Gov. Whitmer Talks Housing During Visit to Rogers City
Touring northern Michigan, including the U.P, Governor Whitmer made a stop in Rogers City today for a roundtable with city officials about the needs for the area.
During her visit, she recognized them as a Mainstreet Community and gave them redevelopment ready certification. “Very proud of that,” said Scott McLennan, mayor of Rogers City. “We were actually the 25th Michigan Mainstreet Community and we were the 50th redevelopment ready community. So, we’re ready for business.”
During the discussion with city officials, Whitmer heard their concerns and needs when it comes to a number of issues including housing. 50 years ago, they had 2,000 more people with the same amount of houses, but they’ve lost a lot of the younger population. “Now a lot of these homes are being bought up by short–term rentals and folks who are only here half a year,” McLennan said. “That’s great and we welcome folks like that but we have a real issue in staffing our businesses because we don’t have the 20–somethings and 30–somethings for our workforce.”
“We just created the Office of Rural Development, because people in local communities like this one have said we need one point of interaction in state government to help us as we work to create more affordable housing, as we look to make sure our main streets are filled with businesses, and that we lure people into this beautiful part of the state,” Whitmer said.
Whitmer hopes for reelection as she faces off against republican candidate Tudor Dixon this November for governor.
