A housing development planned for the former Mercy Hospital site in Benton Harbor has hit a snag. Benton Harbor Assistant City Manager Alex Little told the city Planning and Economic Development Committee this week Project T was set to include two buildings, one for those with low incomes and intended to be funded with state tax credits, and the other for the “missing middle” that would be privately funded. A problem has arisen with the first building.
“The submission that was made to MSHDA for the low income building was denied,” Little said. “We did not get that.”
Little says the Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s formula for awarding credits for such work excluded the Project T proposal.
“That included things like walkability to the existing services, and we didn’t rate high enough in their scale on that.”
Project T is an initiative of Harbor Habitat. Little said now that the state tax credits have been denied, it’s back to the drawing board. He said he’s working with Harbor Habitat to find a path forward that would still make good use of the Mercy Hospital site, the largest vacant property owned by the city.
