Wisconsin Workforce Housing News


Leonardo Silva - Editor
Architect / Full Service Design Firm
608.698.3522
Leo@WWHNews.com

Ken Harwood - Publisher
Advocating for Wisconsin
608.334.2174
Ken@WWHnews.com

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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

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Modular Homes Could Help Solve the Housing Crisis—but They Need To Fix Their Image Problem First

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.

But Malouff believes the benefits of modular housing—the speed and quality modular assembly can bring—will become increasingly attractive to homebuyers amid a housing shortage and affordability crisis....

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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.

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Home prices, rents have risen sharply in northeast Wisconsin over the last decade

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

The median home price in northeast Wisconsin has more than doubled over the last decade, while fair market rents in the region’s two largest cities have also climbed sharply.

Local officials, housing advocates and economists say those cost increases — fueled by tight supply and high demand — have made it harder for young families to purchase their first home and for renters to make ends meet.

Northeast Wisconsin is home to Green Bay and the Fox Valley. It’s a mix of medium-sized cities and rural communities. Wisconsin Realtors Association data shows median home prices in the region climbed from $145,000 in July 2016 to $331,000 in July 2026...

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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...

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Ascension explores affordable housing for historic Milwaukee hospital building

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.

“Working with elected officials and community stakeholders to help address the need for housing in the area, Ascension is exploring a new chapter for the historic Heritage Center building on the Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Milwaukee Campus,” an Ascension spokesperson said. “Because neighborhood fit and community alignment are priorities, we are taking a deliberate, thorough and inclusive approach; no final decisions or predetermined plans have been made. We are actively initiating a phased, collaborative, local engagement process, and ongoing due diligence is underway to understand our options. We look forward to working closely with city officials, community leaders, and local clergy to gather their vital input as we shape a shared vision for the stability and vitality of the community.”...


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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...

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Wisconsin Workforce Housing Resources

ENABLING BETTER PLACES: A USER’S GUIDE TO WISCONSIN NEIGHBORHOOD AFFORDABILITY

 Wisconsin REALTORS® Association

WISCAP Affordable Housing Network

Division of Energy, Housing and Community Resources

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...

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Vernon County launches ‘Driftless Bound’ to attract new workers and families

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.

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Bay View church weighs redevelopment with 55 apartments, smaller worship space amid declining membership

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.

MILWAUKEE — Unity Lutheran Church in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood is considering a redevelopment plan that would replace its existing building with a four-story building containing 55 apartment units and a smaller worship and ministry space.

Pastor Kevan Penvose says declining membership, falling revenue, and urgent structural repairs have made redevelopment necessary.

"We are only using half the building. The original church basement only gets used for storage, and in the education wing, the second floor is really not usable,” said Penvose...

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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.

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Revive Housing Pilot Advances After Months Of Negotiations

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.

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The Avenue project moves ahead with 39 new affordable housing units in Sturgeon Bay

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...

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About Wisconsin Workforce Housing News (WWHNews.com)

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 aggregate news and highlight programs that are working to provide affordable workforce housing in Wisconsin. We advocate for state and local policies that improve the more affordable housing markets. We encourage developers to build new homes that are affordable for those working for Wisconsin while still making a fair profit on the work they do. We encourage communities and neighborhoods to become partners in meeting these needs. We highlight what others have done as a form of "Best Practices" in the State and Country. Finally, we provide direct links to resources and programs in the State.

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.

Safe, affordable housing makes a difference in the lives of children and families impacting both education and health. We are supporting affordable housing because it is good for business, good for families, good for communities, and good for Wisconsin.

Leonardo Silva - Editor
Architect / Full Service Design Firm
608.698.3522
Leo@WWHNews.com

Ken Harwood - Publisher
Advocating for Wisconsin
608.334.2174
Ken@WWHNews.com


   ...Full Story Here

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List of Housing Resources


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

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