2019 — but housing prices are up 46%. Finding housing that doesn’t break the bank used to be a problem for low-income folks. Now, even households with a decent salary are in a pinch.
Kids events at the annual Black Arts Festival held in Bronson Park.

Communities and economies get boost from cultural events 

From summertime outdoor concerts to annual festivals focused on specific cultures, Kalamazoo and its surrounding area has no shortage of arts and cultural and events for the public to attend. These events not only reflect and celebrate community identity but also can give cities and neighborhoods an economic boost.

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©2023 Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative (SWMJC)

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