GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Some governments spend taxpayer money on the basics: police, fire protection, animal control, roads and other services residents generally expect their cities to provide. Grand Rapids, however, has found another priority for the public purse – storing the belongings of people experiencing homelessness.

The city’s Downtown Development Authority approved $50,000 on Wednesday to help continue a program that stores the belongings of people experiencing homelessness. The program began in 2021 with 158 storage bins and has since expanded to 265, with roughly 800 people currently using them to store an estimated 10,000 pounds of possessions.

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The program is called the “Personal Belongings Storage Program” and it was launched by the city of Grand Rapids and Mel Trotter Ministries.

Federal money gone, local money steps in.

The program had been supported with $200,000 in federal American Rescue Plan money, but that pandemic-era cash has run out. Grand Rapids has already committed another $100,000 from its refuse budget, with the DDA now adding $50,000.
City officials argue the bins don’t just help homeless residents. They also keep belongings off downtown streets, helping make the area cleaner and more inviting.

But not everyone was ready to open the municipal wallet. DDA board member Greg McNeilly cast the lone vote against the funding, arguing that subsidizing life on the streets isn’t necessarily compassion and that the city should focus on permanent solutions to homelessness.

Meanwhile, the city is looking for additional partners to cover the remaining funding gap. For now, Grand Rapids hasn’t solved all of the problems for the unhoused – but it has apparently found somewhere to put their stuff.