Serving 17 diverse communities, the Pontiac Housing Commission (PHC) is Oakland County’s foremost attainable housing agency. From rental assistance to housing stock redevelopment, community engagement to homeownership – We provide and advocate for preferred housing for individuals from all walks of life. We work directly with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to distribute Housing Choice Vouchers to hundreds of residents each year. Our mission, to uplift the community through stable housing, continues to evolve as we seek to find new solutions to our area’s ongoing housing challenges.
The PHC has stood as a champion for attainable and quality housing for nearly 100 years, and we’re just getting started.
Ahmad Taylor, executive director of the Pontiac Housing Commission, delivers remarks to elected officials, local business owners, developers and residents at the opening celebration of the Pontiac Housing Commission’s relocation to the heart of downtown Pontiac.
Developments
39 Ivy Street transformation
In the spring of 2021, 39 Ivy Street in Pontiac was nearing the wrecking ball. A fire had completely burned out the inside of this historic, century old Dutch Colonial home. After nearly a decade of blight removal programs, more than a thousand homes had been demolished in Pontiac by 2019. The PHC sought to find innovative and affordable ways to develop existing and blighted properties, starting with 39 Ivy.
Hand-in-hand with local contractors, we’ve rehabilitated this house and its detached garage. Construction is complete with landscaping planned in the coming warmer weeks – Just in time for its new tenants.
This May, 39 Ivy Street will once again become a home as we welcome a housing choice voucher family through its doorstep. The community is invited to join us on Friday, May 10th as we celebrate the completion of this project and a new chapter for one of our families. More details will be announced soon.
To learn more about 39 Ivy Street, click here.
$40.3M Carriage Place Redevelopment
Carriage Place Apartments is one of the largest attainable housing developments in Oakland County, offering 234 newly-renovated affordable apartments. It’s home to a diverse community of families, singles and seniors, nestled on lakeside views just five minutes from downtown Pontiac.
Originally constructed in 1968 as a Section 9 Public Housing Development, Carriage Place Apartments is one of several transformational projects to have taken place across Michigan under a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Conversion. This HUD supported program encourages housing agencies to move their developments from Section 9 Public Housing to the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. Not only does this program open new flexibilities for residents on how they use their rental assistance, it also paves the way to rehabilitating every facet of the building.
A $40.3M complete renovation of the building and all units was completed in late 2022. Final landscaping work and community program implementation continue through this year.
The Carriage Place Apartments RAD Conversion stands as a testament to our commitment to collaboration. This project was conducted in partnership with Lighthouse, a Pontiac-based nonprofit dedicated to fighting homelessness, and made possible by funding from Michigan State Housing Development Authority tax credits, with aid from Oakland County HOMES funds and reserve funds from the PHC.
To learn more about the transformation of Carriage Place Apartments, click here.
Woodland Heights Apartments
Woodland Heights Apartments offers 187 affordable apartments, located off North Edith Street near the M-59 corridor. Ongoing renovations of all units, facilities, amenities and landscaping has been taking place since the beginning of 2021. Now in the spring of 2024, less than 15-unit renovations remain.
@pontiachousingcommission We've welcomed some new residents into our freshly updated units at Woodland Heights this winter 🏘️🌨️ #redevelopment #pontiac #attainablehousing #affordablehousing #pontiacmichigan #pontiachousingcommission #fyp #fypシ #section8 #apartment #renovation ♬ original sound – Pontiac Housing Commission
What We’re Working On
A total of 26% of Michigan residents, and 48% of Michigan renters, are housing cost-burdened, according to data from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. That means they’re spending more than a third of their income on housing. In 49 of Michigan’s 83 counties, residents spend more than 57% of their income on housing and transportation.
The state of our housing stock in Oakland County today has not kept up with the demand or changing living-habits of our residents. In Pontiac alone, there are approximately 2,000 unaccounted for housing units and growing. The city saw more than 1,900 blighted properties remediated throughout the 2010’s with few of those homes restored since. What remains is largely historic housing stock suffering from decades of deferred maintenance.
These absent single-family homes, apartments, condos and townhomes represent thousands more individuals who increasingly struggle to find housing that suits 21st century needs and lifestyles. That’s why we’ve spent the last two years post-pandemic dreaming up new solutions for our community.
Lake Street
Potential Development
Imagine this: It’s a sunny Saturday morning in Pontiac, Michigan. A young family wakes up in their freshly-constructed townhome or apartment overlooking acres of greenery. The parents step out onto their balcony for a morning coffee, while the kids are already out the door rushing to play along lush walking paths and dip their toes in the lake. Neighbors are setting up for a barbecue as hikers, bikers and joggers wave hello passing along the Clinton River Trail.
That is the vision to become reality for some 300 to 500 residents through the transformative Lake Street project. A balance between nature and modernity, this dynamic and sustainable neighborhood would rest on 13-acres of undeveloped land off of Lake Street, located on Pontiac’s southwest side.
The Pontiac Housing Commission (PHC) is poised to acquire the land, totaling 14-acres, through its partnership with the Hantz Foundation. This area was once known as the 1st Ward Neighborhood as far back as 1896, about one generation after the city was founded. This combined $57 million development comes as the PHC’s direct response to our area’s continued housing crisis.
Trailside Gardens would feature a total of 155 units, with 62 set aside as affordable, designed alongside havens of greenspace as three-story townhomes and two-story apartments. Lighted sidewalks will lead residents to parks and past preserved wetlands as the neighborhood is thoughtfully constructed to seamlessly coexist with natural spaces.
The development of Trailside Gardens is planned to synergize with several other revitalization projects scheduled for the area, including: A $20 million expansion of the Clinton River Trail to connect downtown, a $500,00 city of Pontiac grant to rehabilitate Crystal Lake Park, Oakland County’s planned opening of new downtown office space, renovations of the Wessen Tennis Club and a potential Neighborhood Enterprise Zone (NEZ) aimed at spurring a new and needed wave of residential developments and renovations.
The PHC is actively seeking partners for the Lake Street project. To learn more about our efforts, contact Yvette Transou, deputy director at the PHC at ytransou@pontiachousing.com.
Wessen/Branch Block
Potential Redevelopment
Two flagship Smart Homes are planned for the Wessen/Branch Block, just down the street from the Lake Street Site. The single-family, contemporary modern homes will be equipped with automated home solutions aimed at improving quality of life and lowering utility costs. Designed by Stucky Vitale Architects, both a one story and a two-story model will be available for rent for qualified families.
With innovation at the heart of this project, the PHC plans to explore modular construction options – Both to keep the homes attainable for our community and to test the viability of utilizing modular construction to combat our region’s housing crisis and increasing housing construction costs.
To learn more or partner with us on our Smart Home project, contact Yvette Transou, deputy director at the PHC at ytransou@pontiachousing.com.
Community & Partnership
Community is more than just a word to us – It is our purpose. We’ve hosted civic engagement events such as public general election debates, minority and women contractor symposiums and landlord engagement town halls. We’ve adopted vacant land in an effort to create new community parks and clean-up trash for our neighbors. We’ve hosted community networking events and block parties, conferences and more.
It is our firm belief at the PHC that part of the answer to our attainable housing crisis is to engage everyone, from the general public to the experts and everyone in between.
Last May, we held our first inaugural Attainable Housing Solutions Conference at United Wholesale Mortgage. Our expert panelists ranged from bankers to grassroots developers, spanning an entire day of discussion focused on moving housing in southeast Michigan forward.
Watch one of those panels below, or check out the entire conference on our YouTube channel.
Let’s Connect
Just like a home’s foundation, collaboration is at the heart of our work. If you or your organization is interested in learning more about our developments or potential projects:
contact us
| Ahmad Taylor, Executive Director | ataylor@pontiachousing.com |
| Yvette Transou, Deputy Director | ytransou@pontiachousing.com |
| Vern Gustafsson, Project Director/Planner | vgustafsson@pontiachousing.com |
| Mary Lou Rosado, HCV Program Coordinator | mrosado@pontiachousing.com |
| Natalie Broda, Media Relations | nbroda@pontiachousing.com |