Want affordable housing in northern Michigan? Stop NIMBYism, official says

Yarrow Brown is stepping down after more than five years as executive director of Housing North
Brown said not in my backyard’ sentiment is exacerbating the housing shortage
Brown also said northwest Michigan needs a regional housing developer that can actually help projects come to fruition

The outgoing head of one of Michigan’s most influential groups working on housing said elected officials’ “not in my backyard” sentiments continue to hold back the state’s efforts to tackle a widespread housing shortage.

Yarrow Brown is stepping down after more than five years as executive director of Housing North, a nonprofit that advocates for more housing in 10 northwest Michigan counties and works with local governments to ensure their policies support homebuilding.

Brown said “changing hearts and minds” remains one of the biggest obstacles to growing Michigan’s housing supply.

“People are afraid of change,” Brown told Bridge Michigan. “I’ve had experiences where people are housing advocates, but then when it comes to a project in their actual township, they’re against it.”

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Affordable housing is shaping up as a key issue in the 2026 elections, with US Sen. Elissa Slotkin sponsoring legislation to declare a national housing emergency and Michigan short about 119,000 more housing units to meet demand.

Readers of Bridge also say it’s a major concern, with housing mentioned by at least 8% of the 600-plus readers who have completed Bridge Listens, an ongoing, unscientific survey to identify the top campaign issues of Michigan.

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Things have gotten so bad that superintendents have struggled to find housing in their school district, for example, and lower-income workers have been forced out of the pricey Traverse City area in “droves.” Yet housing projects repeatedly face public pushback, such as a 24-unit project in Boyne City rejected by city commissioners in part because it would reduce parking near the library.

Less than 2% of homes were available to rent or buy in 2023 in Michigan, according to the most recent data, about half the rate of availability 10 years prior. Between 2014 and 2023, Michigan built one new home for every 14 jobs added, creating a disconnect that has made it hard for some companies to fill positions because job candidates can’t find a place to live.

During Brown’s tenure, Housing North — the lead agency tackling housing around Traverse City as part of the statewide housing plan — developed tools that have influenced housing initiatives across Michigan, including a Housing Ready checklist that helps communities ensure their policies support homebuilding.

Yarrow Brown smiles into the camera — Yarrow Brown is stepping down after five years as executive director of Housing North. (Courtesy of Housing North)

Hired the day the coronavirus pandemic hit Michigan in 2020 after working on land trust issues with the Leelanau Conservancy, Brown said she had to learn on the fly how to work with communities to spread awareness and encourage elected officials to tackle housing through zoning changes, tax incentive programs and other means.

As she prepared to exit for a job with Generations Ahead, a nonprofit that helps teen parents, and as Housing North begins the search for her replacement, Brown shared her thoughts with Bridge.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Five years after you started, do things look different? What does the housing situation look like now?

It is still a very frustrating climate, and … it’s very clear that there are still county commissioners and people who don’t believe that housing is a problem. We still get that pushback, but I think (we have) really made some progress and really heightened people’s awareness of the subject in a different way.

We still need housing across the income spectrum. We still have a lot of people that are making less than $30,000 a year, even ($50,000) that struggle to find housing.

We still have a huge road ahead of us to change the hearts and minds. I would say sometimes it’s still two steps forward and one step back.

What does a community that is ready for housing look like?

Not everything’s cut and dry or black and white, but initially what we really want is, first of all, communities to do some sort of checklist or look at their master plan and their zoning ordinances and try to align those things for housing best practices, so we have the numbers, understanding the numbers and the need in that community and then trying to do things that would help meet those needs.

It could be changing zoning ordinances to allow accessory dwelling units or increase the density from just single-family to duplexes or triplexes. It could be reducing parking minimums or putting things in place to adopt ordinances that would allow more housing incentives.

We have a lot of communities that just shut the door and say we don’t want that, so I think a housing ready community is willing to have those conversations and work with developers and figure out how they can meet their community’s housing needs with the resources that are available.

Why do you think there is that disconnect?

People are afraid of change. We live in a community where change can be uncomfortable. We also have an aging and retiring population where people have moved here from other communities, and don’t want that same density or experience now. I also think it’s like NIMBYism, “not in my backyard.”

We tend to be anti-developer in northwest Michigan, and I understand that. I have a conservation background. But I do believe that we can come to a compromise and we can work together with developers to have a win-win for everybody, and that’s what I would like to see.

How do you get that message across?

A lot of different ways. We try to change and adapt our strategy, and have over the years, so people can resonate with it or align with it in different ways. We’re getting better about telling those real stories and trying to capture those. It’s still really difficult to get people to show up and share their personal story.

What’s your biggest regret about your tenure with Housing North?

I want to be careful how I say this.

We were not necessarily formed to do housing projects or put people in housing, but I do think Housing North needs to be more involved in housing projects. We’re getting there. We have a regional housing fund. We’re deploying a few micro loans to support housing. We’re asking the state for funding at the state level. We asked for $10 million to create a regional housing fund. We’ve gotten some momentum, but I think that is one way we can help new projects move forward and not maybe be the developer or figuring out ways we can be more of a partner developer to help make sure projects move forward.

And having a regional housing developer, a 10-county regional housing developer that’s a nonprofit is a gap. We have a lot of nonprofit developers, but not one that covers all 10 counties.

What do you think are the biggest lessons you learned in your time with Housing North?

I guess just keep showing up and try not to take things personal.

I do think this is a very divisive topic and the task of Housing North to help solve the housing crisis is so huge that you can’t do it alone. So I think it’s collaborative and it’s very much about partnerships and relationships and we have to be collaborative and that is kind of our charge.

If you had unlimited authority to do whatever you want to solve the housing crisis, what would you do?

I mean, I think we’re rocking it. We really are doing some great things in our region. It’s just that the hurdles are greater in northwest Michigan and also, we still have a lot of barriers to overcome. So if I could wave a wand, all the barriers would go away. There would be unlimited resources, and we would change the hearts and minds of people to show up and say, “Yes, we want this housing because this is critical, and we want to make sure everybody in the community is housed because we know that is important.”