Parking lot instead of Lansing parks for ModPods, board says

Advisory boards recommend Ingham County Human Services parking lot for transitional housing plan

A city-run transitional housing community of 50 ModPod housing units came a step closer to reality tonight when a joint committee voted unanimously tonight to recommend the parking lot of the Ingham County Human Services Building for the location.

The final location decision for the proposed NOVA Lansing Housing Initiative rests with the mayor.

The parking lot was one of six locations in consideration, it was added after the top five options were largely opposed at previous community meetings.

The lot, alongside being in the shadow of essential services, will be very close to healthcare services and about a mile away from a Meijer, alongside having a bus stop.

Shantel Spears, a formerly homeless resident, said during public comment that she had initially supported Hunter and Stabenow parks due to their proximity to grocery stores, and that she favored the parking lot for similar reasons.

“As someone who used to be unhoused, I do like that site,” she said.

All parks were struck from consideration before a final decision was made, owing to community opposition at previous meetings.

“I heard loud and clear from the public that parks were not intended for this purpose, and that you felt strongly that the integrity of our parks would be compromised if we located ModPods in any of these parks,” said HRCS Advisory Board member Sean Gehle.

Public commenters mostly favored the parking lot location ahead of the vote, with one notable exception.

“I’m completely against having these at the Human Services building,” said Byrd Tanner, who lives nearby and argued a community of homeless residents nearby would “single-handedly destroy property values.”

“The city of Kalamazoo would not let this happen,” he said, referencing the failed attempt by a Kalamazoo nonprofit to set up a similar community before selling the pods to Lansing at auction. “Being a taxpayer here in the city of Lansing, nobody wants this in their neighborhood.”

Some public commenters also argued that the project did not solve the overarching issue of a lack of affordable housing, which they said is the primary cause of homelessness.

“This is a Band-Aid on a shotgun wound,” said Shawn Brock, who said he had previously been homeless in Lansing while working a full-time job because housing was prohibitively expensive. “We need to come up with permanent housing for people. What we’re doing right now is just kicking the can down the road. This is a very important step, but it is a step, and I want people to realize that.”

HRCS Advisory Board member Melissa Horste invoked the “yes, and…” rule of improv comedy in her support for the location, calling it “not a silver bullet.”

“It’s ‘yes, and we’re going to have the conversation around these problems that are facing our community, our city, our country,’” she said.