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Credit: Courtesy of Lighthouse
Auburn Place will be a modern five-story building with the majority of units accommodating single adults.
Lighthouse MI broke ground Wednesday on a 54-unit affordable housing project in Pontiac as part of $44.6 million in affordable housing investments it’s making in the city.
The new $30.6 million Auburn Place development comes amid its renovation of another 40 units of nearby affordable housing at Lighthouse’s nearby Beacon Place Apartments and Townhomes.
With private development and state and federal investment, the statewide shortage in affordable housing dropped from 190,000 to 141,000 units as of July 2024, the state said.
But the lack of affordable housing is further straining low-income residents who are struggling to afford rent or mortgages amid rising housing costs and stagnant wages, Lighthouse said.
“Lighthouse is dedicated to poverty alleviation throughout our region,” Lighthouse CEO Ryan Hertz said. “We believe that means increasing opportunities for affordability in communities otherwise out of reach and investing in and increasing the quality of housing in lower to mid-income communities.”
The concentration of poverty is not good for anyone and in many cases, it’s what causes generational poverty to persist, he said. A path to ending it is to relocate lower-income people to higher-end areas through rent subsidies and other mechanisms that give them access to jobs, social networks and educational opportunities, while concurrently investing in economic development in lower-income communities.
“None of us operates in a vacuum. When we’re surrounded by opportunity, we have a much higher opportunity for success,” Hertz said.
Auburn Place, at 454 Auburn Ave., will be a modern five-story building with the majority of units accommodating single adults, Hertz said.
Construction is expected to take about 18 months.
Fusco, Shaffer & Pappas Inc. is the architect on the project and O’Brien Construction is the general contractor.
Credit: Courtesy of Lighthouse
Lighthouse MI Ryan Hertz (center) and other officials and community leaders break ground Wednesday on a 54-unit affordable housing project in Pontiac called Auburn Place.
The supportive housing project will provide wraparound services for tenants, including access to the Center for Working Families to help them build earned income, financial coaching and other supports like mental health services.
Those services will also be offered at Beacon Place when it opens late this year, following $14 million in renovations, Hertz said.
Renovations of the apartments at 101 Mechanic St. and townhomes at 180 J. Hubbard Lane are underway. The townhomes will house larger households and the apartments will be a blend of one-room and multi-room units, Hertz said.
The capital stack for the two projects includes 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits with financing from Cinnaire, Affordable Housing Tax Increment Financing, grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis as well as funds from Oakland County and the state through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, Hertz said.
Lighthouse is operating on a $26.8 million in revenue for 2025-26, which began July 1. That includes developer fees and grants tied to the two affordable housing projects, in addition to funding for the housing and food assistance and other services Lighthouse provides, he said. But it does not include the tax credits for each, which went to separate entities created for Auburn Place LDHA LLC and Beacon Place LDHA LLC.
Auburn Place is the fifth affordable housing development in Oakland County from Lighthouse since 2006. The projects have added a total of 521 units of affordable housing, Hertz said.
In May, the nonprofit teamed up with The Roxbury Group and Ethos Development Partners on its first development outside of Oakland County, the $60 million redevelopment of Lee Plaza, a vacant high-rise on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, into 117 units of affordable housing for the city’s senior population.
The projects are part of $150 million in real estate development of which Lighthouse is part, including $120 million in affordable housing in Pontiac and Detroit, and a $30 million redevelopment of its Pontiac main campus that will increase family emergency shelter capacity; expand food access and economic opportunity.
Lighthouse expects to break ground on the first phase of the main campus project in the area of Pontiac known as “The Loop” in October, Hertz said, adding a building to expand the emergency shelter units from 65 beds to roughly 160 beds, with individual apartments for homeless families with children.
It has raised more than $15 million in its $40 million campaign to fund the main campus expansions and renovations, the purchase of the Sanctuary runaway and homeless youth program building in Royal Oak, along with a capital fund to invest in future affordable housing developments, he said.
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