Ludeman said her rent went from $575 to $900 a month. Additionally, she is now required to pay cable and internet fees that she said she doesn’t want because she doesn’t have a TV.

Central Michigan Life spoke with another resident, who also confirmed the rent increases.

Ludeman said the voucher is covering most of her housing expenses.

Out of pocket, Ludeman said she used to pay $35 a month, but will now be required to pay $100 a month. On top of that, she said she has to pay $60 for internet and $50 for water.

Ludeman said her month income is $345 from retirement and $618 from Supplemental Security Income.

“I'm upset,” Ludeman said. “It's just unbearable knowing that this coming month I'm gonna have to fork over $200, and part of that is my food money. It’s gonna hurt me.”

Ludeman said she decided to renew the lease because she didn’t have time to get a new apartment. The notice came two weeks and a month before her lease was up, she said.

A landlord can increase rent after the initial lease term and a notice must be sent to a tenant 60 days in advance, according to Michigan.gov.

“If I would have been given a notice (earlier) that the rent was going to increase that high, I would have been looking for another apartment,” Ludeman said. “Another thing, if they're going to raise the rent that high, we should have washers and dryers in our units.”

But Sarah Marshall, the head of business operations with Charger Properties that own Arbors, said the reason why they increased the rent was to match the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) payment standard.

“We always follow the guidelines that are required for this specific property, which is the same thing for any affordable property,” Marshall said. “I don't think people realize that it's not necessarily us out here going, ‘We want to charge you this much.’ We're actually given those rates, and we can't strike outside of those, so it's very much driven by MSHDA and the LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit), the taxpayer program.”

MSHDA is a state-led program, funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that provides financial assistance with affordable housing, according to its website. MSHDA’s payment standards as of January 2024 in Isabella County for a one-bedroom apartment is $896.

For a two-bedroom apartment, the one that Ludeman has, MSHDA's max rent is $1,035.

Marshall said the rent at Arbors for a two-bedroom apartment is $717. But according to Ludeman’s lease amendment agreement, her rent is $900.

Marshall explained that is because of MSHDA's payment standards.

"When a resident has a MSHDA voucher, we can ask for max rent, as the resident rent portion is low," she wrote in an email. "If (the resident) was not a voucher recipient, then (they) would max out at 717 (dollars), but as a MSHDA voucher holder, they allow a max of 949 (dollars)."

Katie Bach, the communication director with MSHDA, said in an email that if the apartment owner charges above MSHDA’s payment standard, the tenant would be required to pay the difference.

The tenant is capped at paying no more than 40% of their adjusted monthly income toward the rent, Bach said.

“If the amount will exceed 40%, then the unit is not affordable based on HUD regulations,” she wrote in an email. “The owner would need to lower the rent, or the family would need to find a new unit.”

Amanda Brake, a Section 8 coordinator with Mount Pleasant Housing Commission, said that a tenant still has the right to try and negotiate a lower price when they renew a lease with their renter.

Brake also said that she has not seen Arbors going above the fair market rate published by HUD every October.

“The Arbors is a special landlord in that they have some units with significantly lower prices for those who qualify based on income (pricing these specific units closer to actual affordability for lower income families),” Brake said in an email. “This is a huge benefit to our community members as not everyone that needs help is able to get voucher assistance.”

According to HUD, the fair market rent in Isabella County is $815 for a one-bedroom apartment, $941 for a two-bedroom and $1,245 for a three-bedroom.

However, Brake said that affordable housing is at a national crisis. And MSHDA, for example, is not even accepting any more applications for its vouchers, she said.

“I think that it's rather misleading that they say that it's a fair market rate or they consider it an affordable rent,” Brake said. “True affordability would be based on a person's income. … And Isabella County is, per capita based on income, the poorest county in Michigan.”

Brake said that in her experience, landlords in Mount Pleasant keep their rents within the HUD guidelines as much as they can, but they also must be able to stay in business.

“They are a for-profit industry, and so their bottom line is what matters in their business model,” she said. “You can't act like the landlords are the enemies.”

This crisis happened because the amount of housing built is not able to keep up with the population, inflation and zoning requirements, Brake said.

Now the solution is for the government to provide more assistance for housing, such as building more of it and supporting affordable housing vouchers, Brake said.

For people in need of affordable housing in Isabella County, Brake said they can apply for a voucher within Mount Pleasant Housing Commission. The commission works with 13 affordable apartment complexes in the city.