Avalon Housing

This lecture titled "Disability and the Return of Eugenics and the Poor Law" from U-M professor Samuel Bagenstos puts efforts by Avalon and others to establish permanent supportive housing into the broader context of disability rights. https://www.youtube.com/live/xvoHPccNCEQ?si=X8gW1QiRzAjVUxhj

From HAWC:
"Today, Tues., Nov. 11, 2025, the HAWC Call Center is closed for Veterans Day. We will resume normal business hours tomorrow, Wed., Nov. 12th, at 8:30 am.
Those in need of overnight or daytime winter warming can call Delonis Center at 734-662-2829 or IHN/Alpha House at 734-822-0220."

A big thank you to our community partners at House N2 Home who completely furnished 20 units at The Grove at Veridian! Their volunteers work tirelessly to make our tenants and clients feel right at home from the moment they step inside. We are so grateful for their continued support.

Update on our Food Distribution work with Avalon & Food Gatherers! I'm still raising funds for the creating.care effort - I'm a little over halfway to the ambitious $1,000 goal I set, and would love to see us hit it by the time these distributions go live give.foodgatherers.org/campaigns/41...

Thanks to our partner Food Gatherers for their emergency food distribution in the absence of SNAP. The first one is Sat., Nov. 8. No registration required. For more info:
https://www.foodgatherers.org/.../FG_Emergency-Food...
For all food pantries and meal sites: www.foodgatherers.org/foodresources

It's getting cold out there! Help our Avalon community stay warm in this winter by participating in our winter gear supplies drive! Scan the QR code to see our Amazon wish list, or email Shannon Canniff at scanniff@avalonhousing.org to coordinate a drop off.

As Homeless Awareness Month kicks off, here's a recent fact sheet from CSH laying out the evidence for the effectiveness of permanent supportive housing -- check it out! https://www.csh.org/wp-content/uploads/Evidence-for-Supportive-Housing-Brief-CSH-2025.pdf

New map shows thousands of Washtenaw County properties with racist restrictions Thousands of properties from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti and beyond — even the land on which Michigan Stadium sits — still have racist restrictions on the books.

And an Mlive piece on the effort is at: www.mlive.com/news/ann-arb...
3/3

Former Executive Director Aubrey Patiño and board members Ryan Henyard and Alex Thomas spoke at the event. You can see a replay of the session at: aadl.org/node/646773.
A map of 9000+ racial covenants can be viewed at: www.justiceindeedmi.org/maps-and-dat.... 2/3

Avalon was proud to have played a role earlier this week in Justice InDeed's public session on the history of racially discriminatory real estate covenants in Washtenaw County... 1/3

Congrats and thank you to Tara Tarbox, our Director of Property Management, and Chris Allen, Maintenance Technician, for being named Leader and Employee of the Month for August! We appreciate your hard work and dedication to our mission!

HUD may restrict funds for permanent housing for recently homeless people
Reports say the administration will cut funding for permanent housing by 70%, putting 170,000 people at risk of homelessness
This threatens $7 mil. and over 800 neighbors in Washtenaw County
More: https://ow.ly/Hy9I50XjVtT

Justice InDeed has been documenting racially restrictive housing covenants across Washtenaw County. Today, the group will present its findings, including a map, and ask the community how we can move forward. Please visit https://growth.futureroot.co/justiceindeed more info.

Congrats to our ED Aaron Cooper, who was named to the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials' Diversity Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. "I am honored to serve on this committee," Aaron said.

You may have heard that SNAP benefits will be suspended for November. If you're in need of extra food to fill the gap, check out Food Gatherers' list of resources at https://www.foodgatherers.org/foodresources/.

Thanks to First United Methodist Church in South Lyon for inviting us to participate in its Affordable Housing Expo on Sunday -- it was great to see so many local organizations doing such good work, and so many community members interested in this issue!

Save the dates, Oct. 21 and 28, to join Justice InDeed (justiceindeedmi.org) as the group shares its research and a map of 9,000+ racially restrictive covenants in Washtenaw County, and invites the community to imagine what comes next.

Avalon's offices are closed today in honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day. Residents can call 734-369-9338 with any maintenance requests.

Thank you to crews from the Global Health Alliance at U-M who helped us out not once but twice in recent weeks -- cleaning and sorting items in our Basic Needs Pantry, and doing some groundskeeping at our homes on Stimson. We appreciate you!

News Flash: Applications for 31 units at Dunbar Tower close tomorrow, Oct. 7! The units carry a preference for artists who live or work in Washtenaw County. Please visit https://ow.ly/aV0350X33XR for details.

Rev. Wyche -- we at Avalon THANK YOU for your vision, your dedication, and your inspirational message! (END)

Avalon has shown us what is possible. The Grove is proof that when we persevere, we can transform vacant land into sacred ground. But ... it's going to take all of us -- advocates, neighbors, policymakers, faith communities -- to keep pushing until everyone has a place to call home." (4/5)

But he said that seeing the project completed was bittersweet, because 7,000 people applied for only 20 open units. "That's a moral indictment of how we've chosen to structure our city."
He added: "We have a choice. We can choose abundance over scarcity. We can choose creativity over fear... (3/5)

"Over a decade ago, I attended the first meeting about what would become The Grove. The site had been a juvenile detention center, a place that had torn families apart... I was full of hope that we could see this land transformed into something that would bring families together." ... (2/5)

A black male in a blue shirt and a white male in a light shirt hold a plaque.

In his speech accepting Avalon's Community Champion Award last month, @donnell.bsky.social (pictured here with Avalon board president Jeremy Lapedis) recalled how the fight to create The Grove at Veridian shaped his advocacy for more housing... (1/5)

News Flash: Applications for 31 units at Dunbar Tower open tomorrow (Oct. 1) and will be accepted through Oct. 7! The units carry a preference for artists who live or work in Washtenaw County. Please visit https://ow.ly/B3qL50X33SC for details.

Eileen's story spoke to the power of collaboration and community in helping to meet everyone's basic needs. Thank you Eileen! Think of what we can do together in the next 30 years!

From sitting in her car listening to a public radio piece about Avalon 30 years ago and thinking "I've got to meet this Carole McCabe person," to the partnerships that helped distribute 10.3 million pounds of food last year...

In her speech as Featured Partner at our Home for Good fundraiser earlier this month, Food Gatherers CEO Eileen Spring recounted a decades-long relationship between our organizations, as well as the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County and the Washtenaw Housing Alliance.

Huge shout out to the crew of volunteers from KLA Services that came out to Carrot Way and helped with weeding, landscaping, raking, and cleaning up garden beds! They cleared about 2,000 pounds of yard waste. And if that isn't enough, the KLA Foundation chipped in a $7,000 donation! ❤️