Project Updates

The Ottawa County Revolving Loan Fund has been used to assist with financing on two projects in Ottawa County as of January 1, 2024. These investments include Hom Flats at Waverly & 24th Street in the City of Holland and Samaritas Senior living on Savidge in the Village of Spring Lake.

Project Details
Samaritas Senior Living
In 2018, Four Pointes Center for Successful Aging in Grand Haven began an earnest effort to establish additional affordable senior housing options in Northwest Ottawa County. Four Pointes created a small subcommittee of volunteers and staff members who were dedicated to finding a solution that would provide more housing for seniors who could no longer afford to age-in-place within their own communities. This subcommittee worked tirelessly for three years. They explored multiple potential pathways, they helped to establish the Ottawa County Housing Commission, the talked with several developers and builders, and ultimately began a relationship with Samaritas to pursue a LIHTC development.

Samaritas was able to bring multiple staff members to assist with potential site identification and relationship building with local officials. The staff at Samaritas with support from Four Pointes volunteers, explored more than half a dozen potential sites for a 40-60 unit senior living facility. Invariably, each site had problems. Many were not zoned to allow for multi-family development, but instead only permitted single family homes. Some of the sites were more than 50% wetlands and could not accommodate a building and the necessary parking required under local zoning. One of the sites was an excellent fit and in a great location but the seller was looking for much more money that a non-profit developer could afford to pay while still keeping the senior living affordable to those who needed it.

Ultimately, a relationship with the Spring Lake Presbyterian Church offered some promise. The church had owned two single family homes on Savidge and adjacent to the church property and was willing to sell the homes at a very reasonable price if it meant they would be supporting affordable housing for the region. Samaritas and Four Pointes then made their case to the Village Planning Commission and received support for both the site plan and a tax incentive that would allow the project to reduce costs to the tenants. The only challenge left, after more than 4 years of effort, was financing the project.

In the time between 2018 and 2022, construction costs had jumped by more than 50% and interest rates had more than doubled. The average cost to build and finance a one-bedroom apartment had grown from $135,000 to $215,000 in just four years. Samaritas then set out to apply for a tax credit allocation from the Michigan State Housing Development authority. For a detailed primer on how the federal tax credit program works, please visit www.localhousingsolutions.org

The proposed development in Spring Lake was a good candidate for funding from the State, with just one problem - even if the project were to receive tax credit funding, the cost of development would still exceed the sources of funding by a little over $1,000,000.