Coulter Highlights Affordability Initiatives and Bipartisan Results in State of the County Speech

Oakland County's targeted affordability initiatives are helping residents manage rising healthcare, education and housing costs. Targeted affordability initiatives are helping residents manage rising healthcare, education and housing costs.

• The county's new Oakland Connects program is improving access to housing resources and community housing resources and community services, reducing homelessness and expanding support for families and students. The program partners include the Ballmer Group.
• The county is advancing a bipartisan governing model that delivers balanced budgets and a AAA bond rating, while serving as a template for Michigan communities.

March 5, 2026, Pontiac, Mich. - Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter delivered his annual State of the County address Thursday night at Oakland University's Oakland Center, highlighting the county's affordability initiatives, new Oakland Connects services and bipartisan approach to governing.

Affordability is a key issue where the county is improving lives of residents. Many people - particularly young adults - are worried about the rising cost of health care, housing and education.

"Whether you read it in the daily paper, see it online or on the evening news, or hear it from your neighbors at the local coffee shop, it's clear that affordability is the number one anxiety of people across the political spectrum, and particularly of young adults. Workers in their 20s, 30s and 40s are especially worried about the rising cost of health care, housing and education.

"So, we in Oakland County are working to make sure these three vital commodities remain within their reach, and the reach of the generations that follow," Coulter said.

Coulter outlined his administration's focused strategy, created in partnership with the Board of Commissioners, to tackle affordability with targeted investments in medical debt relief, student loan assistance and attainable housing. They are leveraging public dollars to deliver measurable, life-changing financial relief while strengthening long-term economic stability.

To address the burden of unexpected medical bills, the county partnered with Undue Medical Debt, investing $2 million in a program that purchases uncollected hospital debt for pennies on the dollar and abolishes it for qualifying residents. Using only a fraction of those funds, the initiative eliminated $9 million in medical debt for 14,000 families last year. An additional 6,300 residents will soon see more than $6 million in medical bills erased. The program protects families from bankruptcy and foreclosure, while ensuring they do not delay critical care because of financial fear.

The county is also helping residents manage student loan obligations through the SAVI Student Loan Support Program, which has assisted more than 3,200 borrowers in reducing their debt by an average of $42,000 each - restoring an average of $143 in monthly purchasing power.

Meanwhile, the county's Housing Trust Fund, seeded with $20 million in federal funding, has supported the development of more than 1,100 affordable housing units in communities including Pontiac, Hazel Park, Southfield, Rochester Hills, Auburn Hills, Ferndale and Royal Oak Township.

Together, these initiatives reflect Oakland County's commitment to ensuring that health care, higher education and homeownership remain within reach for the next generation of residents.

Oakland Connects is the county's new comprehensive effort to make vital public services easier for residents to access, ensuring families can quickly find help in moments of crisis and continue receiving support as they recover. At the heart of the initiative is a growing team of Community Health Workers who guide residents through complex systems and connect them with medical care, financial assistance and social services through a single, coordinated entry point.

"The vital services that our county and partners collectively provide are most effective when we make them easy for our residents to navigate," Coulter said. "We launched our Oakland Connects initiative to do just that.

"Our growing team of Community Health Workers are the backbone of Oakland Connects. These are highly trained professionals who help residents access the benefits and resources they need in times of crisis and continue to provide support after the crisis has passed."

The program's helpline - formerly the Nurse-on-Call Hotline - now serves as a holistic navigation hub, directing families not only to health providers but also to a network of 14 partner agencies addressing root causes of hardship such as hunger, unemployment and housing instability.

This and other initiatives are making measurable progress in combating homelessness, one of the county's most urgent challenges. With support from the Board of Commissioners, Oakland Connects created dedicated housing counselors and launched outreach programs like Wellness Wednesdays in Pontiac and Friendship Fridays in Royal Oak that provide essentials such as meals, showers and laundry access.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness in the county has declined steadily from a peak of about 1,000 individuals in 2008 to about 357 in 2025 - a 22 percent drop in the past five years.

Oakland Connects is also expanding its reach to students and families through a $4.6 million grant from the Ballmer Group, led by philanthropists Steve and Connie Ballmer. The funding will extend services into Hazel Park and Southfield schools, helping remove barriers that can stand in the way of academic success while connecting households to resources that stabilize health, housing and income.

Oakland County's bipartisan approach to governing is a model for communities across Michigan and beyond, Coulter said.

"I and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in Oakland County have chosen a different path: the power of example," Coulter said. "In a state where even the most innocuous legislative initiatives too often succeed or fail on strict party-line votes, Oakland County's elected leaders collaborate and compromise, adopting annual budgets by unanimous, bipartisan votes.

"To skeptics who claim local government can only get in the way of opportunity, we say: See for yourselves what we are doing in Oakland County. We continue to believe that our county government can improve the lives of all our residents - and we're proving it every day."

Coulter also highlighted other achievements in his speech which together reflect a long-term strategy of investing in people, infrastructure and opportunity to ensure prosperity continues for future residents:

• Oakland County ranks as the most prosperous county in Michigan, with per capita income in the top three percent nationally and a GDP larger than that of 10 states.
• The county leads the state in engineers, foreign investment and advanced-degree attainment while maintaining some of the safest and most desirable neighborhoods in the nation.
• Strong fiscal stewardship since 2019 has balanced budgets, strengthened reserves and preserved the county's AAA bond rating to attract investment.
• More than 800 foreign-owned firms operate locally, including expansions or investments by Astemo Americas, American Rheinmetall and Teradyne that together are creating hundreds of high-quality jobs.
• The county's Workforce Development team helped General Motors recruit skilled trades workers for new positions.
• The Oakland 80 program, which seeks to have 80-percent of Oakland County adults with a post-secondary certificate or degree by 2030, has already guided more than 42,000 residents toward college or training and provided direct support to 1,300 adults facing barriers like childcare or transportation.
• Expanded health access includes new clinics, integrated care at Oakland 360 supported by the Penske Family Foundation, and matching funds for the Rx Kids initiative, a program available in Hazel Park, Pontiac and Royal Oak Township which aims to improve health, hope and opportunity for many families.
• Transit investments now serve millions of riders annually who collectively are taking more than 7 million trips on SMART buses, with federal funding secured by U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens allowing for fleet expansion.

"The next time someone tells you that our democratic way of life is doomed - that our communities and political parties are too polarized to collaborate effectively, that our governments agencies are too inefficient, or overwhelmed or indifferent to the voters who elected them, or that we have lost the capacity to overcome our differences in pursuit of our collective well-being - don't argue with them.

"Just bring them to Oakland County, where the hard-working and dedicated public servants - whose salaries you pay - get up every morning determined to expand the extraordinary opportunities our county provides and preserve them for generations to come, Coulter said.