Affordable housing is possible

We're about to embark upon an exciting phase in our campaign this month as we continue training advocates and gear up for some full-bore advocacy action.

But before we get around to doing all that exciting stuff (you can get in on that fun, too; just contact us for our meeting schedule!), we want to talk a bit about some press we received recently that might discourage a less determined group. An article in the Daily Reporter on April 21 was titled, "Budget gaps leave affordable housing in hole." The Daily Reporter is a news source for construction industry professionals, such as contractors and architects.

The article makes the idea of a housing trust fund sound financially ludicrous, which it is not. There are over 550 city, county, and state housing trust funds in existence nationwide. Housing trust funds at the county level around the country have used at least 20 different sources of funding, according to the Center for Community Change. Reporter Sean Ryan lists three possibilities for funding, but did not list the other two sources given as examples in our original proposal--sale of county-owned land and county investment income. (And a recent revision to our proposal does not list property taxes as a possible source of revenue, but rather a slight increase in the real estate transfer fee paid during the sale of a house).

When there's political will, there's always a way. After all, how did Waukesha County come up with money for a new highway bypass ($8.6 million) and a new interchange for Pabst Farms ($1.75 million)? Keep in mind those dollar amounts are just the County contributions; state and city contributions paid for the rest. And let's not even go into all the expenses of water diversions.

Although the Daily Reporter article seems to attempt to create an adversarial relationship between county officials and the task force, we are committed to working with the county executive and the county board to identify funding sources that would work. Because of the economic benefits of a housing trust fund, the County might not be able to afford not having one. But that's a different blog post ... so stay tuned!

-Betsy Foss-Campbell and Brian Peters contributed to this post.