Lansing area activists create People's Council to combat affordable housing

Several dozen Lansing residents upset over low-income housing decisions, gun violence and other issues in Lansing have created the People's Council, an organization they say will advocate for solutions and for action by public officials.

The aim of the council is to have more influence on the city by utilizing residents' voices, Lansing area activist Erica Lynn told the State Journal.

"So our power is in our voices in our numbers and in our influence, to influence them, to be our voice and to speak for us," she said.

Lynn said the latest Lansing Housing Commission meeting created a "tipping point" for the group of about 50 people who gathered Wednesday at the Fledge in Lansing.

The housing commission moved forward with the sale of 200-plus public housing units on July 13 despite resistance from many in the community. Three out of five commissioners approved sending sale documents to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Lansing Housing Commission is moving forward with the controversial sale of about 200-plus public housing sites to an out-of-state real estate investment firm. It plans to convert the homes from a traditional public housing model to a Section 8 model, which allows private landlords to rent apartments and homes at fair market rates to qualified low-income tenants through a rental subsidy program.

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Commission Executive Director Doug Fleming has said the housing commission will be able to increase the amount of affordable housing across Greater Lansing by selling the properties to Sunrise, Florida-based SK Investments Group.

Profits from the sale of public housing are federally restricted and must go toward the construction, development and renovation of more affordable housing units in Lansing.

"We generate money for the Housing Commission to build new affordable units in the community," Fleming said. "Because of the way we're selling them ... all the units that we're selling are going to continue to be affordable housing units."

But community members are skeptical of how the sale will affect residents already living in the homes.

"I see this as having a huge negative impact on generational wealth and trying to build equity, especially for Black, brown and poor people," said Jerry Norris, CEO of The Fledge, a community outreach center in Lansing.

Housing advocates and residents of other housing conversion sites spoke during public comment about concerns with the housing commission's track record in maintenance requests and what may happen to residents currently living in the houses.

"This is something that we have thought about for years, and we have been trying to do this ourselves in so many different spaces through Merica and individual advocacy," Lynn told the State Journal. "But we realized that we needed more. We needed to build more capacities."

What is the structure, power of the People's Council?

The Lynns said in their Merica 20 to Life podcast Monday the People's Council would include having people attend various government meetings to take notes, deliver information to residents and write resolutions or proposals that would address residents' concerns.

"That's the goal, to get everyone in the room to have a conversation around what we can see that are big, glaring issues, and then figure out ways to go ahead and attack them," Mike Lynn said.

He said the People's Council will mirror Lansing's City Council, with four Lansing residents representing each of the four wards and four at-large members, who don't have to live in Lansing.

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Julia Smith from Punks with Lunch will represent Ward 1, a person identified only as Zero will represent Ward 2, Dwight Evans was appointed to Ward 3 and Conner Holguin will represent Ward 4.

The aim of the council is to have more influence on the city by utilizing residents' voices, Erica Lynn said.

She added the council will also build a resource hub for any resident to access to file public records requests, police complaints, email templates and anything else people may need to resolve issues.

Lansing City Council President Adam Hussain could not immediately be reached Monday.

What's next for the People Council?

The four appointed residents, alternates and at-large members will attend Lansing City Council's July 25 meeting. Jerry said they will speak during public comment to show they exist and have supporters in attendance stand to show support.

The council's created out of love for the city, Norris said, but a desire to see it grow.

"We want to see the gun violence gone. We want to see housing secure. We're sick of watching people starve or sick of overdoses," he said. "We're sick of suicides. We're sick of housing instability. We're sick of this. We're fed up. It is time to do something."

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Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at (517) 267-1344 or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing area activists form coalition to advocate for more affordable housing