Partners In Affordable Housing.

After helping provide $150,000 in Community Multiplier grants, Mercantile visited nonprofit partners to see their work in action across Michigan.

There’s something pretty special about delivering a “big check.” But what matters even more is what happens after the check is delivered. Homes get built. Families take steps toward homeownership. Residents get support to stay in their homes. And nonprofits have more resources to keep doing important work in their communities.

We recently had the opportunity to visit several Michigan nonprofit organizations receiving funding through the Community Multiplier Member Match Program. The visits gave our team the chance to deliver grant checks, connect with nonprofit staff and learn more about the work happening in communities across the state.

Together, Mercantile Bank and FHLBank Indianapolis provided $150,000 to eight nonprofit organizations working in affordable housing. The funding supports a wide range of efforts, including housing development and preservation, homebuyer education, financial coaching, foreclosure prevention and services that help people stay in their homes.

Supporting housing stability

Affordable housing is about more than constructing homes. It also means ensuring people have the resources they need to remain safely and independently housed.

Samaritas provides affordable housing along with case management and supportive services. Its grant funding will help support seniors and veterans living in Samaritas affordable housing communities through healthy food access, community gardening, wellness programming, social opportunities and mental health services. These resources are designed to support residents’ independence, well-being and long-term housing stability.

MCHS Family of Services provides transitional and emergency housing for young people and families experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Its programs combine housing with services such as mental health care, life-skills training, employment support and parenting education. Community Multiplier funding will support MCHS’s new three-generation Grandma, Mom & Baby program. The initiative includes the renovation of a 12-unit apartment building for teen parents in foster care and their children, along with 12 adjacent tiny homes for Wayne County seniors age 55 and older.

Creating pathways to homeownership

Other grant recipients are helping individuals and families prepare for homeownership, address financial barriers, and protect the homes they already have.

Fair Lending Services provides homebuyer education, financial coaching, small-dollar loans and affordable construction financing. The Community Multiplier grant will support loan funds that traditional financing often does not, including construction loans that help Habitat for Humanity affiliates build and rehabilitate homes and small-dollar loans that help families overcome barriers to homeownership.

The Urban League of West Michigan supports renters and homeowners by providing them with the knowledge and resources to find and maintain affordable housing. This grant will help fund their Housing Counseling and Education programs that include rental readiness, pre- and post-purchase counseling, foreclosure prevention, and education around heirs’ property.

Blue Water Community Action Agency takes a broad and in some cases unique approach to helping individuals and families build greater self-sufficiency through homeownership. Serving communities throughout Michigan’s Thumb region, Macomb and St. Clair counties and Flint, their services include HUD-certified housing counseling, homeownership education and foreclosure prevention, as well as rapid rehousing. In addition, they also provide some innovative programs focusing on home weatherization, energy conservation classes, and even grocery shopping workshops.

A visit with Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency gave us a closer look at not only what they do, but how they do it. Their team showed us around their beautiful space along the Detroit River that offers clients a comfortable place to connect with them and learn about available resources. Community Multiplier funding will support Wayne Metro's new Wayne County Homeownership Preservation Initiative, which focuses on foreclosure prevention and preserving affordable housing for homeowners facing financial challenges throughout Wayne County.

Building and preserving affordable homes

For Blue Water Habitat for Humanity, the funding will have a very tangible impact, helping put the actual foundation under a new home in Sanilac County. The organization serves families in St. Clair and Sanilac counties through its housing programs and supports additional community needs through its ReStore, serving up to a hundred customers each day.

Opportunity Resource Fund, a Michigan-based Community Development Financial Institution, provides flexible financing for affordable housing projects at every stage, from acquisition and pre-development to construction, rehabilitation and permanent financing.

Its Affordable Housing Development and Homeownership Initiative supports affordable housing and pathways to homeownership in Detroit and Jackson. Grant funding will help cover efforts that are not always supported by traditional loan capital, including homebuyer education, housing counseling, community outreach, and early project-development costs.

Working together to expand affordable housing in Michigan

Each of these organizations approaches affordable housing differently because every community has its own priorities. Some are building homes. Others are helping people prepare for homeownership, avoid foreclosure or access services that make long-term housing stability possible. That’s what makes strong nonprofit partnerships so important.

Our visits were an opportunity to better understand the people, programs, and local knowledge behind this work. Because meaningful community investment starts with listening to organizations already doing the work and finding ways, we can help them move it forward.