Housing North: Meet the New Director

A Q&A with Carolyn Fairman

Carolyn Fairman joined Traverse City-based nonprofit Housing North as their new executive director as of late spring 2026. Housing North is a 501(c)(3) organization working across 10 counties in northern Michigan to conduct assessments and provide tools and planning to help municipalities become “Housing Ready.”

Fairman, a Western Michigan, native boasts a career in nonprofit leadership across several sectors, from supply chain sustainability, to international labor rights, migration, and more. Over the years, Fairman fell in love with northern Michigan and hoped to eventually live closer to the water and the culture. Once she finally made the move, this position opened, and everything fell into place.

Express: How did you first find out about Housing North, and what drew you to the mission?
Fairman: When I found that Housing North was looking, I thought it was a perfect opportunity for me to apply the background I have in social justice, systems change, and connecting communities. This was an opportunity to take that and apply it on the local level. The one thing that was always missing in my career for me was not working in my own community where I live and feeling like I can have an impact and more connectivity where I live and work.

Express: How do you think your background gives you a unique approach to the housing crisis in northern Michigan?
Fairman: I like to think that I have fresh eyes. I haven’t been entrenched in the movement, so while there’s certainly a learning curve, and I respect that, I’m not bringing any biases. I am not bringing any preconceived notions. I’m also able to look at the communications and, as someone not from this space, look at it as: is this something that people can understand that aren’t always involved in this day-to-day?

Express: What experiences do you think you’ve had that have prepared you to step into the role?
Fairman: I have spent my entire career in nonprofit leadership, so this is what I do, this is what I know. I work well building teams, building up people’s strengths, finding the gaps, putting systems in place, creating good communication within an organization, and I’m comfortable at all levels.

Express: Do you see an immediate or unique opportunity to bring people together to support the mission of Housing North?
Fairman: While there are commonalities within northwest Michigan, I also think it’s really important to recognize that there are unique differences—sometimes they’re glaring, sometimes they’re very nuanced—in each of the 10 counties that Housing North represents. And I do think it takes an ecosystem and collaboration, and we need to bring people together to solve the housing crisis.

Express: How do you plan to look at towns of different sizes simultaneously and find solutions that fit without being “one size fits all”?
Fairman: We’re not trying to recreate, for example, Traverse City in Charlevoix. That’s not going to work; nobody wants that. It’s about what the community sees as their need and how they want to solve it. Housing North is never going to be interested in forcing something down someone’s throat if they don’t want it.

Express: What are two or three of your biggest priorities for the organization in your first year?
Fairman: For me, stepping in from a leadership perspective is always elevating the team. On a concrete level, the Zoning Atlas is a huge success, and I think we need to continue to update it and teach communities how to use this as a tool. I think the housing needs assessment has been really successful, and we want to update the needs assessment in all 10 counties.

Express: Is there anything you've learned about the northern Michigan housing market since starting that’s surprised you?
Fairman: I think the lack of federal funding because of [the rural nature of this area] is surprising, a challenge, and a bit disappointing. I’m excited to learn that there’s more and more awareness of housing across the country, not only in Michigan.

Express: How do you expect the upcoming election to affect housing funding and legislation?
Fairman: I think we are seeing a focus on regulatory barriers to workforce and affordable housing, and I think that’s a key piece in the list of challenges that we have. I like to think that this will be a primary part of the conversation in the upcoming elections, given how prevalent this is around the whole country.

Express: Looking three to five years down the road, what would a successful housing landscape look like to you in northern Michigan?
Fairman: I think that we would like to see each of the counties have a position in place so that Housing North is less necessary in their region, because they have someone who can do some of this facilitating and convening themselves as part of either their council, their commission, or one of their community foundations or housing trusts.

Express: What is your favorite part of the job so far, and what are you most excited for as you’re getting comfortable within the organization?
Fairman: Really learning and visiting these counties. I look forward to working with all of the collaborators, most especially the developers, to make sure that anything developed does respect the integrity of each of these unique counties and the culture that they’ve created.

To learn more about Housing North and their initiatives, visit housingnorth.org.

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