Housing was one of the original reasons why I ran for Council. As I looked at the elected officials, I realized that none of them had purchased a house in Dexter in the last 15 years and some had not purchased a house here for much longer.

Even with a very good household income, it was difficult for us to get our house on Dover. We were very fortunate to buy it from a family that had owned it for a long time and wanted a ‘young family’ to bring fresh energy to the house.

When I look around our street, I don’t know how many of us could buy our house today.

Shortly after I was elected to Council, I started to push for the City to start a Housing Task Force to begin looking at the issue. After 3 years and a bit of a push from another local official, we finally set up a Housing Task Force.

We did a fair amount of work to document existing conditions. I had no idea how many houses already had an accessory dwelling unit or two! It also helped facilitate some changes to our Zoning Ordinance to make it easier to build an accessory dwelling unit.

We need to continue the work of the Housing Task Force to identify Dexter-appropriate ways to support a variety of housing options and affordability.

It remains challenging for recent graduates, young families, or downsizing empty nesters find a place to live in the City. It has been a challenge for local businesses and even Dexter Community Schools to attract and keep employees due to a lack of attainable housing.