TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – There’s a housing project being developed in Leelanau County called the “New Waves Community.” It’s a partnership between Habitat for Humanity Grand Traverse Region and the New Waves United Church of Christ.

The two groups got together to tackle the crisis of unaffordable housing and plan to build 14 homes which include rental units. The project was developed as a way to “help fill social justice gaps in the community according Wendy Irvin, chief executive officer for Habitat Grand Traverse, who spoke to the Leelanau Ticker about the effort.

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Tina Allen, the volunteer project manager for the New Wave Community development said that they formed a non-religious non-profit organization called “New Waves Housing Inc. “so people would know that New Waves United Church of Christ has no desire to tell anybody who will buy or rent from us how to live.” She continued, “We want to help anybody who is not able to find housing for any reason. That might be people of color; it might be indigenous people; it might be people who are LGBTQ+ and have had trouble with other landlords. We named our road Justice Way, and there’s a reason for that.”

About 20 years ago, the Michigan Conference of United Church of Christ (OCC) purchased 20 acres in Leelanau county with plans of starting a new church. Over time they heard about the need for housing and investigated using part of their acreage to meet those needs in service to the broader community. Their website says that the New Waves Housing Project will include 14 single family homes, each on about a third of an acre lot. Included in the 11+ development acres is shared property for all the homes that is slated to include community gardens, trails, places to play and an open area to be enjoyed by the resident families.

The 14 houses will include seven low-cost rental homes, six Habitat for Humanity homeowner program homes and one New Waves UCC staff home. They will all be on a 1/3-acre lot with about 1,100 square feet and include three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a laundry area, a single gar garage and a front porch.

So far, they have completed installing the roads, drainage, signs, a well and other needed things on their to-do list. Next up is to build the homes.

However, doing so directly for the minorities they are targeting might not be an easy task. According to the Fair Housing Act, it protects people from discrimination when they are renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities. Under the law, the group wouldn’t be able to pick homeowners and renters based on their sexual orientation, color, race, national origin or religion.

A direct inquiry by Michigan News Source to Tina Allen to get more information on how they are going to legally fill the “social justice gaps” went unanswered.

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