This Weeks Articles for 3/17/2023 ...

1. As Wisconsin confronts a housing shortage, some groups seek zoning changes to aid developers ...
2. Legislature works to address housing shortage...
3. Nonprofit organization strives to create more affordable housing in Green Bay area ...
4. Wisconsin receives nearly $100M for housing and community development. How much will your hometown get?...
5. Why new housing rules stir so much trouble in Madison ...
6. $27M Senior Affordable Housing Complex Coming to Sheboygan River Watch Neighborhood...
7. Tribal Supportive Housing Institute to Focus on Wisconsin`s Native Communities...
8. LIHTC, NHTC, MIHTC Extolled as Necessary Tools to Address Affordable Housing Supply Gap During Senate Finance Hearing, Wyden Reintroduces DASH Act...
9. Madison rent hikes cause housing scramble...

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Governor’s 2023-25 biennial budget proposal includes plans to promote local housing development and solutions, ensure renters have safe, stable housing

“Lack of access to affordable housing will hold our workforce and our economy back. So, we’re going to take a multi-pronged approach to make sure we have safe, reliable, and affordable housing across our state. We’re creating a new Affordable Workforce Housing program with a $150 million investment into local communities to maintain and develop workforce housing across our state.

“We also know we can expand housing options in our communities by renovating and restoring housing that’s already available. So, we’re investing $200 million into renovating and restoring existing residential properties, including providing low-interest and forgivable loans to help working families update and remediate lead in their current homes.”

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Ken Notes: First THANK YOU. Now the caveats for readers, First the budget is a work in progress - not a done deal, second renovation is expensive, sometimes actually more than starting over, third we need to work with communities, builders and developers to get this done or we will continue to see them build more profitable (read higher priced) units. It is about the margins, a friend whom I have promised anonymity told me, "Ken, there is more profit on JUST the quartz countertops in a 500K unit than there is in an entire 149K home."

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Notes: It is clear as to what the problem is, now we need to focus on a variety of solutions.

Construction industry advocates and some local officials are calling for deregulating new home construction in Wisconsin, along with other potential solutions to the state’s shortage of affordable housing.

“In most communities today, you can’t build the kind of housing that we all grew up in — at least in my generation,” Wisconsin Realtors Association President and CEO Mike Theo said yesterday during an event hosted by Competitive Wisconsin in West Bend. “You can’t build that kind of housing that you would call either workforce housing or affordable housing, if you will.”

He argued the layers of regulations on new construction are “uneconomical” for builders to meet demand for this type of housing...
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Notes: Points well presented. Why can you not build a sub 1,000 square foot home on a permanent foundation and smaller lot in most communities in the state? We can develop personal wealth in our state by creating more opportunities for entry level ownership...

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Nate Notes: Traditional zoning practices have continually limited the housing market`s capacity to develop new homes for young people and for seniors, limiting availability and hindering architectural creativity. Laws and local ordinances will need to be changed in order to address the housing crisis and answer the increasing need for diverse housing solutions.

A multi-use proposal set to revitalize a portion of South Milwaukee`s former Bucyrus campus is getting millions in funding to offer affordable-rate apartments.

$10M investment: Four affordable housing development contracts signed in Milwaukee County

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chair the Senate Committee on Housing, Rural Issues & Forestry, and I recently convened the committee for an informational hearing on the housing shortage facing Wisconsin. The committee read and heard reports from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Wisconsin Builders Association, League of Wisconsin Municipalities, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a Professor from UW-Madison and a planner with Outagamie County.

We know that in Wisconsin we are not building enough housing to keep up with demand for our growing workforce. Housing costs and rents are rising faster than inflation and incomes and are becoming increasingly out of reach for the needs of those working in jobs that are vital to the success of our communities. Furthermore, businesses will hesitate to locate in areas where there is not adequate housing, and we in rural Wisconsin are well aware of that pressure.
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Nate Notes: The problem is most of what we are building is either rental property or far to expensive for much of our workforce.

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Ken Notes: This plan looks great. It will be interesting to see the pricing on the final units. Other developments have used the density and creativity to simply create smaller luxury units that cost far more that the ‘Missing middle’ can afford...

(WLUK) -- A new nonprofit organization is focusing on creating more affordable housing for working people in the Green Bay area.

The Gateway Collective is the organization, formed by St. John’s Ministries, and will focus on "socially inclusive housing."

"It is combining the affordability that a family truly needs to live and survive with intentional onsite community and support," says Gateway Collective Executive Director Alexia Wood. "It`s bringing the benefits of community and combining it with affordability."...

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MILWAUKEE — NewPoint Real Estate Capital has provided $20.6 million in construction financing for Michigan Street Commons, a 99-unit affordable housing community in Milwaukee. Kenosha-based Bear Real Estate Group is developing the project, which is slated for completion in spring 2024. Michigan Street Commons is being built on the western border of a larger redevelopment project spearheaded by Bear Real Estate Group and Kacmarcik Enterprises. Plans call for an 11-acre mixed-use sports and entertainment district, known as Iron District MKE, that will include a hotel, event space and a soccer stadium that will serve the USL Championship League and Marquette University...
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Ken Notes: These are nice projects, but we need to focus on ownership and wealth building. In so many of these projects the wealth or capitol gains ends up with the developer, and while I love developers our workforce need to build there own nest egg...

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WWHNews Notes: We question the subtitle because we can make housing affordable by building smaller more affordable units. Regulations may need to change to allow denser neighborhoods but in Wisconsin taxes are tied to value. We need to work with developers and builders to incentivize building more affordable units. The apartment market demonstrates that it is possible...

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Nate Notes: Access to housing is necessary for all communities to maintain, grow, and develop. It is unfortunate that the history of housing development has such overt mechanisms of racial discrimination, but that does not mean we cannot make changes and do better moving forward...

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal puts billions of dollars in funding from general purpose revenue and other sources toward housing programs around environment-related issues, home rehabilitation, workforce housing and more.

He also made policy recommendations, such as an amendment to allow municipalities to enact their own rental market regulations to "determine the appropriate balance of rights and protections for landlords and tenants."....

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Ken Notes: This may be more than a money problem. It is a margin problem. If the profit is in mare expensive homes or government subsidized rental housing why would a developer build smaller units for purchase. Until communities own the land and restrict what can be build we will remain where we are. Also we need to plan neighborhoods with a variety of inventory so we are not segregating our communities even more. And of course the budget is not a done deal anyway.

On Tuesday, the Common Council adopted legislation to encourage the development of more affordable housing downtown. Developers can now add additional stories to new buildings proposed in the downtown area if at least half of the added space will be for affordable housing. The additional stories must fall within downtown height limits that protect the view of the State Capitol.

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isconsin received more than $62 million in community planning and development formula grants, as well as a combined $34 million in other grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development aimed at funding public services, resident-led improvement projects and housing programs throughout the state.

Here, we break down what that means for the state:

What are the Community Planning and Development Formula Grants?

Community planning and development formula grants are federal monies used to provide safe and affordable housing, and expand economic opportunities for people with low-to-moderate incomes. The grants include community development block grants, HOME investment partnership grants, emergency solutions grants, housing opportunities for persons with HIV/AIDS and housing trust fund grants...

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Experts say state and local government entities can help address Wisconsin’s affordable housing shortage by helping to cover related infrastructure costs. 

Kurt Paulsen, a professor of urban planning at UW-Madison, spoke yesterday during a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Housing, Rural Issues and Forestry and Assembly Committee on Housing and Real Estate. He and other speakers highlighted the statewide shortage of affordable housing, particularly in major employment hubs, as well as potential solutions to this problem...

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Ken Notes: True but remember even if you cover all the costs and provide the infrastructure for more affordable cost you can still get 459K homes on 60 foot lots with no basements...

Mike Varda and Ron Rosner have lived in Madison’s Regent neighborhood just past Camp Randall Stadium for 40 years. They can point out every house that used to be occupied by a family but now is home to college students.

It’s too many, in their opinion.

“My first house here I abandoned in 2000 because I felt forced out of the neighborhood by students who would ask me, ‘Why do you live in the student neighborhood?’” Rosner said. “Well, I got here before you did.”...
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The High School Equivalency Program (HEP) is an educational program targeted to help migrant and seasonal farm workers and their immediate family members earn a GED/HSED. HEP classes are offered in English and Spanish.

Contact us:

• hep@madisoncollege.edu
• Voice: 608.259.2977
• Text: 608.571.2441

Milwaukee County is a step closer to having more affordable housing units in the suburbs.

That`s thanks to nearly $10 million in federal money that county government has steered toward projects in Wauwatosa, Brown Deer and South Milwaukee. There could also be state action this year on affordable housing.

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Ken Notes: Remember the key is ownership and wealth building. A service or retail worker who is forced to rent for 40 years has little or nothing at the end of the day...

When a group of women from CNH Industrial`s?Case Construction Equipment?brand volunteered for housing charity?Habitat for Humanity, the results were amazing. Their experience building homes for women in need in Wisconsin not only taught them valuable teamwork skills, but also helped strengthen Case`s commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I)...
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Ken Notes: I am such a Habitat fan! Ownership, low cost affordable, owner participation, in mixed neighborhoods, no funds that have strings. Perfect...

A new 83-unit senior affordable housing project, along with 18 live/work three-bedroom units with underground and at-grade parking is all but certain for Sheboygan’s River Watch neighborhood on the former Koepsell property.  A direct referral to the Finance and Personnel Committee was posted on Thursday that authorizes an agreement between GenCap Emem, LLC and the City of Sheboygan to construct the development beginning no later than December 31 this year at a cost of $27,125,559.

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MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Madison residents are raising the alarm about proposed developments of affordable housing on part of the former Oscar Mayer plant. Contamination in the ground, at the center of concerns. The city and the DNR say they hear them, and they are taking the right steps to redevelop the property safely...   ...Full Story Here

Notes: These sites are great opportunities for community controlled development, we do need to ensure safety but they present great opportunity for working with developers to get the units needed.

Building on the success of the first Wisconsin Supportive Housing Institute, WHEDA and CSH are joining together again to launch a Tribal Supportive Housing Institute. The goal of the institute is to increase capacity within tribal communities to develop supportive housing, both on and off tribal land, and to reduce the timeline for building supportive housing by improving the planning and development process.



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Gov. Tony Evers wants to offload four state office buildings as part of Wisconsin`s next budget.

That includes three facilities in downtown Madison and another in Milwaukee. 

The proposals, released this week in an update to the Department of Administration`s Vision 2030 plan, are part of a push to consolidate and relocate staff as more state employees work remotely.

In all, officials say Wisconsin would save more than $500 million in deferred maintenance costs by offloading the buildings, and DOA Secretary Kathy Blumenfeld characterized the proposed moves as a "win-win for taxpayers and state workers."...

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Ken Notes: DHFS should be a hotel, but the GEF buildings wold make great workforce housing units...

ENABLING BETTER PLACES: A USER’S GUIDE TO WISCONSIN NEIGHBORHOOD AFFORDABILITY	WHEDA’s Rural Affordable Workforce Housing Initiative	Wisconsin REALTORS® Association
WISCAP Affordable Housing Network	Division of Energy, Housing and Community Resources	Housing Authority City of Milwaukee (HACM)
Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp	WEDA Legislative Tracker	NRA Housing Needs By State / Wisconsin

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

Brown County United Way (BCUW) was announced as the newest partner in Green Bay’s City East development. This public private partnership enables the nonprofit to work with local government, housing developers and community organizations to further its mission of uniting people, ideas, and resources to co-create community solutions that strengthen residents of Brown County.

BCUW believes that ‘Place Matters.’ Through its Thriving Neighborhoods Initiative, BCUW identified four neighborhoods (Downtown, Joannes Park, Navarino and Whitney Park) for its targeted investment to support and build thriving neighborhoods...
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Notes: As non-traditional living arrangements become more common in the United States to find affordable accommodations, it will be imperative to recognize these blended households.

This week, Stevens Point residents attended a city council meeting to fight against a neighbor’s efforts to build an extension to their garage so their ailing in-laws have a place to move in.

Earlier this year, Madison residents mounted a campaign against the city’s efforts to change zoning rules to allow higher density apartments near future stops on the soon-to-be-built Bus Rapid Transit line. Another effort in Madison would  stop a developer’s proposal for a new apartment complex, by attempting to get a historical landmark designation for a former credit union building because former President Harry Truman dedicated the structure in 1950....
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Ken Notes: NIMBY, preservation, margins, holding costs, segregation, transit, infrastructure, diversity, politics, and so much more suggest this is NOT a simple problem...

 Rural Wisconsin is facing a people problem.

There are simply not enough people to go around, or rather not enough workingage families replacing those who have left the workforce due to well-earned retirement.

Employers are seeing this with recruitment efforts for all levels of positions on a near constant basis. School officials talk about applicant pools that used to have dozens of people vying for a position, and now have positions that get a handful of applicants or none at all. The deeper the pool of applicants the better the chances of getting a truly outstanding employee.

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In a show of bipartisan support, members of the Senate Finance Committee called for immediate action to address the country’s ever growing affordable housing crisis during a March 7 hearing.

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MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Whether it be living downtown, renting near campus or finding a single-family home, residents say living in Madison is becoming increasingly unaffordable.

As a result, some housing advocates are saying long-time residents are being displaced as new developments take over.

“It’s all fine and well if you end up having really nice shiny, expensive buildings, but if you don’t have the people who make up the character of the city living there, then what do you have? Just very shiny, pretty buildings,” Sunmi Famele, resource strategist for the Progress Center for Black Women, said.

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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.

Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service (WIPPS) and WisconsinDevelopment.com have agreed to begin this weekly publication, website, and resource database -- BUT WE NEED HELP.

We need partners willing to make small contributions and we need sponsorships. We also encourage any organization working on Workforce Housing to share their stories and resources with us.

Please call us if you can help: Also Do not forget to subscribe.

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