Sycamore Townhomes residents face eviction in a housing shortage

When a receiver was appointed to manage Sycamore Townhomes last year, residents were hopeful the apartments — nearly 150 of which were red-tagged and all rented without a license — would finally become livable.

But on April 29, around 70 remaining residents were given 30 days to get out. As of Monday, 50 were still without a plan, the apartment complex’s federally appointed receiver said Tuesday

Sycamore resident Jodi Kamae is a recipient of the Housing Choice Voucher Program, a federal housing assistance program commonly referred to as Section 8. She said finding new housing as a Section 8 recipient takes longer than 30 days.

“For people in Section 8, it’s a process,” she said. “We can’t just move. We have to go there, recertify, let them know we have to evacuate, and they have to approve it. Then we have to go back, sit down and have a meeting with them to get the paperwork to move out. Then we have to go look for a place.”

Sycamore is one example in what advocates call a housing crisis in Lansing. Last week, 16 members of Lansing’s The Rent Is Too Damn High chapter spoke at the City Council, criticizing the evictions as well as the city’s plan to clear homeless encampments.

Khadja Erickson, director of the newly formed Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center, said neglected maintenance and threats of eviction were major problems, “based on the folks seeking help.” She also said homelessness skyrocketed during the COVID-19 lockdown and remains dire.

At Sycamore, the threat of imminent eviction carries the weight of potential homelessness. Residents in good standing are eligible to receive $1,000 in relocation assistance. But another resident, DeEldra (who declined to give her last name), said previous management had destroyed records, leaving it unclear who was in good standing.

“In January, I got a letter saying I owed around 4,400” dollars, she said. “Then in March it was like 6,600. But when I contacted the city, the city said it was dismissed. I don’t know if they even have the records to demonstrate who’s in good standing.”

John Polderman, the federally appointed receiver, said the 30-day notice was legally required since all current tenants had expired leases and were thus considered holdover tenants. Some residents said they had signed leases and were unaware of the holdover status.

Polderman said evicting current residents was necessary for a $15 million renovation, which will get around 350 units “back online.” While he acknowledged the evictions were “disruptive,” he said there would have been an inevitable “hard landing” if no receiver had been appointed.

While Polderman is federally appointed and is not beholden to the city of Lansing, Kamae blames the city for allowing the situation to deteriorate.

“It should never have gotten to this point,” Kamae said. “Somebody failed to do their job. In Section 8, you get inspections every year, so I have that documentation. So somebody is either turning a blind eye or doesn’t give a shit. Who is going to be held accountable?”

Ryan Kost, Lansing’s City Council president, agrees.

“We messed up,” he said. “It was years of neglect, and we messed up.”

Kost called the Sycamore residents’ living conditions heartbreaking and “deplorable at best,” adding that he and Council member Adam Hussain had been advocating for change at Sycamore for years.

“There were a lot of mistakes, and it’s tough to point your finger at any one individual,” he said.

“What we did get right is the city attorney got aggressive, and we took receivership,” he said. “That is going to be the new gold standard moving forward.”

Scott Bean, Mayor Schor’s communications director, said in a statement that “the owners of this property did this, not the City of Lansing.”

“They let their tenants live in deplorable conditions, and the City used everything in the limited toolbox we have to get them to correct it,” he said. “That’s why we eventually ended up in Federal Court and finally got movement to get someone in and make the complex safe for habitation.”

Schor has made housing a focus of campaign advertisements.

But with President Trump’s proposed budget cutting billions in rental assistance programs, some are concerned the problem will get worse, not better.

“I hope the cuts don’t go through,” said Rawley Van Fossen, Lansing’s director of Economic Development and Planning, “because if they do, there are going to be some tough conversations on the local level.”

“My department relies on nearly $3 million through the Department of Housing and Urban Development to address a wide range of issues,” he said. “If those cuts go through, if we’re handed $0 rather than $3 million, of course it’s going to have an immediate impact. The first impact is that it’s going to lessen the amount of affordable housing the city can partner with.”

Van Fossen declined to hypothesize further, expressing hope that “our friends and allies in the U.S. Senate and House” will prevent the bill being passed.

Multiple projects have been completed or are underway to increase the availability of housing in Lansing. The newly renovated Walter French school has 76 units, each of which has an income limit. The New Vision Lansing project under construction downtown will add hundreds of units, some of which will be under the Missing Middle program.

An ordinance increasing the legal options for shared-use housing passed the City Council this month.

Bean also said that the city’s Human Relations and Community Services Department provides housing resources and that 54-A District Court has a grant-funded eviction diversion specialist.

But with funding under threat and city officials making up for lost time, Sycamore residents worried their troubles were only beginning.

“In the letter we got, it stated three other properties that we could move to,” DeEldra said. “And one of the managers did come out, and I talked to him. He was a nice guy, but I asked, “What makes your place any different? How do we know you’re not getting red-tagged two months from now?’”

“It’s like nobody is here for the tenants,” she said. “They’re not here for us. It’s like they’re against us.”

— LEO V. KAPLAN