...Full Story Here

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

MADISON – The Wisconsin Department of Workforce (DWD) today announced a new grant program that will fund projects to address healthcare workforce challenges in Wisconsin’s rural communities. The Workforce Innovation Grant: Healthcare Employment, Access, and Rural Transformation (WIG: HEART) Program will award up to $150 million in grants over four years to nonprofit and government organizations to implement innovative plans to tackle pressing healthcare workforce challenges across the state.

Awards of $500,000 to $10 million are available through the program for nonprofit and government organizations to work with regional workforce partners on healthcare workforce solutions for rural and semi-rural regions across the state. In the first year, $4.9 million will be available. Funding will support projects with leading-edge, long-term solutions for rural healthcare workforce challenges that help employers find workers, and workers to prepare for and connect to better, higher-quality, and more family-sustaining jobs. These grants support reducing barriers to training and investing in healthcare employment programs. They follow the successful model of Gov. Evers’ Workforce Innovation Grant (WIG) Program.   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Healthcare workforce initiatives and housing policy are increasingly interconnected. Recruiting nurses, technicians, physicians, and other essential workers is only part of the equation—communities must also provide housing that is affordable and accessible for those workers.

Federal action taken: Congress approved a bipartisan bill to expand housing supply and streamline development, addressing part of the affordability challenge.

Local gaps persist: Cities like Chattanooga and San Francisco still face severe shortages or high costs, leaving middle-income earners struggling to find affordable homes.

Innovative solutions emerge: Office-to-residential conversions, modular housing factories, and targeted grants are being deployed to tackle local housing shortages.

Congress approves sweeping housing supply bill

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Wisconsin communities continue to demonstrate that meaningful progress depends on aligning financing, zoning, infrastructure, and public-private partnerships to make projects financially feasible. Expanding housing supply will require coordinated action at every level of government, with local leadership remaining the decisive factor in turning policy into completed homes...

Ken Notes: Leo and I would love to track the details and resources for all of both the State and Federal programs, but our resources are somewhat limited please let us know if you can help! Just give us a call...

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), today announced the final 2027-28 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). The QAP is the plan for administering tax credits that finance low- to moderate-income housing and establishes parameters and priorities for awarding the coming years’ Housing Tax Credits, including Federal nine percent, and State/Federal four percent credits. This announcement builds on longstanding efforts of the Evers Administration to expand access to safe, reliable, and affordable housing. Since 2019, the Evers Administration has supported building more than 33,500 housing units to address the needs of Wisconsin’s workforce, seniors, and families statewide.

“Ensuring all our neighbors have access to reliable, affordable housing is essential for the health and prosperity of our families, communities, and our economy,” said Gov. Evers. “The 2027-28 QAP reflects our evolving understanding of Wisconsin’s dynamic housing, demographic, and development climate to ensure every Wisconsinite has the affordable housing they need and deserve. I’m proud of our continued efforts with WHEDA to continue addressing our communities’ housing challenges and expand access to quality, affordable housing across our state.”...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: As demand for affordable housing continues to outpace supply, how tax credits are allocated can be just as important as the amount of funding available. Wisconsin's updated approach reflects a growing recognition that housing challenges vary by community, requiring flexible tools that support both urban and rural development. Strategic allocation policies can help ensure scarce housing resources are directed toward projects that maximize long-term impact, leverage partnerships, and address the workforce housing shortages that increasingly affect economic growth across the state.

For much of the 20th century, teaching was a stable, middle-class job in the U.S. Now it’s becoming a lot harder to survive on a teacher’s salary: Wages have been stagnant for decades, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute, and teachers earn 5% less than they did a decade ago when adjusting for inflation...

...This issue has become particularly acute as housing costs have risen sharply across the country over the past decade. Why become a teacher if it means you’ll struggle to put a roof over your head?...

..Local education agencies are tasked with the administrative functions of a school district, and they often own large tracts of land.

This land can be used to build new school buildings or community health clinics. But it can also be used to build housing – a particularly attractive option in cities where land can be scarce and expensive....

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: The emergence of teacher housing programs highlights how deeply housing affordability now affects essential community services. When educators, healthcare workers, first responders, and other middle-income professionals can no longer afford to live where they work, housing shortages become workforce shortages. While employer-assisted and occupation-specific housing programs can provide targeted relief, they also serve as a reminder that broader housing supply challenges require community-wide solutions that expand attainable housing options for the entire workforce.

Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp., a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and expanding affordable housing throughout Wisconsin, announced Monday the appointment of Nicole Solheim as vice president of development.

Solheim will lead development and acquisition initiatives that support WHPC’s continued growth and more.

“Nicole brings a unique combination of development expertise, strategic leadership and deep commitment to affordable housing,” Mike Slavish, president of WHPC, said in a statement. “Her experience navigating complex housing projects and building strong partnerships will be instrumental as we continue expanding our impact across Wisconsin.”

Solheim has more than 15 years of experience in affordable housing development, finance and community revitalization...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: While leadership announcements rarely make housing headlines, experienced development professionals play a critical role in turning housing concepts into completed projects. As affordable housing financing grows more complex, organizations increasingly rely on leaders who can assemble public-private partnerships, secure layered funding, and navigate challenging development environments. Looking forward to following her continued affordable housing work!

As local governments struggle to address the rising cost of housing, fixing the “broken ladder” into homeownership was top of mind at Dane County’s Regional Housing Summit this week.

A range of statistics tells the story of the growing unaffordability of homeownership.

The median age of a first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old, up from someone in their late 20s during the 1980s, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Single-family home prices have risen sharply in recent years, limiting prospective first-time homebuyers’ access to the market. In 2010, the median home price in Dane County was $207,000. By the end of last year, it had risen to over $450,000...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Expanding the supply of starter homes, townhomes, condominiums, and other "missing middle" housing will be essential if communities hope to restore homeownership as an achievable pathway to financial stability for the next generation.

Ken Notes: The key here is that ALL the players need to be at the same table with the same objective in mind. Government can not solve the problem, neither can developers, builders, bankers, or the dozens of organizations and businesses with housing on their agendas. But working together we can get this moving forward.

A development agreement has been put together to provide financial incentives for an affordable housing apartment project on Sturgeon Bay’s east side. 

The city’s Finance/Purchasing and Building Committee recommended the agreement, which received final approval by the Common Council on June 16. 

Developer Brian Spoerl of Spoerl Commercial said he plans to begin construction in July on a three-story, 39-unit apartment building as the first phase of the development, known as The Avenue, to be built along North 14th Avenue near Georgia Street. The project has been awarded low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA). 

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: While often overlooked, preemptive agreements that outline responsibilities between municipality and developer are a critical tool for translating community housing goals into shovel-ready projects. As communities across Wisconsin continue searching for ways to overcome housing shortages, structured public-private agreements like this one demonstrate how local governments can reduce uncertainty while ensuring public investments deliver long-term workforce housing outcomes.

(WXPR) - The Oneida County Economic Development Corporation Executive Directors says he has developers that would be breaking ground if not for one major hurdle.

Much of the county lacks the needed infrastructure for more housing and the cost to put it in would make the housing unaffordable for many.

Available lots with water, sewer, streets, and other utilities already in place are in short supply in Oneida County, especially in the Rhinelander area.

Putting those in can cost anywhere from $850 to $1,000 a square foot.

Oneida County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Tony Pharo says if a developer was to take on those costs, it would price out buyers before they even build the house...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: A community may have willing developers, available land, and strong demand, but without the infrastructure to serve new homes, construction simply cannot begin.This growing recognition represents an important shift in the workforce housing conversation. Infrastructure should no longer be viewed as a separate public works issue—it is a housing strategy.

If there's room for agreement on anything in Washington, it's that lawmakers need to do something to make homeownership more affordable. On Tuesday, legislators on both sides of the aisle clinched the final vote in the House to pass the largest piece of housing legislation in decades.

The bill, called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, passed 358-32 in the House. The Senate approved it Monday with similarly overwhelming bipartisan support...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: This bipartisan legislation recognizes that the country's housing crisis is fundamentally a supply challenge requiring reforms across financing, regulation, permitting, and construction. Communities that already have development-ready sites, supportive zoning, strong public-private partnerships, and a pipeline of workforce housing projects will be best positioned to leverage the new federal tools. The legislation reinforces that federal policy can create opportunities, but homes are ultimately built by communities that are prepared to say "yes" to housing...

Ken Notes: WWHNews is a nonpartisan publication, in fact we see workforce housing as one of the few bipartisan issues in the legislature now. to play politics with this is not in the best interest of the American people.

Construction costs, lack of capital are a drag on Wisconsin’s housing market. But Milwaukee's nearly 600-unit Corliss housing development offers a blueprint for breaking the logjam.

   ...Full Story Here

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

   ...Full Story Here

Nate Notes: to be included as a Workforce Housing resource email us a link and a brief note to: wwhnews.com@gmail.com...

Plans to develop city-owned property at 1259 Division Road on Sturgeon Bay’s west side, which could be included in a new Tax Increment District (TID), continue to progress.

Paul Shefchik of PortSide Builders is partnering with a Green Bay-area developer, Jim Conard of Iron Gates, who wants to use 23.7 acres of the 35.43-acre site for a 55-lot subdivision with 44 single-family lots and 11 duplex lots for a total of 66 dwelling units.

Of the 44 single-family lots, 30 would be for workforce housing, where specific types of homes are offered at set prices to Door County workers. PortSide has been involved with constructing workforce housing in the Geneva Ridge subdivision on the city’s west side.

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Door County continues to demonstrate that solving a housing shortage requires more than a single housing product. While barndominiums may appeal to buyers seeking storage for recreational vehicles and boats, the inclusion of 30 workforce-priced homes ensures that local employees remain a central focus of the project. Equally noteworthy is the financing strategy: pairing the development with a new Tax Increment District; using a proven economic development tool to help fund the infrastructure necessary for housing growth.

As construction continues apace at Ashland’s largest residential housing development in many decades, there is still an acute need for housing for working and lower-income residents.

That is the message delivered by Ashland County Grant Writer/Administrator Erica Hannickel to members of the Ashland County Board on June 23.

Hannickel said although the 151-unit Bay Vue apartment complex on Beaser Avenue was a major move forward in answering Ashland’s critical housing shortage, the community still had an unmet need for affordable housing to meet the needs of lower-income working people.

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: individual housing projects are important milestones, but they are not, by themselves, solutions to the state's housing shortage. Communities of every size continue to report demand that far exceeds available housing. Closing the gap will require sustained investment, creative financing, adaptive reuse, local leadership, and a pipeline of projects that serve households across the workforce income spectrum...

Across much of the country, the housing market is finally catching its breath. Apartment rents fell last year for the first time since 2021, vacancy rates have climbed off historic lows and a wave of new construction has chipped away at the nation’s housing shortage.

Little of that relief has reached Wausau — and on the for-sale side, the market has tightened to nearly nothing.

A new report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, The State of the Nation’s Housing 2026, finds that the cooling is real but uneven — and that the Midwest is the region the recovery largely skipped. Rents nationally dipped 0.5% over the past year, but they kept climbing in the Midwest, where apartment rents have now risen 41% since 2020, more than in any other region of the country. Home prices tell the same story: while 41 of the nation’s 100 largest metros saw prices fall this winter, Milwaukee posted a 5.2% gain...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Unlike high-growth metros where rising rents can justify new construction, many regional communities face a "missing middle" financing gap where workforce housing is needed most but remains difficult to build. The discussion around regional housing funds, public-private partnerships, and innovative TIF structures reflects a broader reality that solving Wisconsin's housing shortage will require not only more development, but new financing tools tailored to local market conditions.

MARSHFIELD, Wis. (WSAW) - The city of Marshfield has gone back and forth in deciding what will happen to the historic Weinbrenner building. This month, they voted to explore options with a developer. That developer would turn the building into apartments.

For 91 years, this facility has been known as the Weinbrenner Shoe Factory. It was a shoe factory up until April, when Weinbrenner moved into its new place. Approximately 90,000 square feet are currently empty...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Adaptive reuse projects like the Weinbrenner redevelopment demonstrate how housing and economic development goals can align. Across Wisconsin, former schools, factories, offices, and commercial buildings represent untapped opportunities to add housing while preserving community character and revitalizing downtown districts. As construction costs remain high and developable land becomes more constrained, converting underutilized buildings into housing may become an increasingly important part of the workforce housing solution.

Ken Notes: We should be able to us modular plumbing, electrical, and HVAC units to reduce costs. As proposed we are loo kin at north of 300K per unit.

States and cities are loosening building code requirements in an effort to lower construction costs and boost affordable housing.

Some of these changes include allowing low-rise apartment buildings to have just one stairway, reducing how often building codes are updated and rolling back specific electrical or fire safety standards.

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Fire and life safety requirements have long been viewed as essential public protections, but they also influence the cost of every new housing development. This current debate illustrates the difficult balance communities face: how to reduce unnecessary construction costs without compromising occupant safety. The issue is less about eliminating safety standards and more about identifying where regulations can be modernized without increasing risk. Advances in building materials, construction methods, and fire detection technologies may create opportunities to achieve comparable safety outcomes at lower cost.

Sturgeon Bay’s Finance/Purchasing and Building Committee recommended June 9 that the Common Council approve a $5,000 price increase for the homes being built in the Geneva Ridge subdivision, which the city has helped market on Sturgeon Bay’s west side.

As outlined in the development agreement, the city has in Tax Increment District (TID) #10 for the Geneva Ridge workforce housing development, which is being constructed by PortSide Builders, city approval is required to authorize increases in previously approved sales prices...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: Door County officials have advanced a proposal to increase the county’s property tax levy dedicated to workforce housing, providing additional support for the local Workforce Housing Loan Program.Their continued investment signals an important shift in how communities are approaching housing challenges: local leaders increasingly recognize it as critical economic infrastructure that supports employers, tourism, healthcare, education, and community sustainability. Financing tools alone will not solve housing shortages, but dedicated local funding programs can help bridge development gaps.

Ken Notes: Door County could and should become a model for affordable workforce housing neighborhoods. They need housing for service and tourism workers as well as health care, education, child care, seniors, public safety and more. Using great design, modular homes, denser plots, shared amenities, and the new state TIF laws every tourist community could develop a great neighborhood for their workforce... And the best part is that wealthy Chicago tourists could help pay for these new neighborhoods.

• A Union Grove woman is nervous about her upcoming lease after her rent spiked 23% in her manufactured home community last year.
  
  
• A group of state lawmakers has been trying to pass a law that would cap rent increases at mobile home parks.
  
  
• The Wisconsin Housing Alliance opposes the effort and says Wisconsin needs more affordable housing to improve its "supply and demand."

   ...Full Story Here

Ken Notes: Investors buying mobile home parks and then jacking up the rents should be a crime, and failing to maintain the infrastructure IS a crime. I understand business but profit from those who can least afford it is wrong. We need to fix this!

A new apartment building providing housing for a vulnerable segment of society is poised to rise just across Interstate 43 from Downtown.

The six-story, $16.2 million NeuVue will provide housing to those ages 18 to 24 who are aging out of Neu-Life Community Development‘s youth programming.

The 26-year-old nonprofit will also move into the building at N. 12th and W. Cherry streets.

“NeuVue will help pave the way to self-sufficiency for the young people who will call it home,” said organization founder Joann Harris-Comodore at a groundbreaking ceremony at the site Tuesday afternoon.

“Coming to Neu-Life really saved me,” said JaQuawn Seals, who credited the organization with pulling him away from gangs after he moved to Milwaukee at age 13. He is now a site coordinator for the organization...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: NeuVue illustrates the growing evolution of workforce housing from simply providing affordable units to creating environments that support long-term economic mobility. By integrating housing with workforce training, education, and supportive services, developments like this recognize that stable housing is both a foundation for and an outcome of opportunity...

ALBERT LEA, Minn. — The Albert Lea City Council voted to create an Economic Development Authority to complement the existing Port Authority and Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

City officials say the new authority will help address economic development opportunities that fall between the traditional roles of the Port Authority and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The Port Authority focuses on industrial and infrastructure projects, while the Housing and Redevelopment Authority focuses on public housing.

The Economic Development Authority is intended to provide greater flexibility to support redevelopment efforts, market-rate housing and broader community economic growth. One area of focus will be workforce housing to help employers fill job openings...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo’ s notes: Many communities have a housing authority, an economic development corporation, and planning staff—but significant workforce housing projects often fall into the spaces between those organizations. Albert Lea offers an example of how organizational structure can be just as important as funding in moving projects from concept to construction.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Scott Fitzgerald (WI-05) introduced three pieces of legislation aimed at fixing the housing supply crisis in the United States: the Sustainable Homeownership Act, the Working Families Home Construction Act, and the Home Affordability Through Mortgage Simplification Act.

The Sustainable Homeownership Act creates a statutory path out of conservatorship for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It also increases private-sector risk sharing, limits risky balance-sheet growth, and protects equal access for small lenders. The broader goal is to move the housing finance system away from indefinite government control and toward a more transparent, better-capitalized, private-capital-backed structure. The bill also addresses affordability concerns by tying conforming loan limit growth more closely to household income and by permitting certain enterprise funds to support housing supply initiatives...

   ...Full Story Here

Leo's notes: While the proposals are unlikely to have the immediate visibility of federal grant programs or tax incentives, they focus on the infrastructure that makes long-term mortgage lending and home construction possible. If enacted, reforms to the secondary mortgage market could improve the flow of capital to lenders and builders, potentially making it easier to finance new housing developments and expand homeownership opportunities...

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) - Hope Village now has a fully-funded Phase 2, allowing them to complete their affordable housing development on Hope Village Way.

According to a press release from Hope Village, the development will include two six-unit apartment buildings and two duplex buildings. They will have four one-bedroom apartments, four two-bedroom apartments and eight three-bedroom apartments.

They received their final award letter for $3.6 million through Wisconsin’s ARP HOME Rental Housing Development Program.

70% of units are reserved for individuals and families transitioning into stable housing, with the remaining units serving workforce housing needs in Chippewa County...

   ...Full Story Here

RACINE, Wis. — The Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin’s (VOW) tiny home village in Racine officially opened its new expansion ahead of the fourth of July weekend.

Four new tiny homes are now available to veterans in need. This marks the largest expansion the village has gone through since its opening in 2014.

When the village first opened in 2014, they started with 15 homes. They now have 20 tiny homes for veterans in need...

   ...Full Story Here

Ken Notes: One "tiny" piece of the puzzle but our vets deserve a home as much as the rest of us. This is not the housing solution but we tend to think in terms of what we need not what others need.

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.


   ...Full Story Here

   ...Full Story Here

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