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Wisconsin housing advocates and lawmakers are optimistic that a new federal law will help address the state’s shortage of affordable housing, but how agencies will fund and implement provisions in the law remains to be seen.

Known as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the law is a sweeping package of measures that touch many corners of the housing industry and largely aims to increase the country’s stock of affordable housing.

The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, which oversees affordable housing in the state, has called the bipartisan law “the most significant update to affordable housing programs in the United States in decades.”...

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Leo's notes: The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act represents a meaningful shift toward treating housing supply as a national economic issue, with reforms touching permitting, manufactured housing, home repair, infill development and pre-approved housing designs. For Wisconsin, provisions protecting rural rental housing and incentivizing local zoning reform could be especially valuable, but authorization alone will not build homes—the real measure of this legislation will be whether Congress and federal agencies provide the funding and implementation needed to turn these new tools into actual housing production.

VIA CDC has begun the first phase of its Affordable Townhome Initiative. Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service has the story.

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Leo's notes: VIA CDC’s Affordable Townhome Initiative offers a compelling model for turning small, vacant urban parcels into attainable ownership opportunities, with homes projected around $125,000 for households earning up to 80% of area median income. The project is especially noteworthy for using compact townhome design to make efficient use of infill sites while creating equity-building opportunities for working families. If successfully replicated, this type of small-scale development could become an important complement to Wisconsin’s larger affordable rental projects and help restore a missing rung on the homeownership ladder.

Construction has begun this summer on The Avenue, a new affordable housing development near the intersection of North 14th Avenue and Georgia Street.  

Developer Brian Spoerl of Spoerl Commercial has started 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 said he expects the first building to be ready for occupancy next June, with apartments available to households earning between 30-60% of the area median income. He anticipates the building will be fully occupied by the end of 2027...

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Leo's notes: The Avenue offers a particularly strong model by pairing 39 income-restricted apartments with a second 20-unit phase aimed at households earning 80–100% of area median income. That second tier matters: many working households earn too much for traditional affordable housing but still struggle in Door County’s constrained market. Combining LIHTC, local TIF and WHEDA’s Vacancy-to-Vitality program demonstrates how different financing tools can work together to serve a broader continuum of housing need.

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Leo's notes: Madison’s churches are demonstrating how underused institutional land can become part of the solution to the housing shortage while preserving important community gathering spaces. Common Grace alone will pair a new community center with 26 workforce apartments, while several church-led projects could collectively add hundreds of income- or age-restricted homes. For communities searching for infill opportunities, faith-based properties represent an increasingly important resource—and partnerships that help congregations navigate development, financing and zoning could unlock considerably more housing.

Ken Notes: Imagine if every church in Wisconsin built just a few ADU's, small homes, multiplexes, or co-housing facilities and made their building available as community centers, day cares, kitchens, when not being used for worship. We would not have a housing problem in the state...

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	Couleecap
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...

Governmental leaders celebrated the official groundbreaking of new apartments in Manitowoc.

A ceremony was held this morning for the soon-to-be-built Maritime Lofts on the former Mirro Property on Washington Street.

Leaders say the project will provide workforce housing for those who make 30 to 80% of the median income.

Public Housing Marketing President for Gorman and Company Ted Matkom called the project an amazing effort by the city to bring the site back to the community.

Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels called the day historic and thanked the many stakeholders who helped make the site’s future possible...

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Leo's notes: Maritime Lofts is a strong example of how housing policy, environmental remediation and downtown redevelopment can work together. The 59-unit project will transform Manitowoc’s long-vacant former Mirro industrial property into housing for households earning 30–80% of area median income, leveraging local leadership alongside WHEDA, state and federal resources. For older Wisconsin communities, difficult brownfield sites can become meaningful housing opportunities—but projects like this also demonstrate the patience, public investment and cross-agency coordination required to make redevelopment financially feasible.

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Leo's notes: Walworth County Habitat for Humanity is taking an important step beyond the traditional single-family Habitat model, building four workforce townhomes near downtown Whitewater specifically aimed at teachers, first responders, factory workers and other middle-income households. The homes are expected to sell for about $200,000 despite an estimated market value of roughly $400,000, demonstrating how donated land, nonprofit development and volunteer labor can dramatically change the economics of attainable homeownership. What makes this worth watching is the partnership with Whitewater, which provided the land at nominal cost and sees homeownership as a community-development priority. With Habitat already planning a 20-home subdivision after this project, the larger opportunity is to determine whether this model can move from a handful of subsidized homes to a repeatable strategy for producing missing-middle ownership housing at meaningful scale.

ALTOONA, Wis., (WLAX, WEUX ) - The City of Altoona has shifted its plans to build affordable housing on an 80 acre plot of land near Highway 12. In 2022, the city adopted plans to develop a neighborhood on the East side of Altoona. Right here we have an image of the original plans. The plan was aimed at building homes at a cost of $300,000 for buyers.

After receiving zero proposals, the council estimated developing the land would cost an estimated $11 to $12 million. Now the council has shifted discussions toward building industrial property on the plot.

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Leo's notes: Altoona’s decision to reconsider an 80-acre housing site after receiving zero development proposals is a useful reminder that identifying land and setting an affordability goal are only the beginning. The city envisioned homes around $300,000, but an estimated $11–$12 million in development costs ultimately made the concept difficult for the private market to deliver. The potential pivot to industrial development may make economic sense for Altoona, but it also illustrates a challenge playing out across Wisconsin: communities need workforce housing, yet infrastructure and land-development costs can make even publicly supported sites financially infeasible. A great opportunity to explore WI Act 235!

Ken Notes: What they need is a planning and feasibility study and remember you can do both housing and industrial on a site using TIF and other tools. Altoona is 10K population so even 50 affordable workforce homes would have a positive impact!

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...