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Community Updates, News Stories, Best Practices, Resources, and other data supporting the development of affordable housing for the citizens of Wisconsin in every city and region in the State. Please consider partnering with us and sharing your story

Home affordability is at record lows in Wisconsin, and home sales in the state have taken a hit.  

That’s according to an August report from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, which began tracking home affordability in 2009. Those numbers show home sales dropped more than 8 percent compared to the same month last year. But prices still went up due to low inventory.

Home affordability is based on two factors: the price and what an average household can afford, which takes interest rates into account. Kurt Paulsen, professor of urban planning in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that both home prices and interest rates are up right now...

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Leo’s notes: Wisconsin home affordability has fallen to its lowest level since tracking began in 2009, driven by the combination of high prices, elevated mortgage rates and persistently low inventory.The problem looks less like a temporary market cycle and more like a structural mismatch between the homes we're building and what working households can afford. The next phase of housing policy needs to focus on producing smaller, attainable homes at scale—through smaller lots, missing-middle housing, streamlined approvals and targeted infrastructure assistance. As we’ve stated time and time again, the state's new residential TIF legislature could be particularly important if communities use it to make entry-level ownership financially feasible rather than simply subsidizing development that the market would have produced anyway.

Ken Notes: We need to bring communities, developers, builders, manufacturers, lenders and more to the table to discuss NOT the problem but real solutions. The new housing TIF law is interesting and could create some affordable housing. Newer manufactured homes could lower costs. Missing middle homes for sale not rent could help. Rethinking Condos and ownership rather than apartments and rent would make a difference. There are solutions -- we just need to put the right team together to build and sell them.

The City of Eau Claire believes that local government is a stewardship, helping citizens meet their needs and helping the community solve problems. We cannot always do this on our own; we need and value partners who can help. The City also believes in equity, creating conditions for all people to thrive.

There is no more fundamental need than housing that is affordable.

The City of Eau Claire is seeking proposals for projects that develop or rehabilitate properties for new or expanded affordable housing within the City of Eau Claire and to provide said project(s) with financial assistance through the City of Eau Claire Affordable Housing Fund. 

Full details related to this request for proposals can be found in the attached document, which is also available on the City of Eau Claire website: 

https://www.eauclairewi.gov/286/Housing-Opportunities-Commission

Education sessions will be held on the following dates:...

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Leo's notes: By putting public resources and sites into play through a competitive process, cities like Eau Claire can reduce some of the uncertainty and upfront barriers that frequently prevent needed housing projects from advancing. We hope to see more municipalities take on the same approach to incentivizing development...

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Leo's notes: Households unable to buy remain renters, moderate-income workers compete for limited apartments, and newly constructed ‘starter homes’ can now cost $400,000 or more - a pattern all too familiar throughout the state. Green Bay and Appleton are pursuing zoning and development reforms, but the scale of projected demand shows that Wisconsin also needs tools that directly address construction costs and financing gaps. Workforce housing policy ultimately has to make substantially more homes financially feasible to build.

Ken Notes: We run this story way to often with very few solutions. The new Housing TIF may make a difference see state info and our take below. Leo and I are available to talk with your board on this topic...

The phrase "modular homes" may conjure up a boxy, barebones structure—or worse yet, a classic trailer park community filled with cookie-cutter mobile homes of dubious quality.

But Scott Malouff, a longtime agent with Keller Williams in San Antonio and the head of KW's new Modular initiative, wants to change that perception.

Malouff has been in real estate for over a decade and after a recent month-long trip to Asia, his eyes opened to the benefits of modular housing.

Currently, only around 4% of U.S. housing is modular construction, compared with 15% in Japan.

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Ken Notes: This publication has been advocating for this for quite a while not. Today's modular is not the aging mobile home parks of a few decades ago. We could build truly affordable home that appreciate in value and fit into our communities and neighborhoods of tomorrow. I also think we should look at hybrid models where hvac, electric, and plumbing are dropped on site and a home is built around them. The Boldt Company (Boldt) and its sister company, Bildt, a prefabrication and modular supplier are doing this for commercial now, Specifically hospital bathrooms.

Advocates say high housing costs are making it harder to purchase a first home, afford rent

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Leo's notes: Northeast Wisconsin’s numbers show how quickly a historically attainable housing market can become unaffordable when production fails to keep pace with demand. Zoning reform and faster approvals are important, but this article reinforces the need for significantly more production— ownership, missing-middle and entry-level housing—if the region wants its strong economy to remain accessible to the workforce supporting it...

Nursing homes and home health agencies in Wisconsin have had to scrap plans years in the making to hire workers from overseas, after the Trump administration suspended almost all refugee programs.

One nursing home operator in Sparta invested more than $100,000 in building apartments to house overseas workers – when policy changed, the housing was used for current workers, according to a report in Wisconsin Watch.

“International recruitment is a multi-year strategy, and it doesn’t happen overnight,” Kate Battiato, VP of media and community impact for LeadingAge Wisconsin, told Wisconsin Watch. “One election can change the strategy that has been built over years. … It makes their already difficult challenges recruiting and retaining workers more difficult."...

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Leo's notes: For rural communities, employer-supported housing can be an important recruitment tool, particularly where rental options are scarce. But this experience also illustrates the risk employers assume when they step into housing themselves. Workforce housing strategies work best as part of a broader ecosystem—stable labor pipelines, community housing production and partnerships that leave new homes useful even as employer’s staffing changes occur.

Ken Notes: Wisconsin will be significantly impacted by the elimination or reduction of immigrant programs. The dairy, meat, tourism, health care, and many other industries have relied heavily on foreign labor. This will also impact the housing market. We need to work on programs to improve the immigration workforce - not send them back.

Access to safe, stable and affordable housing plays a critical role in overall health and well-being. That's why SSM Health recently joined Madison Development Corporation (MDC) and community partners to celebrate the opening of The Bankston Apartments, a new workforce housing development in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.

Located at 429 W. Mifflin St., The Bankston Apartments brings 40 new housing units to Madison's downtown area, including 30 apartments reserved for households earning at or below 80% of Dane County's Area Median Income. The development was made possible through a partnership among MDC, SSM Health, Lake Ridge Bank and the Dane Workforce Housing Fund II...

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Leo's notes: SSM Health’s investment in Madison’s Bankston Apartments demonstrates the important evolution of moving beyond advocacy and into direct capital investment. The 40-unit downtown development includes 30 apartments reserved for households at or below 80% of Dane County AMI and has particularly relevancy for Wisconsin’s major employers. Housing shortages affect recruitment, retention and community health, and impact investing gives employers another tool to help close financing gaps without becoming housing developers themselves.

VERNON COUNTY, Wis. — Vernon County’s Housing Task Force spent much of its Sept. 17 meeting considering how the county can address housing costs, attract workers and support residents who struggle to find a home they can afford.

The Vernon County Housing Task Force was established in 2024 by Community Development Director Amy Oliver as a specialized working subcommittee under the Vernon County Economic Development Committee. The group was created to bring together a broad coalition of local leaders, housing authorities, real estate professionals, lenders, school leaders, and municipal officials to examine Vernon County’s housing challenges and craft actionable solutions.

After being formed the Task Force worked in partnership with UW-Madison Extension to conduct a comprehensive, countywide housing assessment. The process involved holding community engagement listening sessions in municipalities across the county, including La Farge, Readstown, Westby, and Hillsboro, to hear directly from rural residents, employers, and village officials.

The team compiled extensive demographic and real estate data, publishing the Vernon County Housing Study Report in 2025.

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Leo's notes: Vernon County’s Housing Task Force is exploring a broad mix of strategies to address its workforce housing shortage, including zoning reform, a trades academy, revolving home-buyer loans, land trusts and strategic use of county-owned property. Rural Wisconsin cannot rely on the conventional development market to solve its housing shortage. Smaller projects, infrastructure costs and limited developer capacity often leave otherwise needed housing financially infeasible. Counties like Vernon will need to become active partners—using public land, infrastructure investment and targeted financing to close those gaps. The goal should not be another housing study or program, but creating the conditions where the homes rural workers need can actually get built.

North 14th Avenue south of Georgia Street was lined up with vehicles late in the morning of Sept. 9 when a formal groundbreaking ceremony took place for The Avenue, a new affordable housing development being built southwest of the intersection.  

Developer Brian Spoerl of Spoerl Commercial has started excavation work on the first phase, a three-story, 39-unit apartment building. The project received low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), and the city approved a development agreement that provides tax-increment financing incentives through Tax Incremental District (TID) #6.

Spoerl, who was able to purchase a city-owned lot for $100 as part of the building site, thanked Sturgeon Bay officials for their efforts in making the project possible...

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Leo's notes: In a market shaped by tourism, seasonal demand and high housing costs, adding year-round rental options is critical to ensuring that the people who sustain local businesses and services can also live in the communities where they work. Next step is to create affordable homes for purchasing.

Ascension Wisconsin is exploring whether the historic St. Mary’s Hospital building on Milwaukee’s East Side could be converted into affordable apartments.

Built in 1910 and now known as the Heritage Center, the building at 2320 N. Lake Drive is now used primarily for administrative purposes and is largely vacant, according to Ascension.

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Leo's notes: Former hospitals can be difficult and expensive to redevelop, but their scale, established infrastructure and location within existing neighborhoods can also make them unusually valuable housing opportunities. The larger lesson is to look beyond vacant lots when identifying future workforce housing sites. Hospitals, schools, churches and other underused institutional properties can provide substantial infill opportunities—and early partnerships among property owners, municipalities and housing developers can help ensure these sites remain community assets rather than long-term vacancies...

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Conversations about affordable housing often focus on building new homes. But local housing experts say another solution is hiding in plain sight: empty and underused buildings that could become someone’s next home.

A panel of housing leaders will dig into that idea at “Repurposing Spaces to Create Affordable Housing,” a free public event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Riverview Room at L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, 400 Eau Claire St. No registration is required.

The discussion is the final installment of “Keys to Unlocking Affordable Housing,” a three-part series examining different approaches to the region’s housing shortage. It’s sponsored by the JONAH Affordable Housing Task Force, L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, the Chippewa Valley Home Builders Association, and the Eau Claire Tenant-Landlord Resource Center.

A growing conversation

Efforts to convert existing buildings into affordable housing are already underway across the Chippewa Valley. Leaders at Grace Lutheran Church, 202 W. Grand Ave. in Eau Claire, have proposed building affordable housing on the church’s site...

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Leo's notes: Eau Claire housing leaders are exploring converting vacant and underused buildings into affordable housing, including a proposed project at Grace Lutheran Church. Aside from new construction, adaptive reuse can help fill that gap by creating homes at price points the conventional market increasingly struggles to deliver. Communities should actively identify viable schools, churches and commercial buildings and pair them with targeted financing—not because every vacant building should become housing, but because every feasible site represents an opportunity to add attainable homes without waiting for new land and infrastructure.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s high prices and lack of homes for sale looks to have finally cut sales off at the knees.

The latest Wisconsin Realtors Report shows another jump in prices and a record low number of home sales.

"Existing home sales fell 8.3% in August compared to statewide closings in August 2025, reversing the upward trend in sales for June and July. This was due in part to record-low affordability in the state. Tight inventories continued to put strong upward pressure on home prices. The median price rose to $362,000, which is a 7.1% increase over the past 12 months," the report states.

Wisconsin home sales drop 8.3% in August as affordability hits record low

Milwaukee employee buys first home through workplace grant program

Condo production continues to lag in Wisconsin 

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Ken Notes: We need to shift to lower cost entry level homes that are more affordable to our service and retail workers...

ENABLING BETTER PLACES: A USER’S GUIDE TO WISCONSIN NEIGHBORHOOD AFFORDABILITY	WHEDA’s Rural Affordable Workforce Housing Initiative	WWHNews Think Paper on New Housing TIF
WISCAP Affordable Housing Network	Division of Energy, Housing and Community Resources	Housing Authority City of Milwaukee (HACM)
Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp	WEDA Legislative Tracker
Wisconsin Housing Alliance	Office of Rural Prosperity Wisconsin Economic Development	Tiny Timbers Neighborhood

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Notes: to be included as a Workforce Housing resource email us a link and a brief note to: wwhnews.com@gmail.com...

Good morning Ken,

The Tax Incremental Financing documents on the DOR TIF webpage are now updated with information about the new Residential TID category. You had asked to be notified when this occurred.

• TIF Manual
• Common questions-Residential TIDs
• Residential Creation

Thank you.

Tod Ericson
State and Local Finance Division
Wisconsin Department of Revenue
(608) 266-7750 x 3
tif@wisconsin.gov


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MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The average Madison homeowner could pay about $20.67 more in county property taxes next year under a nearly $947 million budget proposed by Dane County Executive Melissa Agard on Thursday.

The proposal also includes $3 million to expand body cameras for sheriff’s deputies, $20 million for affordable housing and $2.1 million for a new shelter for women and families experiencing homelessness.

Agard says the county has reduced its projected budget shortfall while continuing to fund services and new projects.

“This continues to be a challenging time for local governments to be able to budget. But this budget shows real progress,” Agard said...

...Housing and homelessness

The proposed budget includes $20 million for the county’s Affordable Housing Development Fund.

“These dollars allow us to partner with communities and housing developers and leverage additional funding to build and preserve affordable homes all across Dane County,” Agard said.

Another $2.1 million would support the Salvation Army’s new shelter for women and families experiencing homelessness.

“This budget supports a new, purpose-built shelter for women and families ... to help replace the aging Salvation Army facility,” Agard said. “It will be designed better to serve our families and kids who are experiencing homelessness.”

The county also plans to use money from opioid settlements to help people in recovery access housing and support services.

“Recovery is so much harder if you do not have that stable housing,” Agard said.

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Leo's notes: Dane County’s proposed 2027 budget includes $20 million for its Affordable Housing Development Fund, continuing county investment intended to leverage additional public and private dollars for affordable housing development and preservation. Local governments increasingly need to treat housing as essential infrastructure rather than a standalone social program, particularly when public dollars can close financing gaps and unlock projects that otherwise would not happen. The challenge is ensuring investments like Dane County’s produce additional housing supply—across a range of incomes and housing types—rather than simply making increasingly expensive projects possible.

Whether you’re searching for a new home or planning to refinance, understanding mortgage and refinance rates is essential to navigating Wisconsin’s housing market. That said, interest rates aren’t set in stone, and they fluctuate based on economic factors, like 10-year Treasury yields, market conditions, inflation and Federal Reserve policy.

We summarized the current Wisconsin mortgage and refinance rates to help you understand these fluctuations and choose the right time to lock in a mortgage rate. Our team also compared Wisconsin’s rate trends to nationwide rates to help you choose the right time to buy or refinance a home. Even a small change in rates can impact the overall cost of borrowing, and understanding Wisconsin mortgage and refinance rates may help you save.

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Leo’s notes: The recent interest rates increase adds another affordability hurdle for buyers already confronting elevated home prices and limited inventory. Interest rates may be largely outside the control of Wisconsin policymakers, but the price of the homes we build is not. When borrowing costs rise, producing smaller homes, smaller lots and more missing-middle ownership options becomes even more important. We cannot build housing policy around waiting for cheaper mortgages to return; communities need to reduce the other costs they can control so working households have attainable choices in any interest-rate environment.

VERONON COUNTY, Wis. – Vernon County is officially launching Driftless Bound, an innovative workforce attraction initiative offering up to $12,500 in cash relocation incentives to encourage working individuals and families from outside Wisconsin to move to the area and establish primary residency.

Funded through a $100,000 Talent Recruitment Grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and a $25,000 local county match, the $125,000 program aims to recruit out of state households to bolster local employers, school districts, small businesses, and the county tax base...   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Vernon County’s Driftless Bound program takes a direct approach to rural workforce recruitment, offering out-of-state working households up to $2,500 for rental costs or $12,500 toward purchasing or building a home; recognizing that the upfront cost of securing housing can itself be a barrier to recruiting workers into rural communities. Relocation incentives can help bring households to the door, but sustained workforce growth ultimately requires communities to pair recruitment programs with new housing production—particularly in rural markets where limited inventory may be the biggest barrier. Great outside-the-box approach worth following.

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The National Mall was transformed into a neighborhood this week featuring the next generation of home building and development for the sixth year in a row, as part of HUD’s “Innovative Housing Showcase.”

The exhibition, which began Tuesday and concluded Thursday, features a collection of mid-construction and fully assembled homes on the National Mall. Each home on display includes a new element or technology.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development puts on the annual event to highlight the latest advancements in affordable housing designs and technologies.

“The purpose of it, number one, is to showcase the brilliance of the American people,” said HUD Secretary Scott Turner...

The WEBSITE for the event is here...

See Also:

Cavco Unveils Grande Arbor, First HUD-Code Manufactured Home Built Without a Steel Chassis, at 2026 Innovative Housing Showcase

Cavco introduces a chassis-free HUD-code home with a multigenerational floor plan, taking advantage of new federal rules to expand design options.

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Leo's notes: HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase puts a welcome spotlight on manufactured, modular, component-based and other construction approaches that could reduce the time and cost required to produce housing. For Wisconsin, the bigger question is how to move these ideas from demonstration projects into ordinary subdivisions and infill sites.

Ken Notes: I have attended these in the past, and many innovative ideas have come from both the design and technology sides of this event. See the Cavco story for ideas...

ABSTRACT

Act 235 created an entirely new kind of tax incremental district — one built for houses instead of factories. It takes effect October 1, 2026. This guide explains the rules in plain language, shows what a complying neighborhood actually looks like, and walks through the numbers so a village board can decide whether the tool fits.

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Unity Lutheran Church's pastor says costly repairs and declining revenue are driving the proposal, while a longtime member and neighbor wants the community to help shape the church's future.

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Leo's notes: Unity Lutheran Church’s proposal to replace its aging Bay View facility with 55 workforce apartments and a smaller ministry space illustrates how declining congregations can turn underused institutional land into both housing and a sustainable future for their organizations. The concept specifically targets the increasingly squeezed middle of the market—workers such as teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters—while a ground lease would provide the congregation with ongoing revenue. Established neighborhoods with churches and other institutional properties could become an increasingly important piece of Wisconsin’s infill and workforce housing strategy.

A former West Allis school to be converted to affordable apartments, and a controversial Shorewood housing project, would get federal grants through a plan pending before Milwaukee County officials.

The $5 million in funds are to help finance four developments that would construct or renovate 132 affordable apartments, including two Milwaukee projects...

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Leo's notes: The conversion of the former Longfellow Elementary School in West Allis would transform an existing public asset into 55 apartments—22 within the historic school and 33 in a new addition. Projects such as this one are a prime example of why communities should inventory obsolete schools, institutional buildings and other public properties alongside vacant land. Reusing existing sites can preserve neighborhood character and infrastructure while creating housing in established communities.

More than 350 rental units on Milwaukee's far northwest side are set to be converted from market-rate to affordable housing.

Affiliates of a California-based nonprofit bought the 236-unit St. James Place, 10300 W. Fountain Ave., and the 138-unit Arbor Ridge Apartments, 7960-7972 N. 107th St., for $60 million, a group representing seller Weidner Apartment Homes announced Sept. 22...

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Leo's notes: Wisconsin needs more income-restricted housing, but preservation strategies should also consider the full housing continuum: affordability gains are strongest when chocies are expanded without inadvertently squeezing the moderate-income households. They inherently also struggle to find housing options.

WATERTOWN — A potential 24-unit multifamily residential development is being proposed next to Piggly Wiggly. 

4th Dimension Real Estate Developers LLC is requesting to rezone approximately 2.5 acres located at 1310 Memorial Drive to multifamily residential. The proposed development consists of three two-story buildings, each containing eight units. 

"The proposed concept plan incorporates three two-story residential buildings arranged around shared parking and open space areas," reads the developer's rezoning justification statement. "The development includes pedestrian walkways, landscaped areas, and a central parking configuration designed to provide safe circulation for residents and visitors." ...

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Leo's notes: A 24-unit development may not transform a regional housing shortage on its own, but replicating appropriately scaled multifamily projects throughout communities can steadily expand supply, make better use of existing infrastructure and provide workers with more choices close to jobs and everyday services. Projects at this scale are an important part of Wisconsin’s missing-middle conversation.

Ken Notes: Just a reminder, while we continue to see more and more affordable rental workforce housing, WE NEED more affordable home OWNERSHIP options!

Redevelopment of former Jewish Home is a first-of-its-kind facility for Milwaukee.

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Leo's notes: Stable housing can reduce barriers to hospital discharge, homelessness services and longer-term recovery, making projects like this part of a community’s health and social-service infrastructure. The challenge is the financing complexity: needing 13 funding sources to deliver 31 homes underscores how difficult it remains to build innovative affordable housing even when the community value is clear.

The City of Milwaukee has selected four development teams to build a new generation of affordable, owner-occupied housing on vacant city lots, nearly seven months after the city originally expected to announce the winners.

The Department of City Development announced Thursday that it is working with Community First, Moxie Development Collective, UniteWI and VIA CDC on its Revive Housing Development: Attached Housing Pilot Program.

The initiative is intended to produce about 20 new homes, including townhouses, duplexes and other forms of “missing middle” housing that fall between detached single-family homes and larger apartment buildings...

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Leo's notes: Milwaukee’s Revive Housing pilot will be deliberately testing whether townhouses, duplexes and other missing-middle ownership models can once again become repeatable products on the city’s standard vacant lots. Four local development teams will design models intended for replication, with roughly 20 homes initially targeted to households earning no more than 80% of area median income. Although there is an estimated $100,000 per unit subsidy amount available, the real value will be learning which designs, financing structures and development approaches can eventually make entry-level homeownership easier to reproduce at scale—not just in Milwaukee, but in communities across Wisconsin.

WAUKESHA, Wis. - Twenty new homes are set to be built on the former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha campus thanks to a partnership between a Wisconsin Habitat for Humanity affiliate and a Milwaukee-based real estate company.

The Brief

• • A Milwaukee-based real estate company, F Street, is set to build 20 new homes at the former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha campus.
    
    
  • The company is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to kickstart the redevelopment of the area.
    
    
  • Marks the first time a Wisconsin Habitat for Humanity affiliate has partnered with a for-profit developer on a project of this scale.

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Leo's notes: This is a model worth replicating. Wisconsin has an opportunity to turn surplus public land into attainable homeownership while pairing mission-driven affordability with the capacity of private developers to build at scale. As more public properties become available, housing should be among the first uses communities consider.

The Sturgeon Bay Common Council approved a development agreement on Sept. 15 for a housing and storage-unit project on 35.43 acres of city-owned property at 1259 Division Road in the newly created Tax Incremental District (TID) #12.

The agreement with Green Bay-area developer, Jim Conard, who is partnering with Paul Shefchik of PortSide Builders, includes approximately 30 workforce-housing lots, about 36 market-rate housing units consisting of single-family homes and duplexes, and 34 storage units with living spaces. 

The council approved a revised agreement that increases the maximum amount the city will repay the developer $2,753,393, an increase of $186,690. The repayment will be based on 90% of the tax increment generated from the project, beginning with the 2029 tax year...

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Leo's notes: Sturgeon Bay’s revised TID 12 agreement demonstrates how tax increment financing can be used not simply to support development, but to intentionally shape the housing that gets built. The planned mix of single-family and duplex lots—including homes designated for workforce housing—creates an opportunity to expand attainable ownership while using public investment to overcome the infrastructure costs that often make new subdivisions difficult to finance. Great example of utilizing newly drafted residential TIF law for neighborhood development.

WAUKESHA, Wis.— Plans to redevelop the former UW-Milwaukee at Waukesha campus are moving forward after the Waukesha County Board approved the sale of the property.

The 76-acre site at 1500 N. University Drive is slated for a mixed residential development led by Milwaukee-based real estate and investment firm F Street, in partnership with Waukesha County and the City of Waukesha.

The proposal includes roughly 70 single-family homes and about 600 market-rate multifamily units, which would be built in phases. Apartment buildings are expected to include two-story garden-style units and three- to four-story buildings.

County officials say the redevelopment could add more than $150 million to the tax base while helping address local housing needs..

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STURGEON BAY (WLUK) -- A development will provide more affordable housing options to Door County residents.

Officials broke ground Wednesday on the first phase of The Avenue in Sturgeon Bay on 14th Avenue between Georgia Street and Iowa Drive, near the NWTC Sturgeon Bay campus.

The groundbreaking took place after three years of planning by the city, the developer among others.

"Projects like this strengthen neighborhoods, support local employers and help communities remain places where people of all ages and income levels can work and succeed," Lydia Van Thiel of WHEDA said...

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Leo's notes: The Avenue is a strong example of how communities can address multiple layers of housing need within a single development strategy. Its first phase will add 39 income-restricted apartments serving households at 30–60% AMI, while a planned second phase would add 20 units aimed at households earning 80–100% AMI. Just as important is the financing approach, which combines LIHTC with local TIF support and WHEDA’s Vacancy-to-Vitality program - a clear demonstration of layering different tools to make projects feasible and serve a broader swath of residents...

MADISON (WLUK) -- Low-income residents in 10 Northeast Wisconsin counties affected by NEWCAP’s closure will soon have a new interim provider for services.

Foundation for Rural Housing, Inc. has been named the interim provider by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families in the counties previously served by NEWCAP, effective immediately.

The organization’s website will be https://www.NEffrh.org and is expected to go live on October 1. Its public office will be at 3500 Packerland Drive, Suite 285, in De Pere, and is set to open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning October 1...

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Across Wisconsin many employees can simply not afford to live where they work.

This is true in big cities and small rural communities. Both the availability and price of housing is not in line with the needs of those working in jobs that are vital to the success of our communities. Imagine a firefighter, teacher, city employee, service, or retail worker not able to afford a home in the community they serve.

We believe Wisconsin employers will support these efforts so they can successfully recruit workers to fill the thousands of job openings now hampered by a shortage of affordable housing.

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WWHNEWS Notes: To add a resource or correct above send data and link to wwhnews.com[at]gmail.com...