Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's series on solutions to affordable housing and housing the unhoused. It is made possible by a coalition of funders including the City of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, the ENNA Foundation, and the Kalamazoo County Land Bank. 

There's a struggle going on over housing assistance funding. Kalamazoo might have to host a lot of variety shows to help lower-income people buy their first homes.

"I know Laura Lam!" an unhinged Taco Bob's customer yells, flinging her purse violently.

The purse-wielding customer yelling about the City of Kalamazoo's Chief Operating Officer was played by Stephen Dupuie, who is also Executive Director of the Edison Neighborhood Association, as part of the variety show presented by the neighborhood association held at the Dormouse Theatre Oct. 3 to help raise money for its down payment assistance program.

The unhinged taco customer was part of a skit by the Dormouse Theatre players. Before that, Move with Joy danced ballet-to-breakin'. Kinetic Affect delivered spoken word on the beauty and struggle in Michigan, followed by the duo's Gabriel Giron passionately speaking on his experience of becoming a first-time homeowner just a few blocks from the theater. Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services helped him purchase his home, he says.

Dupuie is not actually throwing fits at any of Kalamazoo's people-in-power. He'd just like to get some attention paid to a major barrier to homeownership. 

A person may be able to pay rent, pay their bills, have a clean credit score, and be able to pay a monthly mortgage -- but they don't have the tens of thousands of dollars for the down payment.

Fran DwightStephen Dupuie wields a purse and plays for laughs in pursuit of a serious cause — raising funds for down payment assistance. Dupuie wants the ENA to be able to help Edison residents afford a downpayment for their first home. But, "right now, we only have $5,000," Dupuie says. "So, it's not a lot. I've got feelers out for a lot more than that."

Compare that $5,000 to $25,000, a figure in the news thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris' promise to get funding up to that amount to first-time homebuyers if she wins the White House. 

Forbes puts Michigan's average median down payment at $20,637. That's a lot of talent shows.

Spinning many plates

Dupuie admits that even with the revenues from silent auction and wine sales at the event included, "the fundraiser is really just to raise awareness." 

When he became director of the ENA about two and a half years ago, Dupuie wanted a strategic plan in their mission statement to help with housing in the neighborhood. So he started the downpayment fund. 

Fran DwightJoy Burton and Aerick Burton from Move with Joy in the Edison neighborhood danced together as part of the Edison Neighborhood Association Variety Show to help raise funds for down payment housing assistance."Housing was from the very beginning very daunting, just trying to navigate what our role as a neighborhood association would be as a player in that," he says.

The theatrical Dupuie turns to an old Vaudeville routine for a metaphor -- he has a small team at the ENA, and they're all "spinning many plates."   

For example, they'd just gotten a new greenhouse for their Tay's Farm, a program teaching urban gardening and other sustainability skills for residents. The ENA supplies a community toolbox, runs a 24/7 cupboard of food and other items for people in need, and organizes the Washington Ave. Arts and Culture Crawl, which happened Oct. 12. 

For a $10 annual ENA membership fee, Edison residents get access to "our growers' resources, our tool library, the community room rental, all of those things come with that $10 membership a year," he says. Also, "know that five bucks of that goes right into that (down payment assistance) pool every year."

For 2025, Dupuie says he realizes the ENA "needs to double down on housing... get some money into the pot here."

Fran DwightA pianist provided music for the Edison Neighborhood Association Variety Show to help raise funds for down payment housing assistance.The ENA is looking for grant money. "I've got feelers out for a lot more than" the $5,000. "There's some other players going into 2025 that I can't really speak of right now, but that there's a potential to make a rather large impact with a lot of people who happen to be leasing at the moment, and getting them into homeownership."

KNHS funds for down payment assistance running out

Once the ENA did get enough funds to get the assistance underway, how would it be implemented?

"We would work with KNHS. They would be a big partner in implementing it," Dupuie says. 

Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services could help guide candidates to the assistance. They also can provide education for Edison's first-time homebuyers. 

Until recently, KNHS has been able to provide down payment assistance themselves, but that money is running out.

Fran DwightCredell Kitchen and Gabriel Giron of Kinetic Affect tell the ups and downs of Michigan.KNHS Executive Director Beth McCann, attending the fundraiser, says, "We have been blessed in previous years to have money from the Kalamazoo County Millage in the city of Kalamazoo to do down payment assistance. And shortly, KNHS will be out of those funds because they weren't allocated to us in the coming year. And that's going to be tough on our prospective homeowners."

KNHS received $200,000 from the millage for down payment assistance in 2022 and 2023. McCann expects the funds to be gone in the first quarter of 2025, "if not sooner." They also received a DPA (down payment assistance) grant of $108,098 from the City of Kalamazoo in Program Year 2022, which was spent in 2023. The city's Community Development Act Advisory Committee did not continue KNHS' Down Payment Assistance funding for the following years.

McCann understands that there's a lot of competition for city funding, and she approves of where that money is going. "A lot of people are competing for a fixed amount of money, and so I think priorities come in, and I think government entities have to make choices," she says.

"But I worry. KNHS creates 50 to 100 homeowners a year, depending on the year. And last year, 58% of them had down payment assistance. And we don't have anything to give. That's going to impact our community significantly."

McCann explains where the money goes: "These grants go to low-to-moderate income clients who have gone through KNHS’ homebuyer education and coaching program and are under 80% AMI. It is need-based."

Fran DwightThe Dormouse Theatre troupe at the Edison Neighborhood Association Variety Show to help raise funds for down payment housing assistance. They are Anna Karpinski, Stephen Dupuie, and Adrienne Waller.She adds, "Down payment assistance is just so critical for first-time home buyers.... It is the piece that closes the loop. You can be credit-worthy, you can do everything that you need to do, but to save 3%, 6%, 8%, (of a house's value) is not going to happen. Because you've got a life. You've got to feed your kids, you've got to pay rent, you've got to do everything. And so down payment assistance is really critical."

Homeowners stabilize neighborhoods

McCann is thankful that one side of the 2024 race for the White House is putting the topic of down payment assistance in the public eye. 

“If communities do things like this, where neighborhood associations and organizations like KNHS, and foundations, and city government, and county government all realize how important this is, I think we'll have a lot more home buyers. And I think we'll change neighborhoods and change communities," she says.
 
Fran DwightA wizard is being shown a potential home in a Dormouse skit. Even wizards get frustrated by the process of buying a home.Dupuie says of Edison's homes, "There's so much character, there's craftsmanship, and just really great housing stock here."

There are sturdy old homes in Edison. If the residents also own these homes, then they're invested in the neighborhood, he points out. And it's adding value to the homeowners, to the neighborhood, and to society in general.

"You're building equity, generational wealth in particular," Dupuie says. "That's important. It offers some stability, for sure. It also stabilizes the neighborhood. It helps to stabilize the neighborhood in a lot of ways. Because of that vested interest in where you live."


Fran DwightFrom left: Anna Karpinski, Adriene Waller, Alex Quayle, Oliverlyski Murphy, Stephen Dupuie; spoken word duo Kinetic Affect, Gabriel Giron and Credell Kitchen; Timothy Patrie, and dance duo Aerick Burton and Joy Burton of Move with Joy.