New affordable housing coming to Mount Pleasant

Fifty affordable housing units were approved by the Mount Pleasant City Commission on Sept. 28. They will be added near the intersection of Walnut Street and Mill Street in Mount Pleasant.

The Mill Street Landing Project,as it is called, will include 30 one-bedroom units, 16 two-bedroom units and four three-bedroom units with 50 parking spaces and community amenities,such as lobby spaces. The apartments will be in three separate buildings. The developers are also looking into installing electric vehicle charging stations for residents.

Spire Development Inc., based in Columbus, Ohio, and the Mount Pleasant Housing Commission were selected as the developers of the project. The proposal will be spearheaded by Spire, which has developments in numerous states across the country.

The developers strategically chose the location to be in the nucleus of Mount Pleasant, and on a broader scale, Isabella County, Manuela Powidayko, Mount Pleasant’s director of planning and community development, said. The more centrally located a proposal is to a downtown area, the higher it will score on the Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) at the state level. The QAP is a framework from the state to determine how Low-Income Housing Tax Credits are distributed to affordable housing developers.

Rent will be determined based on the household’s income, and the apartments will be open to anyone in need, including Mount Pleasant residents, families and college students.

“Right now, we’re targeting low income, middle income, families, individuals,” Amy Perschbacher, a Mount Pleasant city commissioner, said. “It just depends on who needs it at the time.”

According to the United States Census Bureau, 20.3% of Isabella Countyresidents and 31.4% of the people in the city of Mount Pleasant are in poverty.

Between 2020 and 2024, Isabella County ranked second in the statein terms of highest percentage of individuals in poverty, as found in a study by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.

“For Mount Pleasant, I can say more than half of our population is overpaying housing, meaning they’re paying more than 30% of their income on housing accommodations,” Powidaykosaid.

There are two other affordable housing complexes in Mount Pleasant: Riverview Apartments and the Pheasant Run Duplexes which were built in the 1970s and 1980s respectively.

Zillow Rentals data shows that the average rent in Mount Pleasant is $1,067 per month.It has gone up in the last month but not as much as the average rent for the state of Michigan as a whole, which is currently $1,459.

The median household income in Mount Pleasant between 2020 and 2024 was $44,706 in 2024 dollars. This is less than the $72,875 average for the state of Michigan, according to the US Census Bureau.

“Right now, because of the interest rates going up, there’s been talk that it’s almost cheaper to rent rather than purchase because housing prices are very high, interest rates have gone up,” Perschbacher said.“So when we look at low income to middle income housing, we’re looking at apartments like a single apartment for $600 [per month], up to an apartment that has enough for a family, maybe up to like $1,200 or $1,500.”

The submission process for the project to the Mount Pleasant City Commission has been in the works for three years, making modifications including slight changes to the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program, originally approved by the board. Under a program like this, the developer pays a much lower initial fee but then also must make rent affordable to renters or buyers.

On Sept. 28, the city commission approved PILOT Ordinance 1092 to put the development in motion. The commission also agreed to extend the date when construction can begin and to add the address 208 Walnut Street to the project. 

“Once we re-zone, our hands are tied until the developer brings us something and we can decide what would be appropriate for that area,” Perschbacher said. “The developer has many things it has to follow like the regulations of the state and the building codes and stuff like that. It has to also look at our ordinance and our zoning and decide if it works there.”

While the city provided the approvals the developers desired, the project must still be approved at the state level. Because it is classified as urban, Mount Pleasant will be competing against other urban centers across the state. The developers have already submitted their proposal to the state.

“It is a very competitive process…,” Powidayko said. “We’re hoping to hear back some time in January or quarter one of next year.”

If it is approved by the state, construction will not likely begin until 2028.

“We’re just trying to do what’s best for the city,” Perschbacher said. “Sometimes it feels like it’s very slow work.”