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When Lafayette Crump was sworn in as Milwaukee’s commissioner of city development in 2020, the city faced a series of stubborn challenges

When Lafayette Crump was sworn in as Milwaukee’s commissioner of city development in 2020, the city faced a series of stubborn challenges: a widening gap in housing quality between white and minority residents, a Downtown still grappling with vacant commercial buildings and districts of underused industrial land. Not long after, along came Covid.

Five years later, Commissioner Crump, 52, is still at the helm, steering projects that include redeveloping long-empty properties into affordable housing and coordinating with Public Works on the streets, sidewalks and public spaces that knit neighborhoods together. His work demands fluency in both economics and equity, skills he honed not in politics, but in law and the private sector...

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Leo’s notes: As Commissioner Lafayette Crump’s tenure illustrates, housing is no longer just a market outcome — it’s core civic infrastructure. From adaptive reuse downtown to workforce and supportive housing along key corridors, the city is using every available tool to close long-standing gaps, stabilize neighborhoods, and expand opportunity. In a city still thousands of affordable units short, these projects reinforce a central truth for Wisconsin communities: if we want economic growth, talent retention, and equitable outcomes, housing policy must lead, not follow.

Ken Notes: Great interview! We need to replicate some of this statewide.

Residents say city officials have ignored them in moving forward to build duplexes on a green space in town. Meanwhile, home prices in the city have increased 76% since 2017.

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Leo’s notes: The fight over Stori Field in Richland Center captures the central tension in today’s housing crisis: the collision between deeply held attachments to place and an undeniable shortage of homes ordinary people can afford. Green space matters—but so does the ability of seniors, workers, and young families to stay in the communities they love. When every proposed site is treated as untouchable, the result isn’t preservation...

This year was a building year for Metcalfe Park Community Bridges – literally and figuratively. 

In 2025, the neighborhood organization launched its Reclaim and Restore initiative, geared toward increasing homeownership in Metcalfe Park by renovating city-owned foreclosed properties and providing them to Metcalfe Park residents through a lease-to-own model.

Now, Community Bridges has plans to broaden its developmental footprint with a proposal for a $26 million community-led housing development that, if approved, will provide affordable housing to seniors and health care workers. 

Community Bridges, in partnership with KG Development, submitted an application to Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority for 4% state low-income housing tax credits...   ...Full Story Here

Leo’s notes: Metcalfe Park Community Bridges is showing what community-led housing can look like when affordability, ownership, and health are treated as inseparable goals. At a moment when rising costs and absentee ownership threaten displacement across Milwaukee, Metcalfe Park’s approach underscores a critical lesson for housing policy statewide: lasting affordability is strongest when residents help shape, own, and benefit from the places they call home.

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
Wisconsin Housing Alliance	Office of Rural Prosperity Wisconsin Economic Development

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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...

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Leo’s notes: As Wisconsin communities work to close widening gaps between jobs, housing, and opportunity, private-sector partners are increasingly stepping into a civic role once filled by public programs alone. This is a practical reminder that solving the housing crisis requires more than units—it requires coordinated, place-based commitments that strengthen households, stabilize communities, and ensure that economic growth translates into real housing security...

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Leo’s notes: Milwaukee County’s decision to strategically deploy more than $3 million in annual federal CDBG and HOME funds is a reminder that affordable housing isn’t just a line item—it’s core infrastructure for healthy communities. By directing these dollars toward housing stability, senior services, and neighborhood investments, the county is using flexible federal tools the way they were intended: to meet local needs where markets fall short. At a time when rising housing costs ripple into workforce shortages, health outcomes, and aging-in-place challenges, this kind of coordinated public investment helps ensure that working families and seniors aren’t left behind—and that housing policy remains inseparable from community well-being.

MADISON (WLUK) -- Fifty-nine organizations will receive $2 million in grant funds from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority Foundation to improve housing assistance in Wisconsin`s most vulnerable populations.

Gov. Tony Evers announced Friday that the grant funds will be awarded to Wisconsin housing assistance facilities, including emergency shelters, transitional residences, and extremely low-income housing.

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A proposed budget from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that cuts funds which have meant the difference between shelter and homelessness for about 170,000 people nationwide has left communities scrambling. In Wisconsin, the cuts are projected to cause the loss of permanent housing for 2,379 people according to a report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The loss of funds would hit early in the new year, leaving local governments to absorb the fallout in the middle of winter...   ...Full Story Here

Ken Notes: We should NOT play politics with housing, that said we may need to sit down and create programs that work better moving forward...

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...