ICYMI: Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson Addresses Housing Affordability Crisis in Traverse City Townhall

This week, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson launched her statewide Thrive in Michigan tour on Monday with a townhall in Traverse City. Top of mind for residents: Housing. 

Too many families and young people are being priced out of their homes and communities and Benson knows making Michigan the best place to call home starts with ensuring that every Michigander can afford to thrive in a safe and secure environment. 

Benson is no stranger to taking broken systems and fixing them and she’s not afraid to take a hard look at the rules and regulations that currently bottleneck our permitting processes and drive up construction costs. During the townhall, she talked about her commitment to partnering with mayors, city councils, and municipal leagues to incentivize Smart Zoning and Workforce Housing initiatives that support local governments to legalize duplexes, triplexes, and small multi-family units that expand housing options and affordability.

Key point: “I want to make it less expensive and easier to build a new home,” [Benson] said. “It costs up to $90,000 to build a home before you lay a brick because of all the regulations and hoops you need to jump through. We need to change that. I also want to create public-private partnerships to build things like duplexes and triplexes that can accommodate more families who are priced out of the market now.”

Traverse City Record-Eagle: Benson kicks off campaign tour in TC

[Peter Kobs, 6/17/2025] 

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is running for governor in 2026, kicked off her statewide campaign tour in Traverse City on Monday with a pledge to tackle the most urgent concerns of northern Michigan residents if she is elected.

[…]

She later addressed a crowd of 75 at a town hall at the main branch of the Traverse Area District Library.

“Wherever I go, everyone brought up housing costs,” said the 47-year-old candidate who was first elected secretary of state in 2018.

“It’s particularly a problem in the Traverse City area. The natural beauty of this area is spectacular but the home prices are a real problem,” she said, noting a three-bedroom ranch in Suttons Bay that recently sold for about $1.1 million.

“That’s a three-bedroom house that a family should be able to live in. Instead, it may go to someone who will be here three months out of the year. That is untenable and unacceptable.”

[…]

Unscrupulous landlords, outdated zoning rules, complicated building requirements and the pernicious impact of private equity firms buying up residential properties have also contributed to that breathtaking rise in housing costs, she said.

If elected governor, Benson said she’d attack the problem from several angles.

“I want to make it less expensive and easier to build a new home,” she said. “It costs up to $90,000 to build a home before you lay a brick because of all the regulations and hoops you need to jump through. We need to change that. I also want to create public-private partnerships to build things like duplexes and triplexes that can accommodate more families who are priced out of the market now.”

She also proposed stricter regulations for short-term rentals to ensure affordable rent levels for young families, service workers, teachers, health care workers and first responders.

[…]

Updating the state’s revenue-generating strategy, including taxation, is also needed, she said. That could include new taxes on corporations from around the country — and around the world — that are buying up residences, then using that extra revenue to fund affordable housing.

At the town hall event on Monday evening, local Democratic Party leader Trenton Lee and state Rep. Betsy Coffia noted that an 800-unit mobile home park in the area was recently acquired by an outside private equity firm. The result: Significantly higher rents.

“One of those lots was asking $1,500 a month to rent a mobile home,” they said. “I think we need legislation to deal with this.”