homelessness

Two years ago, homelessness advocates in northern Michigan made a longstanding ideal a reality. We check in on the East Bay Flats, where all 64 apartments are for people experiencing homelessness. IPR’s Maxwell Howard visited the Flats to see how the ideal is actually working in practice.

Three years ago, Goodwill Northern Michigan bought the East Bay Flats apartment complex, turning a long-held concept into a reality — housing without conditions on sobriety or employment. Studies show this kind of program reduces homelessness by almost 90%. But what the day-to-day experience looks like is often less talked about.

Each year, volunteers fan out in northern Michigan — and around the country — to try and take a data snapshot: How many people are living without shelter? The point-in-time, or PIT, count provides data that informs federal funding. But where the government sends that money might soon change.

Advocates for homeless people in northwest lower Michigan consider the future after proposed changes threatened the loss of 20 permanent supportive housing units.

A task force looking at homelessness issues in Traverse City is considering the possibility of combining the area's two big overnight shelters. What would that actually look like?

In the first winter after Traverse City's ‘no camping’ ordinance, people endure winter out of view. IPR looks at where they're ending up — from shelters to shacks. Homelessness in Traverse City hasn't gone away. It's just become less visible.

After a no-camping ordinance cleared Traverse City’s largest homeless encampment, people are surviving winter out of view — sleeping wherever they can as shelters reach capacity.

Northern Michigan homeless advocates warn HUD’s shift from Housing First grants to transitional housing and treatment programs could jeopardize funding and put at least 20 households at risk of homelessness.

Traverse City Police Officer Krista Fryczynski is the department’s Community Officer, a position focused on outreach to unsheltered residents in the city.

In the last five years Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Traverse City have all added officers tasked with building relationships with people living on the streets.