Bills have a way of telling the truth before politicians do. Rent due. Prescriptions delayed. Student loan balances that keep showing up even after years of payments. Grocery totals climbing faster than paychecks. Across Southeast Michigan, that pressure is not lost. It is personal, daily, and shaping how families decide where they can live, whether they can seek care, and what kind of future feels possible for their children.
That was the tension at the center of Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter’s State of the County address Thursday night at Oakland University’s Oakland Center, where he laid out an agenda built around one word residents across metro Detroit seek often: affordability.
Coulter used the speech to frame Oakland County’s recent investments not as isolated programs, but as a coordinated effort to help residents withstand the rising costs of health care, housing, and education while also strengthening the county’s long-term economic footing.
“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,” Coulter said. “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 that work is being carried out in partnership with the Oakland County Board of Commissioners through targeted investments meant to reduce immediate financial harm while opening more stable paths forward for residents.
One of the clearest examples is medical debt relief.
Oakland County partnered with Undue Medical Debt and invested $2 million into a program that buys uncollected hospital debt for pennies on the dollar, then erases it for qualifying residents. County officials said that using only a portion of those funds, the initiative wiped out $9 million in medical debt for 14,000 families last year. Another 6,300 residents are expected to see more than $6 million in medical bills eliminated soon.
That kind of relief reaches beyond balance sheets. Medical debt can push families toward bankruptcy, put housing at risk, and cause people to delay doctor visits or treatment because they are scared of what the next bill might bring. County leaders are betting that removing some of that burden can create room for people to breathe before a crisis becomes generational.
Student debt is another pressure point the county said it is trying to address through its SAVI Student Loan Support Program. According to the county, the program has helped more than 3,200 borrowers reduce their debt by an average of $42,000 each, restoring an average of $143 in monthly purchasing power.
That matters in a region where younger adults are being asked to build careers, pay high housing costs, and often support family members while carrying debt from degrees or credentials that were supposed to create opportunity. Every dollar restored to a monthly budget can affect whether a family catches up on utilities, buys food, saves for a child, or keeps falling behind.
Housing remains one of the biggest tests.
Oakland County’s Housing Trust Fund, launched with $20 million in federal funding, has supported the development of more than 1,100 affordable housing units across Pontiac, Hazel Park, Southfield, Rochester Hills, Auburn Hills, Ferndale, and Royal Oak Township. For communities across the county, especially those confronting widening income gaps and housing instability, affordable units represent more than construction totals. They shape who gets to remain rooted in the places they work, worship, raise children, and age.
Coulter’s speech also put a spotlight on Oakland Connects, a newer county initiative aimed at making public services easier to find and use when families hit hard moments.
At the center of Oakland Connects is a team of Community Health Workers who help residents navigate medical care, financial support, and social services through one coordinated entry point. The county’s helpline, once known as the Nurse-on-Call Hotline, now functions as a broader navigation hub, connecting residents not only to health resources but also to a network of 14 partner agencies that address issues such as hunger, unemployment, and housing instability.
“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.”
For families already overwhelmed by layoffs, illness, eviction threats, or caregiving demands, access often becomes its own barrier. Programs can exist on paper while remaining out of reach in practice. Oakland Connects is designed to close that gap by reducing the maze families often face when trying to find help.
County officials tied that work directly to efforts to reduce homelessness, one of Oakland County’s most urgent challenges. With support from the Board of Commissioners, Oakland Connects added dedicated housing counselors and launched outreach efforts such as Wellness Wednesdays in Pontiac and Friendship Fridays in Royal Oak, where residents can access meals, showers, and laundry services.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness in Oakland County has steadily declined from roughly 1,000 individuals in 2008 to about 357 in 2025. County leaders said that represents a 22% drop over the past five years.
The county is also expanding Oakland Connects into schools through a $4.6 million grant from the Ballmer Group, led by Steve and Connie Ballmer. That funding will extend services into Hazel Park and Southfield schools, with the goal of helping students and families overcome barriers that can interfere with academic success while linking households to housing, health, and income support.
That kind of school-based intervention reflects a broader reality many educators and parents already understand: children do not learn in isolation from the conditions at home. Attendance, concentration, behavior, and academic progress are often shaped by whether a family is stable, fed, housed, and able to access care.
Coulter also used his speech to argue that Oakland County’s governing model offers something increasingly rare in public life: bipartisan cooperation tied to measurable outcomes.
“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.”
That message arrived alongside a list of broader county achievements Coulter said are part of a longer-term strategy focused on people, infrastructure, and shared prosperity.
Oakland County ranks as Michigan’s most prosperous county, according to the administration, with per capita income in the top 3% nationally and a gross domestic product larger than that of 10 states. The county also says it leads Michigan in engineers, foreign investment, and advanced-degree attainment, while maintaining a AAA bond rating through balanced budgets and stronger reserves since 2019.
More than 800 foreign-owned firms operate in the county, including Astemo Americas, American Rheinmetall, and Teradyne, which together are expected to create hundreds of jobs. Coulter also pointed to the county’s Workforce Development team helping General Motors recruit skilled trades workers, and to Oakland 80, a county initiative aiming for 80% of adults to hold a post-secondary certificate or degree by 2030. So far, county officials said, Oakland 80 has guided more than 42,000 residents toward college or job training and provided direct support to 1,300 adults facing barriers such as child care and transportation.
On health access, the county highlighted new clinics, integrated care through Oakland 360 backed by the Penske Family Foundation, and matching funds for Rx Kids in Hazel Park, Pontiac, and Royal Oak Township.
Transit also made the list. SMART buses now serve millions of riders annually, with more than 7 million trips taken collectively, and federal funding secured by U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens is expected to support fleet expansion.
Still, the heart of Coulter’s speech stayed with cost, access, and whether local government can deliver something tangible at a time when many residents no longer trust institutions to move with urgency.
“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,” Coulter said.
“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.”
For residents across Oakland County, that case will be measured by whether families can keep their homes, afford the doctor, stay enrolled in school, and see government show up before hardship turns into collapse.
