Council Member Lisa Disch at Ann Arbor's Planning Commission’s 4/22/25 workshop recounts a story about new buyers can’t find housing due to current residents not dyingand “holding on.” It’s like “waiting to get into the restaurant”?

This grim reality highlights the profound failures of the Commission's Draft Comprehensive Plan to address the needs of fix-income residents, showcasing their prolonged disconnect from the affordable housing crisis.

The core problems presented, which the Commission's plan seemingly fails to address with any competence, include:

• Paralyzed Housing Turnover: A significant lack of affordable options exists among current residents to transition to more appropriately sized homes. This inertia, as Disch points out, delays generational turnover in housing. Consequently, instead of meaningful price relief, the market sees only steady hyper-inflation in prices—a fundamental market failure that the Commission’s planning apparently disregards.

• Incentives Entrenching Scarcity: The situation is worsened by existing incentives that encourage incumbent homeowners to retain their current housing indefinitely. This practice further constricts the already limited affordable housing availability, a stark reality that the Planning Commission’s strategies seem to either completely ignore or even enable through ineffective or poorly conceived policies.

• A Market of False Hope: The combined effect of these issues, as presented directly to the Commission, creates a dire scenario. Hopeful buyers and renters find themselves perpetually "waiting to get into housing that may never become available". This critical observation casts a damning light on the Planning Commission's Draft Comprehensive Plan, exposing its detachment from the lived experiences of residents and its overall incompetence in fostering a functional and accessible housing market for the people of Ann Arbor.