Alpena Community College Receives $1.75 Million for Additional Student Housing
While the housing crisis continues in northeast Michigan, Alpena Community College is taking a step in the right direction for their students.
$1.75 million in funding was requested through the Congressionally Directed Spending request process and was supported by Senator Gary Peters. It will allow the college to build more housing for their students. Right now, they have all of their 64 beds currently being used in their two apartment buildings. This new project, which is expected to cost about $4.7 million, would allow for even more. “The idea is to build housing for 32 more students,” said Don MacMaster, president of ACC. “This would be beneficial for them and beneficial to us. We think we would be able to fill that without too much trouble.”
With all of their current beds full, it’s actually resulted in the college losing out on students coming to the area. “We have no place for them to stay and they can’t find a place downtown to stay,” MacMaster said. “Sometimes they say ‘I’d love to come but I can’t’, and this is the thing that is a loss for the college, the students and for the community.”
The new building is expected to be built right next to the others perpendicular to Johnson Street. There has also been talks about expanding even more following this project if the need to continues to be present.
