Traverse City’s homeless crackdown lays bare northern Michigan housing crisis

• Traverse City broke up a longstanding encampment of homeless people in May and pledged help
• Shelters are turning away some residents and reluctant to give out sleeping bags in fear of breaking the law
• Northern Michigan has had issues for years with housing accessibility as property values rise

In May, Traverse City officials cleared a homeless encampment known as “The Pines,” promising that those displaced would be housed in shelters.

What happened next illustrates the severity of what northern Michigan officials say is a chronic problem with housing affordability in some of the state’s most desirable tourist destinations.

Some shelters say they don’t have enough room to help — leaving many like James Patton with few options.  He lived at the Pines for about four years until police cleared the encampment, following the city’s newly enacted no-camping ordinance.

“I don't have a place to stay,” he told IPR from Jubilee House, a day shelter in downtown Traverse City.

“Last night I was [on] the bench at the lobby at the hospital because they didn't have anywhere to go. They were done seeing me. So when I was at (shelter) Safe Harbor to check in and to be put on the list. The night before that I was on the street.”

• Listen to a podcast about this issue on IPR’s Up North Lowdown

During the day, Patton used to spend time at the Pines. Now that’s not possible, and he says it’s causing issues in other public places, including the Traverse Area District Library, which was especially welcoming during COVID and the winter months.

“They don't want people loitering,” Patton said. “Most of the time there's a group of us that hang up by the library and a lot of people have been calling, and I get it. I understand there's children around, you shouldn't be cussing and swearing and doing all that stuff around children.”

The issue is common throughout northern Michigan amid a shortage of available and affordable housing, but it’s especially felt in northwest Michigan. In Grand Traverse County, the median home price was about $390,000, while the county’s median income could support a $329,000 house according to state data. Statewide, the median home price was $239,000 and the median income could support a $283,000 house.

Related:

• In Michigan, a new push to fight homelessness before it begins
• Deaths prompt scrutiny, soul-searching as homelessness grows in Michigan
• In Michigan, a new push to fight homelessness before it begins

While homelessness across Michigan grew 2% between 2022 and 2023, it increased more than 4% in northwest Michigan, according to the latest report from Michigan’s Campaign to End Homelessness.

Just days before clearing the Pines, Traverse City commissioners approved a permit for the emergency shelter Safe Harbor to operate year-round instead of just during the winter.

Safe Harbor offers 74 beds, but many local homeless residents say that’s still not enough.

Brad Gerlach, Safe Harbor’s volunteer coordinator, confirmed the shelter is turning away between two and five people a night, mostly men. 

Services, he said, have otherwise stayed the same with small differences: The facility now staying open an hour later than it used to, but is no longer providing evening meals.

At Jubilee House, Director Hannah Wescott said her staff is trying to help people find places to stay, but the city’s no-camping ordinance is complicating their efforts. 

Now, staff are hesitant to hand out camping supplies, worried it could lead to people violating the city’s new rules. 

“We're walking this really delicate line between wanting to not get our friends in trouble with the materials that we give them, and also knowing that they need a safer option to keep them warm and dry overnight when they can't get into the shelter,” she said. 

“That is absolutely still the reality. There are plenty of folks who are sleeping outside, but they need to be able to pick up and go quickly so that they don't violate any ordinances while they're trying to survive.”

It can get confusing. When IPR visited, a Jubilee House staff member walked into Wescott’s office and asked whether a newly homeless person could be given a tent. 

Wescott clarified that tents are only to be given out under the direction of Traverse City's Quick Response Team — or QRT — which provides services to homeless individuals and helps with overdose prevention.

Wescott says people are now sleeping in more hidden spots or trekking farther out of town, putting them farther from downtown resources.

“Transportation has always been a huge problem for our friends,” she said. “All the resources are pretty far flung, with the exception of the Safe Harbor to Central Methodist to Jubilee House triangle. We three partner together to make sure that there's always a place for people to go.”

Jennifer Holm, a police social worker coordinator with QRT, says her team has gotten busier since the Pines was cleared.

“We've seen an uptick in referrals,” Holm said. “So from our law enforcement officers who typically make about 40% of our referrals anyway, we have seen an increase in referrals to the QRT. I think that is... our law enforcement trying to get to the bottom of people's law enforcement contacts and connect them with resources.”

Holm says that Safe Harbor opening year-round has been a helpful resource but she understands community concerns.

“Being able to have that resource in our community is fantastic,” she said. "We know there are concerns with it, and we don't discount the community's perception of those. We know there's more work to be done, and there's work in progress to move forward for that.”

For now, many like Patton are still left waiting, caught between the promise of shelter and the daily struggle to find a safe place to sleep.