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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

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

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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...

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...

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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.

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...

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.

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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...

• 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."

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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...

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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...

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...

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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...

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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.


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