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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

County Matchmaker Tool Overview

Living and working in the communities they serve, county leaders across the country understand the local housing conditions and challenges faced within the community. As these challenges appear on the doorstep of county officials, local governments often face complex decisions to effect substantive change.

The housing policy matchmaker aspires to be a resource for local officials, providing information that assists in understanding the elements of local housing markets, identifying key challenges and providing resources on policies that might help enhance the local housing landscape.

Recognizing that local governments vary in their available resources, as well as legal powers,there is no single comprehensive strategy that works for all places. Rather, the tool provides a data-informed assessment, referring local officials to resources that support county leaders’ continued actions to improve the affordability, quality and supply of local housing stock...

Explore the Tool

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Leo’s notes: Rather than prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, Housing Solutions Matchmaker tool emphasizes that housing challenges are inherently regional and require alignment across municipalities, funding sources, and regulatory frameworks. This reinforces a critical reality: no single jurisdiction can solve the housing crisis alone. The communities making the most progress are those acting regionally—aligning zoning, infrastructure, and funding tools across borders to scale housing production and affordability.

Ken Notes: There is no single solution but every County still has a problem. We need to build communities and neighborhoods to address the issue. Leo and I do have ideas that we have seen work in both the cities of Madison and Milwaukee and small rural communities across the state and we will continue to share as long as we can.

MILWAUKEE — Hundreds crowded the Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy gymnasium Monday evening to hear Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson present his annual State of the City of Milwaukee address. 

During his speech, Johnson shared how he’s declared 2026 the year of housing. Focusing on three factors — affordability, availability and quality. 

“Everyone who currently lives in Milwaukee and everyone who wants to live in Milwaukee should have access to an affordable, safe home that meets their needs,” said Johnson....

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Leo's notes: As highlighted by Mayor Johnson’s speech, housing is no longer a side initiative — it’s core economic and public policy strategy. Milwaukee’s approach of pairing financing tools with ecosystem-building (ownership pathways, workforce units, safety investments) reflects a more comprehensive model that other cities will need to replicate to meaningfully move the needle.

POYNETTE — In April 2025, Leah White and her aunt moved into an apartment in the new Point Gardens, an 80-acre development just beyond Dane County’s borders in neighboring Columbia County. White said she was seeking housing at an affordable price point and a community that felt safe, healthy and connected.

Her window overlooks a courtyard of community gardens that have yet to awaken, but they’re beautiful during the growing season, she said. White has cultivated tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce and rhubarb.

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Leo's notes: With homes priced below Dane County averages and apartments leasing quickly, Point Gardens in Poynette highlights how demand is spilling into nearby communities where land, entitlement and infrastructure costs are more manageable. While this expands access, it also raises long-term questions about commute patterns, regional planning, and whether core cities can adapt quickly enough to retain their workforce. Interesting trend worth following closely...

Madison, Wisconsin, has been growing steadily. Between 2010 and 2021, Dane County, the city's home, added more than 38,000 jobs and welcomed nearly 42,000 new households yet permitted only 34,000 new housing units. This shortage of housing contributed to an increase in the median price of a home from $226,000 in 2010 to $369,000 in 2022, exceeding the overall growth rate of home values in Wisconsin, and average rents rose by 28 percent over the same period. In response, Dane County has set a goal of adding 35,300 new workforce housing units for households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI) by 2040. In 2025, the opening of Rise Madison in the city's Hawthorne neighborhood helped close some of this gap, adding 245 units of income-limited housing as one of the largest government-subsidized housing developments to open in the state's history.

Project Background

Rise Madison is built on the 6-acre site of a former bakery; "Rise" refers both to the goal of uplifting the community and to the rise that yeasted dough undergoes in breadmaking...

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Leo's notes: scale, mixed-income design, and integration with infrastructure and community assets all matter. Projects like this show that when public tools, zoning flexibility, and community alignment come together, housing can do more than fill units — it can actively strengthen neighborhoods.

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...

Milwaukee officials are proposing two new tax incremental financing districts totaling about $4.7 million to support affordable housing developments in Bay View and the Near West Side. The first proposal would provide $2.6 million toward the redevelopment of a vacant former hospital at 2711 W. Wells St. into 124 affordable housing units. The project, ...

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Leo's notes: Milwaukee’s proposal of two new Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) districts totaling roughly $4.7 million to support affordable housing underscores a growing trend: adaptive reuse paired with TIF is becoming a critical tool to unlock otherwise infeasible projects. As construction costs remain high, leveraging underutilized buildings and targeted public financing will be essential to scaling affordable housing in built-out urban areas.

Ken Notes: We need a new program for communities to buy and improve properties then ask builders, developers, and others to build homes for sale at unsubsidized affordable prices for our workforce. P.S. Sorry if the paywall prevents you from reading the details...

WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — US Senator Tammy Baldwin was in Wausau on Monday to hear about the region’s housing crunch.

The discussion focused on several ways the housing shortage has impacted people, including businesses and individuals. She says she was glad to hear some companies are getting creative to solve the problem.

“They are looking at how their business can help meet this need,” said Baldwin. “Whether that’s the modular home industry, where they can create efficiencies of scale, or [developers] that have been focusing their construction efforts on affordable and workforce housing.”...

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Leo’s notes: Tammy Baldwin addressed the housing shortage in Wausau, highlighting solutions like modular construction and employer-driven initiatives. She also promoted the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which would cap corporate ownership of single-family homes and encourage rent-to-own. This dual-track approach aims to address supply through innovation and rebalance ownership dynamics. However, long-term relief depends on scaling production, particularly workforce and attainable housing- alongside policy changes.

An Innovative Cities Lecture

Communities of every size are facing mounting housing shortages—from overall supply constraints to the lack of affordable options. This session explores practical strategies for expanding housing availability through the experiences of a mid-sized Wisconsin city (La Crosse) and a small Minnesota community (Wabasha). Learn how each community gathers and uses data to demonstrate need, applies a range of financing tools to make projects feasible, and implements planning approaches designed to attract investors, encourage development, and deliver more housing where it’s needed most.

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Ken Notes: Lecture at the link...

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...