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Houghton is a college town and with that comes an increasing number of rental units needed to accommodate the growing enrollment at Michigan Tech and other local colleges.
But the evolution of the area’s family-based residential neighborhoods to largely student housing has long been a cause for concern to homeowners.
Some residents addressed these concerns at Wednesday’s meeting of the Houghton Rental Housing Board.
Two applications were being considered, one for a house on Hubbell Street and another on Vivian Street, for an R-1 license which would allow the unit to be rented to a single family or no more than 2 unrelated persons.
However, city officials admitted there has been difficulty in enforcing that ordinance since so many rental houses have their licenses grandfathered in–with some being allowed to have as many as six unrelated people living in the home.
The city says they have records of the licenses and rely mainly on residents to contact the city if there is a question about one of the homes.
