Politics

‘Priced out’: candidates highlight housing crisis as Ann Arbor mayoral race heats up

Sofia Oganezova

Staff Writer

As Ann Arbor heads into the upcoming mayoral election, housing affordability has emerged as a central issue for residents – including students at WCC.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor, New York City native and a long-term Ann Arbor resident was first elected in 2014. His challenger, Yousef Rabhi, was raised in Ann Arbor and is now a county commissioner and a former state representative. Both candidates are Democrats and agree that the city is facing a housing crisis. However,they differ on how to solve it.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor met with WCC students on-campus at a “Get to Know the Mayor” event on April 1, where housing and student concerns were the key topics.

In a interview with the Voice prior to the event, Taylor said the city’s housing crisis is the most pressing issue facing residents.

“The biggest challenge facing the city right now is our housing crisis and housing affordability,” Taylor said.

According to Taylor, the issue comes down to supply and demand. As more people move to Ann Arbor – driven by economic growth and institutions like the University of Michigan – housing construction has not kept pace.

“When you cap supply in the presence of high demand, spoiler alert, prices will go up,” Taylor said.

Taylor added that housing costs have risen significantly faster than wages.

“Housing prices have gone up four times wages, rents have gone up two and a half times inflation and wages,” Taylor said.

Rabhi, however, framed the issue differently, pointing to a broader economic inequality as a driving force.

“You see the richest Americans accumulating more and more wealth and capital, and the rest of us still struggling to make ends meet, to pay our bills, to pay our utilities,” Rabhi said.

Rabhi explained that those concerns were part of what motivated him to run for mayor.

“Ann Arbor has progressively over the years become less affordable for people to live in,” Rabhi said. “And that is driving people away from the community.”

“It’s become what I’m calling a country club town because it’s like you have to buy a membership to be able to afford to live here now,” Rabhi said.

For many WCC students, those rising costs are already a reality. Unlike many university students, WCC students are more likely to commute, work while attending school or live outside the city due to affordability.

Jeison Luna, a WCC political science student, said housing challenges can be especially difficult for community college students.

“Housing is 100% an issue that most college kids go through,” Luna said. “But in particular with WCC students, it feels like it might be a little more difficult.”

Luna said part of the challenge comes from not having access to the same housing pathways as students at four-year universities.

“Because that dorm life wasn’t there, WCC students might not have the same resources to find housing,” Luna said.

Luna added that the city could play a larger role in making housing options more accessible and visible to students.

“Maybe there could be a greater push from the city to make sure that students do have affordable housing and they are very much aware of it,” Luna said.

Taylor acknowledged that students are being priced out of Ann Arbor and pointed to a lack of housing development as the cause.

“The reason you’re priced out of Ann Arbor is because we have not allowed housing to be built in Ann Arbor,” Taylor said. “We have kept a cap on housing in the city and that needs to change.”

To address the issue, Taylor said the city must expand both subsidized and market-rate housing.

“We need both affordable housing and market housing in order to meet our housing prices,” Taylor said, adding that “students, in particular, have a hard time.”

Rabhi criticized that approach, arguing the city relies too heavily on market-driven solutions.

“One of the primary concerns that I have is that the solutions are market-based and not people-based,” Rabhi said.

While Taylor has emphasized increasing housing supply, Rabhi said he does not believe that approach alone will solve the crisis.

“I am under no illusion that that is going to solve the crisis of housing,” Rabhi added, “We don’t have 20 to 30 years to wait. We need solutions that work now, that actually help people now.”

Instead, Rabhi pointed to a different strategy: “We need to build publicly owned, permanently affordable housing.”

Taylor pointed to his record expanding affordable housing funding and supporting new developments.

“When any housing comes to city council, I vote yes,” Taylor said.

Rabhi, meanwhile, also pointed to differences in leadership and priorities.

“Taylor’s been the mayor for 12 years. And so, there’s been 12 years of opportunity to develop the solutions that he’s talking about,” Rabhi said.

For students, Rabhi said the city has not done enough to include them in decision-making.

“I definitely don’t think Ann Arbor pays basically any attention to WCC students,” Rabhi said. “Students are sort of like an unheard part of the population.”

Rabhi added that students are central to the city itself.

“If the students were not from those three colleges, U-M, EMU, and WCC, we wouldn’t have a community. There would be no Ann Arbor, there’d be no Washtenaw County,” Rabhi said. “It would be nothing like what it is today.”

As part of his approach, Rabhi said students should play a larger role in shaping policy: “Why not bring the students and put them at the very table where decisions are being made?”

Taylor said he hopes progress will be visible in the coming years.

“I’m hopeful that we will have turned the corner on our housing crisis,” Taylor said.

Rabhi said success would mean making the city more livable for all residents.

“It’s really about building a community where everybody can afford to live and not just afford to have a roof over their head, but afford to thrive and live their best life,” Rabhi said.

Ann Arbor’s mayoral election will be held August 4, 2026 (primary) and November 3, 2026 (general). Michigan makes voting accessible, allowing residents to register online, by mail, or in person — even on Election day — so eligible voters have ample opportunity to take part, whether at their local precinct, an early voting site, or the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s Office.