But we don’t.

So it was good news that Traverse City and two affordable housing agencies — Habitat for Humanity-Grand Traverse Region and the HomeStretch Nonprofit Housing Corp. — have finally signed an agreement to build 21 affordable homes (top price $100,000) near the former railroad depot off Eighth Street.

A portion of the 2.5-acre site will be sold to an adjacent property owner for expected commercial or other development. But what’s important here is that up to 21 families will have an opportunity to own their own home, put down roots and raise a family while investing in their future (not their landlord’s).

This isn’t the only affordable housing effort in town. Affordable units are being built at the Grand Traverse Commons and both Habitat and HomeStretch are still in the home-building business.

But if everything goes as planned, this will become an instant neighborhood in a high-profile site and will help transform a relatively barren, industrial-looking area into a diverse retail/commercial/residential strip stretching along Eighth Street from Boardman Avenue to Woodmere and south past the library.

It will bring new life to an area that has long needed a major face lift, the kind of renewal that is fueled by neighborhoods of single-family homes and the energy and pride homeowners bring to their properties and their part of town.

The need for homes that young families can afford can’t be overstated. A lot of the tourist, resort-style economy Traverse City depends on so much — restaurants, hotels and motels, shops and smaller white-collar businesses — depends on younger people to fill the jobs those businesses create, including restaurant servers, sale clerks, bartenders, young professionals and others.

Usually, those folks can’t yet afford big houses outside town in new neighborhoods or, for that matter, most of the older homes that make up so much of the city’s housing stock.

If they do find houses they can afford, they’re often miles out of town, which means reliable transportation and paying for gas is a must. Young families living outside the city also face a bigger challenge finding affordable, reliable day care.

Affordable housing, then, is more than just houses for people who can’t afford new homes out of town or established homes on leafy city streets. It’s an investment in the city and the people who will grow up here and build some more.

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©2012 The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Mich.)

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