Oakland County Executive David Coulter announced a new debt relief initiative in partnership with the SAVI Student Loan Support Program during his March 5, 2026, State of the County Address. Highlighting bipartisan collaborations at a time of national polarization, the county executive championed recent affordability initiatives across the area.

With a focus on private and nonprofit partnerships to eliminate economic barriers, and a year after beginning his 2025 address with deep concern, Coulter said he was feeling “even more concerned,” this time around.

“Last year was the first year I sort of broached that subject of the larger environment that we live in and all the stuff going on,” Coulter said in an exclusive interview with The Oakland Post. “Oakland County is a great place, but we don’t live in a vacuum and the stuff that’s going on in the world affects us.”

While Coulter characterized Oakland County as one of the most prosperous in Michigan, with a per capita income in the top 3% of the U.S. and a GDP larger than that of 10 states, he also acknowledged that trust in civic institutions is at an all-time low, “stoked in part by irresponsible elected leaders and social media influencers,” Coulter said.

Affordable education 

Since July 2024, the county has established a Debt Relief Initiative in collaboration with the  SAVI Student Loan Support Program, allocating a total of $800,000 for the project. SAVI helps students find loan repayment or forgiveness options. Oakland County residents get a year of free services on the platform and government employees also get one-on-one support.

The county executive also commented on the career counseling initiative, Oakland80, started in 2022 with the goal of having 80% of adult residents with a post-secondary degree or certified training certificate by 2030.

“When I became county executive, we had 60, 61% of our adults in Oakland County with something more than a high school diploma,” Coulter said. “So we said, ‘we want to get to 80%.’ You probably heard that right now. We’re right about 70,% so in just three and a half years, we’ve gotten just short of 70%.”

Beyond post-secondary degrees, a $4.6 million grant from the Ballmer Group is set to help Southfield and Hazel Park schools, while summer job training programs keep running after years in Ferndale, Madison Heights, Oak Park and Pontiac.

Affordable healthcare

A partnership with Undue Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that buys medical debts to pay them off for eligible debtors, was one of the affordability initiatives celebrated by the speaker. A $2 million investment into the program helped 14,000 families last year and an additional 6,300 residents this year with $6 million in debt.

In 2025, the county opened the Oakland 360 clinic in Pontiac, providing physical and mental health services that have now branched out into Hazel Park. More than $2 million put into the Rx Kids program has also helped pregnant women with their newborns across the county.

Affordable housing

For affordable housing, the Housing Trust Fund started the development of more than 1,100 affordable residential units in Rochester Hills, Pontiac, Hazel Park, Southfield, Auburn Hills, Ferndale and Royal Oak.

“43% of Oakland County residents are housing insecure, which means they spend more than 30% of their household income on housing and that’s not sustainable,” Coulter said to The Oakland Post. “When I moved to Ferndale, it was a very affordable community. There wasn’t a house that sold for more than $100,000 now it has become one of the dominant issues in Ferndale. I hear from people who, all the time, say ‘the people who helped make Ferndale can no longer afford to live here.’ And that’s not just Ferndale, but that’s across the county.”

Supporting the affordable housing initiatives, the new Oakland Connects program was reported to improve access to housing resources and community services to reduce homelessness. Emergency shelters and Wellness Wednesdays have also contributed to a 22% decline in homelessness in the last five years.

“We have to kind of sort through before we launch a program; How are we going to sustain it? Who’s going to do it? How are we going to measure progress?” Coulter said. “That’s one of the things I’ve been really big on since I became executive is how are we going to measure it, so that I know five years from now, or three years from now, that we’re actually succeeding.”

Immigration

In 2025, for the first time in decades, Coulter explained, the population of every community in Oakland County grew, in part, thanks to immigrants. Since 2019, the county has hosted two naturalization ceremonies for new citizens from foreign countries, reflecting the local industry.

From the Japanese auto parts supplier, Astemos, the county got a $95 million investment for a regional headquarters and tech center, while the German company, Rheinmetall, expands military vehicle production in Auburn Hills.

“I will tell you that we do not cooperate with ICE. We do not help them with arrests. We do not assist them in any way,” Coulter said. “There’s a formal agreement [287(g) program] that some communities have said, ‘yes, we’ll help ICE when you don’t have enough manpower.’ We’ve not signed that.”

Afterthoughts

The address, widely celebrated by attendees, was also met with some skepticism. District 19 County Commissioner Charlie Cavell pointed out that ethical concerns, such as the voting down of ethics reforms like financial disclosure and whistleblower policies and shortcomings of chief deputies were missing from the speech.

“We didn’t have any questions [about] what we were supposed to be working towards as a team for the upcoming year,” Cavell said. “We get a billion dollars a year of taxpayer money to use to make your quality of life better. What is our team’s plan to make things better for people? That whole speech was all about things we’ve done two, three, four years ago, nothing about what we could do this upcoming year to make your life better.”

During the exclusive interview with The Oakland Post, the county executive addressed college students in his closing remarks, inviting them to support the local community with their presence.

“Stay here after you graduate, please. That’s not an Oakland County problem. That’s a Michigan problem. Maybe it’s a Midwest problem,” Coulter said. “You’re probably looking at some of those other places, too, but look around Michigan more than just your experience in the hometown where you grew up. There are a lot of opportunities here.”