Michigan

Biannual count of homeless people to bring federal funds to southeast Michigan

Published

2 years ago

February 4, 2024

Biannual count of homeless people to bring federal funds to southeast Michigan

Detroit — Despite freezing temperatures that made it hard to locate people living on the streets, advocates for the homeless searched southeast Michigan communities last month in an effort to count those in need to draw in critical federal funds.

Volunteers joined the Homeless Action Network of Detroit for the point-in-time count on Wednesday night in Detroit. About 120 volunteers, fanned out across the Motor City, spreading out in teams, canvassing several neighborhoods to survey people facing homelessness, leaders said.

Volunteer Ronnika Harris of Detroit is careful about approaching homeless people too stridently to seek information about their situations. She wants them to trust that she has their interests in mind.

“Just being welcoming, being open and not judgy,” Harris said of her approach. “Explaining why we’re doing what we’re doing and giving them as much information that we can to get them to open up. It’s not always easy, but people see and feel your heart, so if you display the right heart, usually they will share their stories.”

Braving the cold in 2021 to find unsheltered people was worth it, Harris said, even though her team of three only found two people. This year she hopes for better results with the Homeless Action Network of Detroit.

“The first time I participated was two years ago and it was still during COVID-19…and we didn’t find a lot of people outside,” Harris said of the four-hour search. “So I’m just hoping to be able to engage more people this year and see if we can get them in shelter.”

The bi-annual count, a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is designed to collect information to draw federal funding for Michigan’s largest city. It takes place the last 10 days of January.

Street outreach workers, homeless service providers and volunteers collected information about those living on the streets, including their stories, and offered to provide them with shelter, leaders said. Volunteers carried new winter hats and scarves, thermal blankets, gloves and mittens, socks and personal hygiene kits and handed them out.

“Ultimately, this is data we report to HUD, and it helps all communities across the country, which are doing the point-in-time count this month,” said Amanda Sternberg, a performance management analyst for Homeless Action Network of Detroit. “HUD uses this data from across the country to report to Congress, to set funding levels, so it’s really data that the federal government uses to drive funding allocations.”

Sternberg said the information helps local governments and organizations in Detroit to understand such needs as mental health and substance abuse services, or affordable housing.

In a 2021 report, the Homeless Action Network of Detroit and the Detroit Continuum of Care, a year-round planning body of stakeholders working to end homelessness in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park, found more than 5,600 people facing homelessness in Detroit.

The count, Sternberg said, happens at night because they’ve found someone in the streets at night during the winter likely has no place to go.

“The one thing that I hear often from our street outreach workers is it takes a lot of time to build trust with people who have been staying unsheltered for a long time,” she said. “So we have staff day-in-and-out doing this hard work every day, building trust with folks and getting them to engage in services.”

In Detroit, the weather on Wednesday was warmer compared to past count periods, which volunteers were hoping would affect their ability to spot unsheltered populations. Temperatures on Wednesday were above average around 41, according to National Weather Service records.

Richard Monocchio, principal deputy assistant secretary at HUD, said every year, housing programs are awarded funds and resources from the federal government based on innovative programs that seek to serve homeless populations.

Programs are those that “build permanent supportive housing … build transitional housing for the homeless, they run shelter and food programs for homeless people, they run job training and placement programs … and critically provide rental assistance,” Monocchio said.

HUD announced in October that it allocated 70,000 housing vouchers to local public housing authorities through the Emergency Housing Voucher program to help individuals and families who are homeless, at-risk of homelessness and other destabilizing situations, according to its website.

The Biden administration awarded $3.16 billion in homelessness assistance to communities across the nation, according to a news release HUD on Monday.

“This Point-in-Time Count is sort of symbolic and important for everything we do at HUD in the homeless space,” Monocchio said, adding that 400 counts occurred throughout the nation in January. In Michigan, 20 communities participated in the count, he said.

Meanwhile, in Macomb County, the state’s third most populous county, dozens of volunteers conducted a count on Jan. 28 with Macomb Community Action, a member of a national network of organizations that helps people move from poverty to economic stability.

Volunteers were assigned ZIP codes and “hot spots” such as parks and bus stops to gather information, including gender, race, ethnicity, veteran status, age and disabilities. Volunteers sought to identify if a person was “chronically homeless” or was experiencing homelessness due to domestic violence or substance use, leaders said.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel described the count as essential.

“It provides support to individuals in our society that sometimes get left behind,” Hackel said last month.

Food, hand warmers, winter clothing, hygiene kits, blankets, fast-food gift cards and bus tickets were handed out, Macomb Community Action leaders said. Local charities donated the items.

Kristin DeFranco, program coordinator for housing resources at Macomb Community Action, said in 2021, the numbers stayed stagnant from the previous count of those experiencing homeless.

“The pandemic time was difficult because a lot more people were becoming homeless due to evictions and job loss,” DeFranco said. “Macomb County in particular, the numbers haven’t changed. If anything we need more resources for the homeless.”

jaimery@detroitnews.com

X: @wordsbyjakkar

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Michigan

Michigan to distribute marijuana tax revenue: What your city will get

Published

12 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Michigan to distribute marijuana tax revenue: What your city will get

The Michigan Department of Treasury will distribute tax revenue collected from marijuana sales to municipalities and counties.
The government entities will get about $54,000 per retail store or microbusiness, based on nearly $94 million collected.
Detroit, once again, will receive the most money of any municipality.

Michigan municipalities and counties that allow recreational marijuana dispensaries are set to receive far less money this year than last in their annual portion of tax revenue collected from cannabis sales.

Sales declined in 2025 for the first time since legal recreational marijuana sales started in December 2019.

A total of 114 cities, 39 villages, 81 townships, 75 counties and four tribes will receive payments from the Marijuana Regulation Fund, according to a March 3 news release from Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency. They will get about $54,000 per retail store or microbusiness, based on nearly $94 million collected.

Last year, each eligible government entity received a little more than $58,000 per business based on a total of nearly $100 million in marijuana tax revenue.

Detroit, once again, will receive the most money of any municipality. There are 61 active retailer licenses in Detroit, so the city will get nearly $3.3 million in tax revenue.

State law determines how the money is split. The Michigan Transportation Fund gets 35% of the revenue, which is used for the repair and maintenance of roads and bridges, and another 35% goes to the School Aid Fund to be used for K-12 education. The other 30% is split between municipalities, counties and tribes.

The payments come from revenue collected from the 10% recreational marijuana excise tax. This tax is separate from a new 24% wholesale tax that went into effect Jan. 1. The revenue from that tax will go to fixes for local roads.

Sales at recreational marijuana dispensaries declined by 3% last year to $3.17 billion, down from $3.28 billion in 2024, according to figures from Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency, leading to the smaller payouts. More government entities also split the revenue compared with last year.

Payments to municipalities could get smaller if sales continue to decline. Recreational marijuana sales in Michigan plunged nearly 16% in January compared with December as heavy snow, cold temperatures and fears of higher prices due to the new 24% wholesale cannabis tax kept consumers at home.

While recent trends indicate a cooling period, a February report from Headset, a cannabis market intelligence firm, said the market — one of the largest in the country — has shown resilience over the last two years.

Below are the municipalities that received the most tax revenue:

Detroit: $3.3 million
Grand Rapids: $1.5 million
Lansing: $1.4 million
Ann Arbor: $1.2 million
Kalamazoo: $1 million
Flint: $648,000
Traverse City, Hazel Park and Adrian all will receive $594,000.

For a full list of municipalities, counties and tribes that will receive marijuana tax revenue, go to www.michigan.gov/treasury.

Contact Adrienne Roberts: amroberts@freepress.com

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Michigan

“Trustworthy” AI consortium focused on ethics, security launches in West Michigan

Published

24 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

“Trustworthy” AI consortium focused on ethics, security launches in West Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping everything from classroom conversations to social media, and leaders at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) say West Michigan is positioning itself to help determine how the technology is used, responsibly.

The university’s College of Computing is launching the West Michigan Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) Consortium, aimed at helping businesses, researchers and the community better understand how to use artificial intelligence.

Right in the heart of Grand Rapids, along the Medical Mile, the consortium will meet at the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health (DCIH) every week, with quarterly meetings open to the general public.

The effort is aimed at helping West Michigan industries adopt AI that fits their specific needs, while problem-solving for security, bias, privacy, and ethical concerns.

Right in the heart of Grand Rapids, along Medical Mile, the consortium will meet at the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health (DCIH) every week, with quarterly meetings open to the general public. (Abigail Taylor/WWMT)

Marouane Kessentini, Ph.D, Dean of the GVSU College of Computing told News Channel 3 that a wide range of companies in the region are bringing forward questions of where, and how, to ethically integrate artificial intelligence into their practices.

“Here in West Michigan, we have a high concentration of many industries, health, manufacturing, and of course high-tech companies,” said Kessentini. “The first questions are about security, privacy, ethics and bias. It’s not just about deploying tools. It’s about deploying them responsibly.”

Kessentini said the consortium will focus on training, research and community education, with a heavy emphasis on data privacy, cybersecurity and misinformation.

“There are many examples where AI systems were trained on data that wasn’t diverse,” he said. “That can lead to inaccurate results. That’s why testing and training are critical.”

The consortium will bring together faculty researchers, students, and industry leaders, with weekly meetings planned to develop guidance for using AI at scale.

The goal is to help companies validate AI outputs, clean and manage data, and identify bias before systems are put into real-world use, especially in high-risk industries like healthcare and manufacturing.

Some projects will involve software design, others will focus on creating public data sets that are reliably sourced, but anonymized for safe use, and many more are yet to be ideated.

Some projects will involve software design, others will focus on creating public data sets that are reliably sourced, but anonymized for safe use, and many more are yet to be ideated. (Abigail Taylor/WWMT)

The initiative is backed by $1,031,000 in federal support, through the Community Project Funding (CPF) process, resources that U.S. Representative Hillary Scholten (D-MI-03) said she advocated for among members of congress in Washington.

“West Michigan should be leading the way in how artificial intelligence is developed and used, and that starts with investing in people and institutions we trust,” said Rep. Scholten. “This funding will help GVSU bring together educators, industry, and public partners to build AI systems that are ethical, secure, and transparent while preparing students for good-paying jobs and strengthening our region’s economy. I’m proud to support this work and to continue delivering federal investments that ensure West Michigan remains at the forefront of responsible innovation.”

It’s important that AI is useful, but also safe…

GVSU also launched an online certificate portal that is open for community members interested in learning about ethical AI use, for free.

Kessentini said the training is for the general public to learn how to navigate the technology, including the risks and limitations.

“It’s important that AI is useful, but also safe,” said Edgar Cruz, master’s student with a badge in cybersecurity.

Cruz is currently researching how AI systems can be attacked or manipulated with poisoned data, specifically as it relates to vehicle-to-vehicle communication, where AI helps self-driving cars exchange information like speed and position.

“We want to ensure that the system is robust and safe,” he said. “Because obviously people are involved.”

Kessentini said the consortium is designed to be a public resource, not just an academic project.

Quarterly community meetings will be open to the public, and training materials are available online through the College of Computing website.

“This is innovation with purpose,” he said. “We want to start here in Grand Rapids, but we want to make a global impact.”

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New Michigan O-line coach Jim Harding has one goal for spring practice

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

New Michigan O-line coach Jim Harding has one goal for spring practice

Jim Harding, Michigan’s new offensive line coach, has one goal coming out of spring practice: he wants to have a set starting five plus a solid sixth lineman for good measure.

Michigan begins spring practice March 17 and concludes with the spring game on April 18.

Harding, appearing on the Michigan in-house podcast, “In the Trenches” hosted by Jon Jansen, joined new Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham’s staff from Utah, where Whittingham was head coach the last 21 years. Harding spoke about a number of topics, including returning to the Midwest — he grew up in Maumee, Ohio, and his wife is from Farmington Hills — and his love for the Detroit Tigers, but most important was his discussion about building the Wolverines’ offensive line.

“I’d like to establish the starting five where you feel good that when you go into fall camp,” Harding said on the podcast that posted Wednesday. “Those are the guys that are working together immediately from Day 1.”

Harding said he uses a sixth lineman — he terms that player the “rhino” — quite a bit and would like to have at least two ready to go. The Wolverines also need depth at center considering only Jake Guarnera has snapped in a game.

“And then just having that physicality, nastiness of the offensive line,” Harding said. “Just kind of develop that.”

Since arriving earlier this year at Michigan, Harding said he’s been impressed by the linemen and their desire to work hard on conditioning and developing their craft by asking questions and wanting feedback. They have gone to dinner as a group to get to know each other away from the facility, and Harding has enjoyed the process.

“The things that you can’t measure right now is our physicality or our toughness, things like that,” Harding said. “I’m confident that it won’t be an issue, but that’s kind of the next step once we get pads on, (finding out) who are kind of the Alpha dogs in the room that are going to set the tone for the unit, and then, obviously, the offense. But really pleased with what I’ve seen so far.”

Harding shared offensive coordinator Jason Beck’s approach to installing the offense.

“The way (Beck) runs it, everything’s on the table Day 1 in practice,” Harding said on the podcast. “So we’ll get a script with, if you count red zone, probably 60 or so plays, and any play can be called. It’s really unique, and I’d never done it this way, but Coach Beck, actually calls it like he does in the game. There are no scripts, and so we’ll just move the ball down the field, and if it’s a third play and it’s third and 3, well he’s going to call a third-and-3 call.

“So you really have to have the kids prepared for all 60 of those. And then the next day there’ll be maybe different formations and things like that once we get the concepts down in the O-line room for the run game. Now it’s just a matter of dressing up different things. It’s a lot of stuff early on, because every run scheme we have could be called on that first day, every pass protection we have could be called on that first day. So it’s a front-loaded installation.”

achengelis@detroitnews.com

@chengelis

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