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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

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - New data from the Wisconsin Realtors Association shows housing affordability fell 5.5% over the past 12 months.

In the same time span, mortgage rates rose 0.5%, resulting in a 2.4% reduction in September sales.

Statewide listings are also down more than 5%.

It comes as the average monthly 30-year fixed mortgage rates rose to 6.86%, the highest since January of last year.

“You have an awful lot of people who locked into mortgages at very favorable rates, five to six years ago,” says David Clark, a consultant with the Wisconsin Realtors Association. “You might be pretty reluctant to put an existing home on the market if you’ve got a 3% mortgage rate and trade it in for a 7% mortgage rate.”

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Ken and Leo Note: This is a real problem and there are few real solutions on the horizon. The difference on a 250K home is -- 7% is $1,666/month vs. 3% is 1,056/month for a 30 year mortgage. Yep -- more than $600 a month more.

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.

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Ken and Leo Note: Thanks to Jackson County Economic Development and Tourism Director Ken Pearson for putting these Corner Booth Coffee Conversations together!

How recent grants are removing barriers to housing

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Leo's notes: Eau Claire is targeting workforce and lower-income housing through both new construction and rehabilitation, building on earlier funding rounds that helped deliver more than 100 units. The broader opportunity is to use public investment strategically—not simply to fill financing gaps, but to demonstrate housing models that other Wisconsin communities can realistically replicate.

Trailview Cottages is fully occupied and now serves as a hub for workforce training and education. One year after breaking ground, Trailview Cottages in Hayward, Wisconsin, is fully occupied, providing 40 affordable and workforce housing units with support from a $2 million Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant from FHLBank Chicago.

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Leo's notes: Hayward's Trailview Cottages demonstrates both the potential of thoughtfully designed rural workforce housing and the scale of unmet demand- 40 new homes are already occupied with another 208 households on the waiting list. The bigger question is how we move from celebrating individual projects to making this type of development financially feasible and replicable across Wisconsin's smaller communities.

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.

Wisconsin cities are confronting the demands of a K-shaped economy in which some households climb economically while others slide as they face an affordability crunch.

“The problem of a K-shaped economy is not about the line sloping up or the line sloping down,” said Superior Mayor Jim Paine. “It’s about what’s missing from the space in between. To me, that’s the gutting of the middle class and an abandonment of small, locally owned businesses.”

Paine was one of four mayors who detailed their challenges as they wrestle with a changing economy during panel discussions at the Wisconsin Economic Summit in Eau Claire this month. The four communities represented on the panel ranged from Milwaukee (population 600,000) to Dodgeville (population 5,100).

Although their scale differed, their problems overlapped: housing, workforce, and a state revenue system they say leaves them little room to maneuver.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway used a single statistic to summarize the economy faced by Wisconsin residents: more than 30% of Wisconsinites, she said, are asset-limited and income-constrained.

“A third of our state in is this category,” she said. “It looks like homelessness, increasing instability in housing, and wages not keeping up with costs.”...

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Leo's notes: Economic development cannot stop at attracting employers and creating jobs; if communities cannot house the workforce those investments depend on, housing becomes the constraint on economic growth rather than a benefit of it.

NEW GLARUS — Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. (WHPC) will celebrate the groundbreaking of Prairie Haus Senior on Tuesday, October 20, at 3 p.m. Located at 1003 Elmer Road in New Glarus, the new senior housing development will add 50 rental apartments for adults age 55 and older, expanding housing options in Green County. The development is anticipated to open in mid-summer 2027.

With a projected cost of $10.8 million, the three-story development will include 35 one-bedroom and 15 two-bedroom apartments. Of the 50 units, 30 will be market-rate rentals and 20 will be income-restricted for households earning up to 60% of the area median income (AMI).

The project will be funded through 501(c)(3) tax-exempt bond financing, WHPC equity, a WHPC Capital Magnet award, and gap funding from the Green County Development Corporation...

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Leo's notes: Senior housing deserves a more prominent place in Wisconsin's workforce housing strategy. Projects like Prairie Haus Senior can help create a more diverse housing supply, but their broader economic value depends on whether they allow longtime residents to remain in their communities while opening opportunities for a new generation of homeowners.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis., (WLAX, WEUX) – The City of Eau Claire is requesting proposals for affordable housing projects. The city says this is in response to growing need for elderly and low-income housing.

The City of Eau Claire has focused on affordable housing since 2020.

“We’re starting to see from our providers; they’re saying older individuals and individuals that have significant health issues are starting to become homeless.”

“The challenge then is, sort of, how do we increase the total stock of housing to bring these prices down?”

And the city is taking a step by asking developers to help.

“We’re looking for projects that do hit those low incomes.”

The city is offering $785,000 in funding for these projects.

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Leo's notes: The City of Eau Claire is seeking proposals for affordable housing projects, inviting developers to bring forward opportunities to expand local housing options. The effort reflects a more proactive approach to addressing the city's housing shortage. Soliciting proposals is a positive step, but the real test is whether communities can make workforce housing financially viable. Eau Claire should prioritize projects that deliver homes affordable to local wage earners, particularly smaller homes and missing-middle housing that remain underserved by conventional development. Public incentives should be tied to measurable affordability and additional housing production—not simply the number of proposals received.

Condominiums can be a more affordable path to homeownership, but developers say policy and economic challenges make new construction difficult

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Leo's notes: WPR reports that owner-occupied multifamily housing accounts for less than 8% of Wisconsin's housing stock, compared with more than 12% nationally. Madison and Milwaukee have also experienced dramatic declines in new condo production since the mid-2000s. Housing choice depends on financing and development feasibility just as much as zoning—especially when conventional rental projects are easier to finance than attainable ownership alternatives.

Ken Notes: We understand that 2008 was devastating for the condo market with banks selling units to those that could not afford them, but today we have an "ownership" crisis and banks are still leery of lending in this market. We are shooting ourselves in the foot by not creating markets for our service, retail, and entry level workers to own affordable homes. Condos are a part of the solution not the problem.

LA CROSSE (WKBT) -- Adults with disabilities, seniors and local workforce families will soon have a new housing option in La Crosse.

Haven on Main held a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning at 915 Main St. The 70-unit affordable housing development was designed for people with disabilities, seniors and local workforce families.

“We’re bringing the community together to create an environment for people of all abilities to come together and have a safe, connecting home environment,” said Jennia Melde, a representative for Haven for Special People.

The solar-powered building includes utilities in the rent...

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Leo's notes: Haven on Main demonstrates that affordability, accessibility and inclusive community design can be achieved within the same development. Its downtown location also connects residents to existing infrastructure, services and employment opportunities. Wisconsin needs more housing partnerships that recognize workforce housing is not a single building type or income bracket, but a broader commitment to creating attainable homes for people with diverse needs and abilities.

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.

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Leo’s notes: Tomah’s event that brought together developers and lenders to tour 11 development sites shows their commitment to close a projected housing gap of 400–700 units by 2030. The city is also pursuing residential TIF under Wisconsin Act 235 and zoning changes to accommodate modular and manufactured homes. Their effort is a prime example of treating housing as economic development, not an afterthought. With only 25 percent of Tomah's workforce living in the city, the consequences are clear. Attracting jobs without creating places for workers to live is an incomplete economic development strategy. Tomah's approach offers a model other Wisconsin communities should be following.

WOONSOCKET, RI / ACCESS Newswire / October 23, 2026 / CVS Health

Recently, the Grand Opening of Phoenix Residential in Milwaukee marked a milestone for the residents, local leaders, community and development organizations, who helped bring the community to life.

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Leo's notes: The conversion of a former nursing home into affordable housing and a community resource center illustrates the intersection of housing, health, and economic opportunity. With CVS Health and Aetna contributing $500,000, the project also raises an important question: should healthcare institutions play a more direct role in financing housing as a strategy for improving community health?

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...

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WKBT) -- Local housing experts gathered Thursday evening to discuss strategies for transforming vacant and underutilized buildings into affordable housing, addressing a critical shortage in the Chippewa Valley.

The event, titled "Repurposing Spaces to Create Affordable Housing," was held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library and was sponsored by the JONAH Affordable Housing Task Force, the library, the Chippewa Valley Home Builders Association, and the Eau Claire Tenant-Landlord Resource Center.

According to Paul Savides, co-chair of the JONAH Affordable Housing Task Force, the discussion focused on identifying empty buildings, vacant lots, and underused spaces that could be converted into affordable housing.

The Brief

• Local housing experts gathered Thursday evening in Eau Claire to discuss strategies for repurposing existing buildings to address a shortage of affordable housing in the Chippewa Valley.

• According to organizers, Eau Claire has a 700-person waiting list for public housing and an estimated 1,000 people experiencing homelessness.

• Experts say converting vacant buildings could provide faster solutions than new construction, which can take six to eight years to complete.

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Leo's notes: The opportunity being examined by Eau Claire housing experts goes beyond preserving old buildings. Repurposing viable properties can create housing near existing jobs, infrastructure and services while reducing the need for new development sites. Adaptive reuse only advances workforce housing when the finished units are affordable to local wage earners. Communities should prioritize feasible conversions, address financing gaps and measure success by the attainable homes delivered—not simply the buildings saved.

First Infrastructure Access Loan for new single family home development is part of a public-private partnership to address the workforce housing shortage for area employers.

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Leo's notes: The $3.4 million Infrastructure Access Loan is significant, but the more consequential story is the dependence on multiple funding partners to deliver entry-level homes. The challenge is turning these successful partnerships into a scalable development model across Wisconsin. Big thanks to WHEDA’s infrastructure financing program!

“Completing our first project with Volker Development is an exciting milestone for our team,” remarked Alison Gorham, Vice President & Director of Wisconsin Operations at McShane. “Kelly Station reflects a shared commitment to delivering quality affordable housing that prioritizes both residents and the surrounding community.”

Madison, Wisconsin – McShane Construction Company is pleased to announce the completion of Kelly Station, a 76-unit affordable housing community for client Volker Development.

Located at 2462 E. Washington Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin, Kelly Station is a five-story podium-style building with four floors of apartment residences atop an above-grade precast parking garage. The exterior design features masonry at the ground level, complemented by a combination of Hardie plank and lap siding across the upper four stories.

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Leo's notes: Kelly Station's location along Madison's East Washington Avenue demonstrates the value of adding affordable housing within established urban corridors, close to transportation and existing infrastructure. The challenge for rural Wisconsin is developing practical housing models in communities with less density, and arguably more important main transit routes...

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.

Wisconsin’s 2025-2026 legislative session introduced notable updates to tax incremental financing (TIF), including targeted reforms to affordable housing tools and the creation of a new TIF district type to spur residential development.

2025 Wisconsin Act 173

Affordable Housing Extension Expanded. Municipalities can now extend a TIF district’s life by up to two years (a doubling of the previous one-year limit) to fund costs benefiting affordable housing. All other statutory requirements to implement the extension remain unchanged..

2025 Wisconsin Act 235

Creation of Residential TIDs. Act 235 authorizes a new TID type that allows newly platted residential development without the 35% area cap in Mixed-Use districts.

Development in a Residential TID must meet the following requirements:

• Limited to owner-occupied, single-family or two-family residences.
• Lot sizes for single-family residences may not exceed 7,500 square feet, with a maximum lot width of 70 feet and a maximum 10-foot side yard setback.
• Lot sizes for two-family residences may not exceed 12,500 square feet, with a maximum lot width of 80 feet and a maximum 10-foot side yard setback.
• No single-story residence can be larger than 1,500 square feet.
• No two-story residence can be larger than 2,000 square feet...

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Leo's notes: For Wisconsin's smaller and rural communities, residential TIF could help close the gap between housing demand and what projects actually cost to build. But the real test isn't whether communities gain another financing tool—it's whether they can use it to deliver starter homes, duplexes, and missing-middle housing at prices local workers can afford, without relying on large-scale developments to make the numbers work.

Why is affordable housing so difficult?

Affordable housing is an issue we hear about frequently — not just in Eagle River, but across Wisconsin and the country. Employers need workers, families need places to live, and many people who work in our community find that the cost of housing can be difficult to manage.

So a reasonable question is: What is the city doing about affordable housing?

The answer is more complicated than it may seem.

The City of Eagle River previously had an Affordable Housing Committee that spent considerable time discussing workforce and affordable housing. The committee ultimately stopped meeting about a year or so ago because, despite the interest and effort, we could not identify a workable solution that would make new affordable housing financially feasible given the current cost of construction....

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Leo’s notes: We must shift the conversation from funding individual affordable housing projects to addressing the underlying economics that make modest, workforce-oriented housing difficult to build.

Governor Tony Evers joined community leaders, business partners, and local and state officials last Friday to celebrate the groundbreaking of Scholar’s Ridge.  The new residential development in Plymouth is located on South Pleasant View Road, and will create 102 single-family homes, expanding opportunities for attainable homeownership in Sheboygan County.

The groundbreaking marks another milestone in the county’s collaborative efforts to expand accessible homeownership, strengthen local communities, and support the workforce that drives the region’s economy.

Sheboygan County’s Forward Fund, a public-private partnership intended to increase the supply of affordable housing, was a key to making Scholar’s Ridge possible.  The fund was launched through significant investments from four founding business partners; Johnsonville, Kohler Co., Masters Gallery Foods and Sargento, with each contributing $2 million...

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Leo's notes: Scholar's Ridge will deliver 102 entry-level single-family homes on 32 acres, supported by a $3.4 million WHEDA Infrastructure Access Loan and a partnership involving major local employers. It's the third development in Sheboygan County's broader initiative targeting 600 homes. The greatest takeaway here is that employers are directly investing in housing supply, signaling a movement of treating housing as economic development infrastructure.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBank Chicago) has awarded $5 million through its 2026 Community First Developer Program to support the development of affordable housing professionals and expand housing development capacity across Illinois and Wisconsin.

The funding, distributed through FHLBank Chicago member financial institutions, will support an estimated 95 fellowships and internships at 27 organizations. The latest awards bring the program’s cumulative funding to $17 million since its launch in 2022.

The initiative provides grants to nonprofit, for-profit and quasi-governmental organizations that offer practical training opportunities for emerging affordable housing developers...

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Leo's notes: FHLBank Chicago's $5 million program will support approximately 95 fellowships and internships across Illinois and Wisconsin. The more consequential opportunity here is the pipeline of developers being built, who will be capable of delivering smaller, incremental housing projects in communities that lack established development capacity.

Rocket (RKT)-powered brokerage Redfin published a housing-cost analysis exploring when mortgage payments could return to historical income levels. Redfin estimates a hypothetical national return to August 2018 affordability levels by November 2031 with 6% mortgage rates and 2.1% annual home-price growth. With flat prices and 7.5% rates, the modeled date is April 2032; with flat prices and 6% rates, it is February 2029.

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Leo's notes: A new Redfin analysis suggests U.S. housing costs could return to 2018 affordability levels within five years under favorable mortgage-rate and price-growth scenarios. However, Milwaukee is among the markets where affordability could take a decade or longer to recover if current trends persist. Waiting for the housing market to correct itself is not a workforce housing strategy. Communities need to accelerate production of smaller homes, duplexes and other attainable ownership options while reducing unnecessary development costs. Affordability should improve because we build housing that matches local incomes—not simply because we wait for wages and interest rates to catch up.

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.

LA CROSSE (WKBT) -- After nearly seven years of planning, the Copper Rocks project broke ground today at the former Kmart property on State Road in La Crosse.

The development is planned to include 247 homes and 20,000 square feet of commercial and community space. The project is among a small number in La Crosse focused on housing for middle-income residents.

“That workforce-oriented housing had not had the opportunities for a variety of reasons,” said Jeremy Novak, vice president of development for 360 Real Estate Solutions. “As we look at new projects, that’s the group that we particularly try to focus our efforts on.”

Demolition is expected to begin in March or April next year.

The first construction phase is expected to wrap up in 2028, with the final phase slated for completion in 2029...

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Leo's notes: La Crosse’s Copper Rocks development has officially broken ground at the former Kmart site, advancing a long-delayed mixed-use redevelopment by Three-Sixty Real Estate Solutions. Transforming obsolete commercial properties into housing is an opportunity Wisconsin communities should pursue more aggressively. Copper Rocks demonstrates the potential to add substantial housing supply within existing urban infrastructure rather than extending development outward. While its market-rate apartments will not directly address every workforce affordability need, expanding supply and diversifying housing options are important pieces of the solution. The next challenge is ensuring redevelopment opportunities also produce homes attainable to middle-income households.

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Leo's notes: Senior housing is often overlooked in Wisconsin's workforce housing conversation, yet the two are closely connected. Prairie Haus Senior will add 50 mixed-income apartments, including 20 income-restricted units, to New Glarus. The project illustrates how senior housing can contribute to a broader local housing strategy, although its effect on existing home availability will depend on whether residents move from homes within the community.

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...