Eaton Village Groundbreaking
https://michigan.gov/missingmiddle
[TRANSCRIPT] We're at Eaton Village down in Eaton Rapids, the only Eaton Rapids in the United States. And we're really excited. This is a pocket neighborhood. So this is Eaton Village. This is a project that has been a collaboration with the state, the county and the city of Eaton Rapids to come in and look at what housing can be.
The difference of a pocket neighborhood versus traditional layout is all of the houses are closer together, the parking is away and there's green space that's been built around each of them. This site is 1.14 acres and there's going to be a total of 12 houses on it when it's completed. There's ten currently being built as part of the Missing Middle program.
MSHDA was instrumental in providing the grant monies for the Missing Middle grant program and those grant dollars make a big difference when it comes to accomplishing some of the goals and task and strategies. It's a big opportunity to move forward, even if it's one little bit at a time, it still makes progress.
If it wasn't for MSHDA, we wouldn't be here today. MSHDA really played a role in helping us with this Missing Middle grant. We were looking at the cost of construction was going up post-COVID to say, “How can we get the housing on the ground and deliver it at a rate that is affordable to the workforce of Michigan?”
Having legislators that trust MSHDA and trust that we can work with our regions and with our communities and that the communities and local governments know best about the type of housing they want to see built within their communities is really refreshing. And this is part of our Missing Middle program, which was highly successful throughout the state.
As the housing crisis continues, it's more and more difficult for families up the income scale to be able to find affordable housing. This program and this development really is making a difference. So I just want to say thank you. Happy for this beautiful day in which to be able to celebrate this innovative housing development.