Compiled by Dawn Anastasi, RPA Board Member

Here are a couple recent articles relating to Wisconsin based housing news.

Bipartisan Housing Bills Aim to Close Wisconsin’s Massive Affordable Housing Gap

To address its growing shortage of affordable housing, Wisconsin needs to build 120,000 additional rental units, Elmer Moore Jr., CEO of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), told an Assembly committee at a public hearing Thursday.

In an effort to encourage the massive increase in construction of affordable and workforce housing that is required to close that gap, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a package of bills last week that would provide low or zero interest loans for several types of housing projects and take steps toward making it easier for developments to be approved at the local level.

The set of four bills establishes programs meant to increase the state’s housing stock but does not include any appropriations to fund those programs. Rep. Robert Brooks (R-Saukville), the chair of the Assembly Committee on Housing and Real Estate and an author of all of the bills, said at Thursday’s hearing that he was hoping the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee would allocate up to $850 million for the programs in the bill package.

$80 Million Emergency Rent Assistance Goes To 22,600 Households

The Milwaukee County Housing Division was the local government agency that passed the money along to organizations like Community Advocates to disburse to residents.

County residents could apply for assistance to pay back rent or to make future rent payments. Residents could meet the criteria for assistance if they or someone in their household qualified for unemployment, lost income or experienced financial hardship due to the pandemic.

But, unfortunately, the funding for the program is running out. The funding came from two pandemic stimulus bills passed in 2020 and 2021 respectvely. Funds from the first bill expired at the end of 2022 and it’s expected that the county will exhaust funds from the second bill by the end of August, Mathy said. The division will primarily focus on responding to applications that have already been filed and disbursing funds using until the money is gone.