| Wisconsin Workforce Housing News | ||
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 | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 10 - Wk: 100 Date: 9/14/2026 2:09:18 PM | ||
| Modular Homes Could Help Solve the Housing Crisis—but They Need To Fix Their Image Problem First | ||
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. | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 26 - Wk: 38 Date: 9/14/2026 1:49:24 PM | ||
| Home prices, rents have risen sharply in northeast Wisconsin over the last decade | ||
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... | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 26 - Wk: 38 Date: 9/14/2026 2:03:08 PM | ||
| Ascension explores affordable housing for historic Milwaukee hospital building | ||
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... | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 26 - Wk: 38 Date: 9/14/2026 1:52:07 PM | ||
| Wisconsin Workforce Housing Resources | ||
| Notes: to be included as a Workforce Housing resource email us a link and a brief note to: wwhnews.com@gmail.com... | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 10 - Wk: 125 Date: 8/17/2026 9:36:02 PM | ||
| Vernon County launches ‘Driftless Bound’ to attract new workers and families | ||
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. | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 26 - Wk: 38 Date: 9/14/2026 1:54:22 PM | ||
| Bay View church weighs redevelopment with 55 apartments, smaller worship space amid declining membership | ||
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. | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 26 - Wk: 38 Date: 9/14/2026 2:00:36 PM | ||
| Revive Housing Pilot Advances After Months Of Negotiations | ||
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. | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 26 - Wk: 38 Date: 9/14/2026 2:08:06 PM | ||
| The Avenue project moves ahead with 39 new affordable housing units in Sturgeon Bay | ||
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... | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 26 - Wk: 38 Date: 9/14/2026 2:05:09 PM | ||
| About Wisconsin Workforce Housing News (WWHNews.com) | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 10 - Wk: 125 Date: 8/13/2026 3:49:48 PM | ||
| List of Housing Resources | ||
| WWHNEWS Notes: To add a resource or correct above send data and link to wwhnews.com[at]gmail.com... | ||
| Click to Display / Share This Note - Vol: 11 - Wk: 125 Date: 9/2/2025 7:30:59 PM |