MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI – Two pastors from Indiana have a plan to build 13 new homes in the city of Muskegon Heights as part of an initiative to help “people of color bring their community back.”
The Rev. Rodney Lynch and the Rev. Willie Thompson, both of West Lafayette, Indiana, recently purchased 13 vacant lots from the city on which they plan to build single-family homes.
Thompson grew up in Muskegon Heights.
“He remembers when it was a thriving community -- in the years he grew up there -- and he sees it now,” Lynch told MLive. “We were talking one day, and he said this city is under new leadership, and because there’s new leadership, there’s new hope.”
Troy Bell became the city’s new manager at the beginning of this year. One of his early initiatives was a plan to formalize and add development requirements to the city’s tradition of selling city-owned vacant lots for $100 each.
Lynch and Thompson purchased 13 lots on Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, McIlwraith, Elwood and Superior streets.
Calling themselves Muskegon Heights Investors LLC, Lynch and Thompson will look for builders to construct “high quality” homes with sale prices of about $100,000 to $130,000, Lynch said.
Home buyers will be provided “wrap around services,” such as help preparing their credit for home purchase and education on how to properly maintain their properties, Lynch said.
“I’m more interested in the humanitarian part of this -- helping quote, unquote minorities rebuild their own community (and) be a part of bringing their community back,” he said.
Under the city’s lot sale policy, lots are sold for $100 each and purchasers are required to pay for document and other fees, estimated at about $150 per lot. They also must pay three years’ worth of taxes, estimated at about $270 per lot.
Construction on the lots is to begin within two years of purchase, and owners must maintain the property, or it will revert to the city through a quick claim deed.
Requirements include planting grass and shrubs, removing dead trees and weeds and keeping structures in good repair.
The objectives of the lot-sales program are raising revenue, reducing crime and blight and encouraging development in the city.
Lynch said he visited Muskegon Heights twice and was dismayed by some of what he saw, but also encouraged by the “great opportunity for people of color to bring their community back.”
“When I first came up there, I was like ‘Wow, the city needs help.’ It’s depleted. The roads are bad, a lot of boarded-up houses,” Lynch said. “But I said, ‘Yeah, this is a great opportunity right here.’”
Bell said he has worked for several months with the Indiana developers as the city refined its process for approving lot sales.
“I appreciate their commitment to the community,” Bell said. ”I appreciate them trying to be part of the renaissance of this community.”
The “key to spurring economic development” in Muskegon Heights is improving the city’s housing stock which has an average age of 100 years, Bell said. New homes have not built in the city since 2014, and that was just three new homes, he said.
The city owns 350 vacant lots and the Muskegon County Land Bank owns another 450, Bell said.
While Muskegon Heights has been selling vacant lots for $100, the process was informal and didn’t require development of the lots, he said. That resulted in many of the lots being used to park vehicles, and often owners didn’t pay the property taxes and the land reverted to the city, Bell said.
“That’s why the city is barely making it by now -- because it has no tax base,” Bell said.
He said he has encouraged builders to shoot for “high quality” homes and to include credit repair, first-time home buyer and homeowner education programs like the ones Lynch said his group is planning.
The next “phase” of the city’s plan to improve housing involves tackling renovations of boarded-up and vacant homes and better enforcement of building codes, Bell said.
The city of Muskegon recently embarked on an ambitious effort to improve its housing stock by encouraging developers to build single family homes. The $49.5 million plan to build 240 homes in the city over the next three years involves the use of Brownfield tax credits to help make the homes affordable.
Among those are 13 homes under construction on Webster Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets near the city’s downtown.
Also on MLive:
Muskegon police identify shooting victim, look for killer
Frauenthal Center’s $7 million preservation campaign looks to ‘the next 90 years’
Man rescued from Lake Michigan after being swept off breakwall
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