Grand Traverse commissioners hear countywide homelessness, housing plan Tuesday

Grand Traverse County residents will get a closer look at how local leaders plan to move beyond crisis response and into a countywide system for homelessness and housing when Traverse City and county commissioners meet at 6 p.m. June 22 at the Governmental Center. The Housing and Homelessness Task Force is set to bring 99 pages of backup material, signaling that the real question is not whether the region needs action, but which parts of the plan can be funded, staffed and measured.

The task force says its work grew out of more than 50 meetings over the past 15 months and involved more than 100 participants from government, homeless and social service providers, health care, housing development, law enforcement and other community stakeholders. Led by the Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness, the City of Traverse City and Grand Traverse County, the effort is meant to produce a comprehensive plan that makes homelessness “rare, brief, and one time.” The coalition has also said the region has committed to ending chronic homelessness by 2028, giving commissioners a target they can be judged against.

That accountability gap is likely to loom over the discussion. Earlier city homelessness materials cited $50,000 for public health services such as restrooms, sinks and solar-powered charging stations, along with a $360,000 recommendation to bridge a housing gap for 17 chronically homeless people by August 2024 and 10 more by January 2025 at East Bay Flats. Traverse City has also discussed adding an extra Community Police Officer, embedding a police social worker and testing a community court concept, proposals that would shift the response from emergency cleanup toward more coordinated enforcement, outreach and housing placement.

The planning effort traces back to the 2023 Pines encampment crisis, when city officials began working with local partners to examine land purchases, campground sites and existing structures. By March 1, 2024, the city said turning Safe Harbor into a year-round shelter was not feasible for 2024 because it still needed infrastructure, operating money and a comprehensive safety plan. Safe Harbor now operates a seasonal emergency shelter and a year-round Housing and Human Services Resource Center, and it has said the task force’s recommendations are a starting point, not a final solution.

For residents, the clearest measure of success will be whether the region can show progress in monthly reports, system data and placements, not just another vision statement. The task force says it publishes monthly progress reports and shares them with elected officials and work groups, so commissioners and the public should be able to see whether the county is building a workable system or simply circling the same unresolved needs.