Housing encompasses more than just a roof over one's head—it includes safe, stable, affordable shelter that provides dignity, security, and a foundation for all other aspects of life. Housing is where we rest, raise families, build community, and establish roots. When housing is treated as a commodity rather than a right, people are forced to choose between shelter and other basic needs, creating cycles of instability that ripple through entire communities.
A housing cooperative transforms residents from renters into owners, giving them democratic control over their living conditions and building equity in their homes. Worker-owned housing co-ops can take several forms locally: construction cooperatives that build affordable housing using member labor, property management co-ops where maintenance workers collectively own and operate the business, or community land trusts paired with worker co-ops that develop and maintain permanently affordable housing stock. Local opportunities include forming renovation and weatherization co-ops that improve existing housing while training workers in skilled trades, or creating cooperative housing development corporations where construction workers, architects, and planners share ownership. These enterprises keep wealth circulating in the community rather than extracting it to distant landlords and developers, while ensuring quality work since the workers have a stake in long-term outcomes. By treating housing as a cooperative enterprise, we break the cycle of profit-driven development that prices communities out of their own neighborhoods. Worker-owners gain not just jobs but careers with equity, while residents gain stable, democratic housing that responds to community needs rather than investor returns.
Housing problems can be compounded by property taxes, water bills, gas bills, and electric bills. Data Centers can play a large role in increasing the bills. Therefore we are against the use of data centers in almost all scenarios. However, we are not against technology, entertainment, culture, and other solutions that data centers offer. So we lean on the great work our tech co-ops are doing to decentralize the data centers and bring us solutions that do not extract our resources.
**Project 2026 Podcasts** **March 12, 2026 - Housing Introduction** **March 20, 2026 - Housing with Deyanira** **Programs related to Housing:** Fledge Forward [Sunshine House](https://sunshinehouse.collective.thefledge.com) Warming Center Rent is Too Damn High Jubilee Cedar Street Development
**Critiques of Current City Programs** 4-tiered system for tagging Encampment Sweeps Permitting of Warming Shelters in the middle of a crisis Mod-Pods
**Actions** 1. Look into the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
**In the News** [Detroit Free Press - Housing advocates rally at state capitol](https://www.freep.com/picture-gallery/news/local/michigan/2023/09/05/housing-advocates-rally-at-state-capitol/70771995007/) [WILX - Lansing recommends Cedar Street site for ModPod community](https://www.wilx.com/2026/02/12/lansing-recommends-cedar-street-site-modpod-community/) [Fox 47 - Lansing city council candidates address housing crisis at community forum](https://www.fox47news.com/news/state/lansing-city-council-candidates-address-housing-crisis-at-community-forum) [WLNS - Lansing residents share housing woes at Fledge event](https://www.wlns.com/news/michigan/lansing-resident-share-housing-woes-at-fledge-event/) [Lansing State Journal - Homeless advocates issue Reutter Park demands to Lansing officials](https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/11/23/homeless-advocates-issue-reutter-park-demands-to-lansing-officials/69674954007/)
[State News - Beyond the streets: Greater Lansing’s fight to combat homelessness](https://news.jrn.msu.edu/2025/05/beyond-the-streets-greater-lansings-fight-to-combat-homelessness/) [Lansing City Pulse - In Lansing, the issue of affordable housing a ‘two-headed monster’](https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/in-lansing-the-issue-of-affordable-housing-a-two-headed-monster,85818) [State News - The Fledge: How one Lansing community center is helping break the cycle of poverty](https://statenews.com/article/2025/03/the-fledge-how-a-radical-lansing-community-center-is-breaking-the-cycle-of-poverty?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest) [Lansing State Journal - 'Happiest Homeless Person' in Lansing lived in the woods seven blocks from the Capitol](https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/columnists/judy-putnam/2019/11/07/happiest-homeless-person-lansing-gets-housing-and-gives-back/4002412002/) [Lansing State Journal - Lansing area homeless shelters, pushed to the limit, seek volunteers and donations](https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2019/01/30/lansing-homeless-shelters-face-challenges-during-extreme-weather/2703001002/)