- Lansing city council members last month decided to take a new approach to addressing homeless rates in the area: housing pods
- While Lansing may be the first Michigan city to embrace the effort, tiny modular homes are a growing phenomenon nationwide
- But as the city works through project citing and development, some are worried the effort won’t go far enough to help homeless residents
LANSING — As local governments across Michigan attempt to balance the growing need for homeless services with community concerns, one is planning a novel approach: mini housing pods.
The city of Lansing last month approved the purchase and storage of 50 modular housing units — called ModPods — for $640,000 from a Kalamazoo nonprofit that had given up plans to use them in that community.
It will cost local taxpayers another $750,000 a year to upkeep the mini homes, and they won’t be ready to use this winter when temperatures drop to levels that put people without homes at risk…