Council OKs $2M plan to convert church to affordable homes

RACINE, WI — To address the housing crisis, the Racine Common Council approved a $2 million plan Tuesday to demolish a historic church and build four affordable homes.

The matter passed with an 11 – 1 vote, with Alder Cory Sebastian casting the dissenting vote. Alders Rene Kelly, Jeff Coe, and Molly Jones were excused from the meeting...

“Fiscal responsibility and ROIs (return on investments) are extremely important to me,” Sebastian said after the meeting. “That amount of money for what we may or may not know how many folks are going to live there seems like a huge project number for not serving a lot of citizens in our city.”...

...t Tuesday’s meeting, city development director Walter Williams outlined the project’s specifics: $100,000 to $150,000 for church demolition and about $370,000 per home, bringing total construction costs to $1.4 million. The funding comes from the federal HOME Investment Partnerships Program, part of the $4.2 million available to the city...