Today, Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson discussed her plan to lower the cost of housing for Michigan families with former Detroit City Council President Saunteel Jenkins, local leaders, housing advocates, and residents. She heard stories about the hoops families have to jump through to find affordable housing, sacrifices parents have to make to pay the bills, and what the state can do better to help. Benson is the only candidate for governor who has released a comprehensive plan to drive down the cost of housing and has centered her campaign around building a more affordable Michigan. 

Jocelyn’s plan will expand housing production statewide through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, cut red tape, and speed up permitting so homes can be built faster, create a statewide housing data system to show where the needs are, strengthen renter protections, and give communities more control over short-term rentals – all while partnering with local leaders to give residents the access to housing they need. 

“Decades ago, I moved to Detroit and learned just how important it is to be able to buy a home in this city and to be able to live here and raise your family here right now. Today, we are seeing a housing shortage creating problems. We see reckless tariffs driving up costs on everything, and I've seen it in my neighborhood here in Detroit, with not only rents rising, but property taxes rising as well, and a lot of Detroiters being pushed out of their homes. So as governor, I'm going to tackle this head on,” said Secretary Benson during the roundtable. “First, we're going to streamline housing so that we are building more homes in the state because it should be as easy and efficient to get a housing permit as it is to renew your driver's license. Right now, we're in a housing crisis and we're permitting less housing to be built. I am committed to flipping that. ”

 “I want to thank our Secretary of State and  hopefully soon to be governor, Jocelyn Benson, for understanding that housing is a priority all over the state of Michigan and especially here in the city of Detroit. I think what we need in our next governor is somebody who understands, and is willing to talk to the people on the front lines doing the work, to make sure that the priorities that you're setting and the steps you're taking are really the ones that we need as residents. Our Secretary of State lives in Detroit, she's chosen to be here and work here and live here, it’s not just talk from her,” said former City Council President Saunteel Jenkins. 

As governor, Jocelyn Benson’s housing plan will:

• Make it easier to build homes faster from the local level to the state level by streamlining the entire process so builders spend weeks on approvals instead of waiting months for each agency to sign off, saving money that can go toward building more affordable homes and addressing regional and rural housing shortages.

• Create opportunities for first-time home buyers with an expanded tax credit for families who are ready to purchase but struggling to save enough — while making sure we’re building enough new homes so this actually lowers costs instead of just pushing prices higher.

• Create a statewide housing data system that shows us exactly where Michigan needs more housing, what it costs, and whether we’re making progress. By working voluntarily with municipal governments, permitting and building systems will align with community needs.

• Give communities control over vacation rentals and create a statewide system to track short-term rentals and tax them to fund local services and Michigan tourism, while letting towns set their own rules about how many are allowed in residential neighborhoods.

• ⁨Stop international corporations from pricing Michiganders out of their neighborhood by banning the sale of homes to private equity firms and institutional investors for the first 100 days they are on the market.

• Expand and modernize the Michigan Homestead Property Tax Credit to reflect today’s housing costs and inflation, which will raise income eligibility limits and adjust benefit levels so more working families, seniors, and fixed-income homeowners can qualify and keep up with rising property tax bills.

• Protect renters without discouraging new apartments by cracking down on out of state and absentee landlords who neglect their properties through tougher inspections and enforcement, expand rental assistance for families struggling with costs, and protect tenants from retaliation—while keeping rules fair so developers can still build the affordable apartments Michigan desperately needs.

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