TRC FACING A TSUNAMI OF UNMET NEEDS; URGENT ACTION NEEDED

By Khadja Erickson and Laura Sager

We have some good news and some bad news.

The Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource team has shown up, week after week, with life-saving food, clothing, and essentials, as well as with legal, and financial resources for a unanticipated level of community need that has never let up.

But a funding gap is threatening operations just as cold weather approaches. We’re asking for your urgent assistance to keep lifesaving services rolling. Here’s our story:

The numbers
Since January, the TRC’s three staff members and ten volunteers have reached over 1,200 individuals across Michigan, blowing past the TRC’s full–year service goal of 175 people. But reach isn’t the same as results: 60 people obtained stable housing and 230 families avoided eviction or kept the home they had, because someone in our office answered the phone and moved fast. 

We’ve put more than $37,000 directly between families and losing their homes: rental arrears paid before an eviction hearing, hotel rooms booked the night someone had nowhere else to sleep, move-in costs covered so a unit didn’t slip away while a benefits check was still in the mail. 

Street outreach is where we started, and it’s still where we show up most

Rain or shine, heat wave or subzero cold, our team goes out. We bring tents, sleeping bags, water, food, and hygiene supplies directly to people in the field, along with the real-time information they need to make a plan before severe weather hits. When temperatures spike or plunge, that outreach isn’t optional; it’s the difference between someone finding shelter in time and someone not. This is the work the TRC is best known for, and it’s the foundation everything else is built on.

We didn’t stop at casework
A family kept housed today doesn’t fix the system that put them at risk tomorrow. So, we also took the fight to court, to city hall, and to the legislature:

• We won an injunction and a money judgment for tenants at Kristana MHP.
• We’re still standing with the Dietrich encampment: holding storage for former residents and covering emergency shelter costs months after most agencies would have called it closed.
• We are working to fight off Jackson’s ordinance targeting unhoused people’s personal property.
• Our organizing was critical to defeating East Lansing’s proposed camping ban this spring, stopping a city from criminalizing having nowhere to live.
• We’re building bipartisan support for a deed fraud prevention bill package (still in draft form and pending introduction) to close a gap predators use to steal homes out from under vulnerable owners through a simple filing.

This work has gotten noticed. Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness recognized the TRC as a nationwide leader in street outreach best practices, and TRC Executive Director Khadja Erickson has presented her outreach strategies and methodology to audiences across the state. We received a Spirit of Detroit award for its work on deed fraud prevention. The Lansing Area Peace Education Center gave Erickson its 2026 Peacemaker of the Year Award for work spanning the Dietrich encampment, the fight against East Lansing’s camping ban, and extreme-weather outreach. 

None of that changes what actually matters: the family that stays housed tonight, the person who makes it through a cold snap because someone showed up. But it tells you this isn’t small, and it isn’t slowing down. And none of it happens without the support of our community, which brings us to our urgent ask for help.

How can you help? Please continue reading at _______________________.

When we rose to meet the unanticipated volume of need, we spent money that literally may have made the difference between life or death, between saving a home or losing one, between speaking truth to power or playing it safe.

 Then a grant we were depending on was not released by the funder, for their own technical reasons. This left us with a funding gap until January, when our next major grant comes in. We’ve tightened our already tight belts: payless paydays and reducing a staff person to half-time. But we can’t risk curtailing our services or even temporarily closing our doors as cold weather approaches.

Right now people are stepping up to help raise the needed funds.

 While significant progress has been made but we still need to raise around $30,000 to carry us to January. We’ve established a TRC Fundraising Committee that is 1) asking people to donate immediately, 2) sponsoring fundraising events, 3) planning major public education/fundraising events with nationally-known speakers, and, once the emergency is over, 4) growing our grant pipeline so our income is commensurate with the services needed to protect our neighbors.

Here are ways you can donate today

Giving a one-time gift will ensure we can keep responding to the families as they reach out to us. Or, a recurring gift will ensure we can provide an ongoing level of necessary essential services, legal:

support, and advocacy needed to keep tenants in their homes and help unhoused people get into safe and secure housing.

Please consider giving one-time or monthly, through Givebutter:https://givebutter.com/TRC-mid-mi. You will see the Lansing Area Peace Education Center name at the link, as it is the fiscal agent for the TRC. All funds raised via Givebutter will go directly to the TRC.

If you prefer tomailacheck, it should be made payable to: Peace Education Center, with MMTRC in thememo line. Please mail checks to: Peace Education Center/MMTRC, 1120 S. Harrison Street, East Lansing, MI 48823. All funds raised via check will go directly to the MMTRC. 

Use this link for electronic donations (PayPal, Venmo, Credit cards). Make sure you indicate that the donation is for the MMTRC.

We also urge you to also ask your friends/contacts to donate. Contact Laura at lmsager@pm.me and we can provide you with any additional materials you will need to make the ask!

You can also help by promoting and attending upcoming FUN fundraising events to benefit the Mid-Michigan Tenants Resource Center:

• Hot Resistance Yoga — Sept. 27th, 1:30 p.m.. Donations shared with MMTRC. This will be held at East Lansing Hot Yoga, located at 924 Trowbridge Rd. East Lansing, MI 48823
• TRC Anniversary FUNdraiser/BBQ — Oct. 4th, 12-6 p.m. $10/person, kids 10 and under free. 3505 N Cedar St, Lansing, MI 48906 (a short walk from CATA route 10, stop #3565-SBD Turner past Sheridan Rd). 
• TRC Community-wide fundraiser Come to hear the Stan Craig Band with vocalist Katherine Groll and more, Doors open at 3:00 p.m.; event is 3:30-5:00 PM, Sunday, Oct. 11. Food and fun for all.  families welcome! Location: Copper Chimney Lounge, University United Methodist Church, 1120 S. Harrison, East Lansing. Donations appreciated, refreshments.
• Urban Beat, 1213 Turner Street, Lansing, MI — 6-8 p.m., Oct. 13, suggested donation at the door for the TRC. Featuring rap and hip hop artist Jahosua Smith. Food, drinks available for purchase. 

Stay tuned for other events and be sure to attend and bring friends and family! Let us know if you’d be interested in hosting a fundraising event, splitting the till at one you are already planning, or helping to get people to attend.

Finally, we need more hands both behind the scenes and in the streets!

Ten volunteers and three staff helped carry all of outstanding work, but the need has outgrown what 13 people can hold. If you have a few hours a month, we want you on the team: street outreach, event support, admin, social media — whatever fits your life. Contact Khadja at khadja.e@trcmm.org and we’ll get you plugged in!

If you would be willing to join the TRC Fundraising Committee, we could use your help here as well. If interested, contact Laura Sager at lmsager@pm.me. 

(Khadja Erickson is the executive director of the TRC; Laura Sager is on the board of the Lansing Area Peace Education Center.)