Children & Safety

Question:

Which municipality is most dangerous for children:  Milwaukee, West Allis, or Waukesha?

According to this article which refers to this study, the answer is likely to be Waukesha.  Apparently all those cars zooming around over longer distances have a nasty habit of creating crashes.  Which hurt children.

Light Train in other Cities

Regardless of what you think about High-Speed Rail, about light train, etc. in Milwaukee, this is an interesting look at what other cities are doing to build light train and to use it as an engine for further development.

There are very few major metropolitan areas in the country that aren't considering the installation of some sort of light rail system," says Robert Puentes, a transportation expert at the Brookings Institution. He stresses that the car is still king, but says politicians, businessmen and developers are looking to light rail to help guide development.

It's not just real estate development, but also employment and future economic drivers that have cities concerned:

More and more civic leaders across the country are talking about how cities need to become magnets for talent in order to become truly world-class cities. Many of those leaders see light rail as part of that transformation.


Puentes, of Brookings, says that American cities now have to compete globally.

"They're going to have to be able to attract young, qualified workers, and it's going to take a robust transportation system to move these folks around. In case after case, we're seeing that that is what these folks are looking for."

 

Homebuying and Accessibility

My agency occasionally will be contacted by landlords or Realtors who want to advertise the fact that they have an accessible unit.  While we're more than happy to share the information, the reality is that we don't always know everyone that happens to be, at that moment, looking for a unit just like that.

I've made it a hobby of mine to contact website administrators to encourage them to include accessibility options in their search features.  Some websites do include that option. For instance, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) used by Realtors recently started offering that option.

Home buyers can go to Realtor.com, click on "Advanced Search" and end up with a list of options that a property can have.  Clicking on "Property Features" and scrolling down, the home buyer will see the option for "Disability Features" in the "Other Features" section.

Of course, you've got the other side of that equation.  A search for Waukesha homes or condos/town homes under $500,00 with disability features returned zero results for homes currently on the market.  It could mean that in all of Waukesha, there was not a single-family housing with accessibility features available on the market (although two were off-market for whatever reason).  Waukesha is hardly alone-the City of Milwaukee under $250,000 returned zero results (actually, 30 homes off-market).  That is quite implausible, so it could simply mean that most Realtors are not aware of that option when listing the property.

I am hopeful that with greater awareness, more and more people will be noting accessibility features when putting their unit on the market, whether it be a rental or a home for sale.  A significant barrier people with disabilities face today in their housing search is connecting with the units that match their needs.

Smart Growth, Farmland Loss & The Soul of the Community

An interesting report from American Farmland about the loss of agricultural land in the United States, mostly due to new development.

Despite a booming housing market during portions of the 25-year reporting period, the nationwide rate of farmland loss actually declined over time, thanks to growing awareness and smart growth policies that encourage more efficient development. And some states launched ambitious efforts to counter land development with permanent protection.

Although Wisconsin is not one of the states that lost the most farmland, the report indicates that Wisconsin, along with the upper midwest rustbelt states, lost more than average state.  As noted above, Smart Growth policies and efforts to protect farmlands have slowed the rate of loss.  Smart Growth has been opposed in some communities.  Farmers and pro-smarth growth advocates are probably keeping a keen eye on the changes that the incoming Walker administration may make that could impact sprawl patterns and farmland.

American Farmland suggested that people get involved locally, from working with the zoning boards and the planning commissions to shopping & dining locally through farmers markets, farm stands, dining locally, etc.  You know, get involved in your community..

In that vein, a foundation affiliated with a newspaper chain, Knight Foundation, teamed with Gallup to study the attachment people have to their communties, "The Soul of the Community".  Unfortunately, Milwaukee area is not one of the communities that has a Knight newspaper, but it's worth taking a look.

Surprisngly, money and the local economy isn't as big a factor as you'd think in the attchment people have to their community.   It may actually be the other way around-people's attachment encourages them to spend money locally, shop locally, be involved in activies, and be a driver of the economy.

New Overflow Shelter Open

Thanks to the hard work by Bernie Juno, Hebron House, and many, many others, the new overflow shelter for men is now open.

Two articles from the Waukesha Freeman: on the open house and the permit approval.

Changes for WHEDA?

I was clued in to something the Majority Leader-elect Scott Fitzgerald said at a WisPolitics.com luncheon last week.  In addition to the proposed replacement of the Department of Commerce previously discussed, WHEDA apparently is being targeted for changes as well.

(Scott) Walker’s serious. He’s been talking about making significant changes to agencies and you may not recognize them on the other side,” he said, also mentioning Workforce Development, WHEDA and DNR.

No details on what those changes would be.  One possibility may be shifting the Division of Housing under the Department of Commerce to WHEDA.  Or perhaps, as I wondered previously, making WHEDA more focused on economic development replacing some of the Commerce programs.

WHEDA currently provides homebuyer grants, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and other loans for development and rehabilitation.  I cannot imagine how any of that would change significantly.

Staying Out of Nursing Homes

A good article on the struggle to stay out of nursing homes and in the community, and it points to a disparity that many advocates are fighting; the fact that institutional care (nursing homes) are federally required, but care in the community are not.  The Supreme Court said that people have the right to live in the community, the funding simply isn't there.  Even though it's actually cheaper to provide care in the community!

Young people ages 31 to 64 now make up 14 percent of the nursing home population, an analysis of federal data from the Department of Health and Human Services by NPR's Investigative Unit found. That's up from 10 percent just 10 years ago.

The article notes that part of that reason may be that more older adults are living in assisted living facilities rather than nursing homes.  Another reason is that when states look for places to cut funding, they can cut community-based care more easily than they can cut institutional care.

Concepts in Housing: Supportive Housing

Since part of the purpose of this blog is to educate the public on housing issues, I thought I'd try something new.  I've lived & breathed housing for the past few years, and it can be difficult for me to remember that many people do not have the familiarity that I do.  Just as I don't have the equivalent knowledge on health care issues, on education, on business law, etc.  I thought it might be helpful if I occasionally took the time to talk about some of the terminology and concepts in housing, especially when I run into a good explanation.

I thought I'd start with a relatively new concept, Supportive Housing, after seeing a good slide show from New York explaining the basic idea behind Supportive Housing and summarizes it as:

Supportive Housing is permanent housing in which support services are available to break the cycle of homelessness and lead productive lives.

YMCA Housing Proposal Hits a Barrier

Not sure of all the details yet, but apparently the YMCA housing proposal is running into trouble.  Apparently the issue is a historic gas station (you didn't know such a thing was possible, did you?) that some feel should be preserved. 

Wangard Closer to Building in Oconomowoc

Yesterday, the Oconomowoc Common Council approved the final plans for Wangard Partners' Meadows at Prairie Creek.  This is not Wangard's first project in Oconomowoc as they previously did the retail shopping center Prairie Creek Shoppes.  The proposed apartments will have either 204 units in the first phase, eventually 352 units total or 208 units, depending on who's reporting.  Apparently they will be spread out over 12 buildings on either 27.8 or 60 acres, again, depending on who's reporting. (My guess is the site is 60 acres, but the buildings will occupy roughly half of that site.)

What's a bit unusual about this development is that a portion will be financed with Midwestern Disaster Area Revenue Bonds  (due to the 2008 floods) which will be issued through Oconomowoc.  Essentially the City is arranging for a loan to Wangard through the bonds.  With the bonds comes the requirement that 20% of the units will be affordable to people with 60% of the Area Median Income.

Some people would charge, like Alderman Gary Kohlenberg did, that this is a government subsidy.  If this is subsidized, it is a developer subsidy rather than a tenant subsidy as those bonds have a lower interest rate, saving the developer money.  The bonds just happen to come with strings attached in the form of affordability requirements (just as tax credits do).  As Mr. Derosa from Wangard noted, those bonds are no different than the routinely used industrial revenue bonds, and I can't remember any protestations over the use of those.

Proposed Changes by Walker May Affect Housing

I, when being asked to give a summary of housing-related issues in the state for a paper to be distributed at a conference, never dreamed of saying watch what happens to housing when the Department of Commerce is dissolved.  Yet that's what Governor-elect Walker is proposing-replacing the Department of Commerce with a quasi-private economic development agency.

The question is, what happens to the various divisions within the Department of Commerce such as the regulatory oversight and the technical assistance providers.  Of particular concern is the Division of Housing and Community Development which administers the various federal and state programs related to housing.  To be sure, this Divison was been under the Department of Administration in the past, and there's no reason why it can't be again. 

But something that advocates have been talking-in a sort of wishful thinking way-is for the various housing programs that are scattered within the state agencies to be consolidated within one department.  If Governor-elect Walker does what he is proposing-replace the Department of Commerce and spin off some of the responsibilities into other Departments, , it might be a good time to advocate for the consolidation of housing programs.

I also wonder, though, wouldn't it simply be easier to expand WHEDA's programs and services?  After all, it's already a quasi-private agency, and its title is Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

Ghettos of the Mind

Ghettos of the Mind is a line from this article about the redeveloped Regent Park in Toronto. 

Across North America, dysfunctional public-housing projects are being razed and redeveloped in hopes of cutting crime. In Chicago, the last residents of the infamous Cabrini-Green have finally been forced out to make way for the bulldozers. Like Regent Park, the new, improved Cabrini-Green will include mixed-income private housing with better lighting, better street patterns, more amenities and better ties to the city. The idea is to transform these blighted ghettos into “normal” neighbourhoods.

Many people view it as “if you change the neighbourhood, you change what happens in the neighbourhood" which, I think, has some truth. But it's not that simple.  Take people who used to live in housing surrounded by others living in the same circumstances-concentrated poverty- and place them into a mixed-income housing, and some will have difficulty making the transition to a "new normal" as evidenced by the fact that there have been four homicides in Regent Park in two months.  But there are efforts.

The most successful “normalization” project ever launched in Regent Park has nothing to do with bricks and mortar. It’s an all-encompassing program called Pathways to Education, which mentors and coaches secondary-school kids through graduation and beyond, and guarantees them a bursary (college scholarship) if they graduate.

To their credit, the Housing Authority of City of Milwaukee also seems to have recognized that this is not a bricks & mortar effort alone.  I previously discussed some of the programs and services they have for their tenants. 

I have been an advocate for more mixed-income housing, although for a different reason. Mixed-income housing makes for more integrated housing for persons with disabilities.

Update:  Someone pointed out that I may be scaring some people by talking about crime in public housing and mixed-income housing.  I should clarify that this type of dysfunction that was in Toronto and Chicago are extreme examples.  Those are in neighborhoods in census tracts of concentrated poverty; the problem is largely related to the additional social ills that come with concentrated poverty.  Brookings Institute summarizes concentrated poverty as thus:

Poor individuals and families are not evenly distributed across communities or throughout the country. Instead, they tend to live near one another, clustering in certain neighborhoods and regions. This concentration of poverty results in higher crime rates, underperforming public schools, poor housing and health conditions, as well as limited access to private services and job opportunities

The point I was hoping to make was that it is not realistic to believe that shiny new buildings are the answer; there has to be programs and services for people as well.

Along the Way Home

Here is a film,  Along the Way Home, created by a coalition of Maine housing agencies that discusses the Section 8 program.



Unfortunately, the Google beta captioning is having an especially hard time with this video, producing gibberish, so I don't have any idea what it actually says.  Be sure to leave a review in the comments!

Effects of Foreclosure crisis

Tom Daykin reports that apartment vacancy rate has gone down to 4.8% in the Milwaukee area.

The report also says asking rents and effective rents will rise 1.2% and 2%, respectively, to $813 per month and $780 per month.

I'm not sure how "Milwaukee area" is defined as I don't have access to the original Marcus & Milichap Real Estate Investment Services report, but the creation of 640 new units in 2010 probably is mostly City of Milwaukee as rural areas generally are unable to provide water & sewer service to multi-family housing and some suburban communities have a "housing mix" policy that essentially restricts the development of multi-family housing for the near future.

While this is a relatively small change, it's probably an indicator that people displaced by foreclosures are increasingly renting (although many probably are living with families/friends temporarily).

From my perspective, the creation of new multi-family housing, even when high-priced luxury housing, is a good thing as it increases the number of units covered by the Fair Housing Act's accessibility requirements.  Single-family market-rate housing has no state or federal accessibility requirements.

Good News on Overflow Shelter

It appears that there is, at least, a temporary home for the overflow shelter that used to be at the St. Matthias Episcopal Church the past few winters. With a six-month lease in place and ongoing negotiations for a purchase, things are looking up for people who are homeless this winter.

Here's to hoping the relatively warm weather lasts until they're able to open.

Rehabilitation of old Health Clinic into new housing

An old medical clinic in the south side of Milwaukee got a second life as a studio apartment building providing supportive housing for people who were homeless.  Mercy Housing Lakefront , a non-profit in Chicago, put together the financing to make the project happen, with services being provided by Hope House of Milwaukee (disclosure: I am a board member).

Supportive housing has been proven to work better than any of the alternative, as part of the rapid re-housing strategy being embraced nation-wide to get people who are homeless off the streets as soon as possible. 

Congratulations to Mercy Housing Lakefront and to Hope House for the successful grand opening, and many thanks to the many people who made this happen.

Chart showing how ridiculous the mortgage process is

Check out this Huffington Post for a staggeringly ridiculous chart (trust me, you gotta take a look!).  Originally shown at Zero Hedge, one cannot help but feel that there is something nefarious about all the extended activities connected with the (relatively) simple act of purchasing a home.

Also, if you note on the right side of the chart, there is mention of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS).  I'm no expert, but it looks like MERS, which was created as a convenience to the big lenders, partly to avoid the recording fees charged by counties and states to record the change in ownership, was run so sloppily it caused many problems.  For one, MERS cannot claim to be both the agent for the bank and the actual owner of the mortgage when proceeding upon foreclosures.  I've read horror stories on many blogs about MERS encouraging agents to give themselves titles ("Vice President") and courts have wondered how a single person could be an officer of multiple companies at the same time.

Mortgage Interest Deduction reform

An interesting blog by Kevin Drum on the mortgage interest deduction.  Apparently this homeownership subsidy disproprotionately benefit high-income households.  Low-income households generally don't own, while middle-class households don't have mortgages that big.  But high-income households generally are homeowners and they benefit greatly from the mortgage interest deduction.

This begs the question, of course-why do we have it at all?  If high-income generally are homeowners, do they really need this deduction as an incentive to purchase a home?

That doesn't mean people are suggesting we eliminate it entirely (OK, maybe some are), but suggestions range from replacing it with a tax credit to capping the home price to limit the deduction.

Aurora eliminating 175 positions

The Freeman reports (link may not be active for long) that Aurora Health Care is eliminating 175 positions. 
Forty positions in Summit will be affected.

This is what grabbed my eye, emphasis mine.

“I’ve talked to you numerous times over the past two years about the economy. It’s still an issue, for us and other health care systems in our state. Overall fewer patients are visiting our hospitals, we have more bad debt, more charity care, increased levels of Medicaid with its associated low reimbursement and increased pension costs,” he wrote. “The impact from these economic factors on our financial performance is significant. For increased pension costs and higher levels of Medicaid, it’s $100 million this year alone.”

Bad debt and charity care should be less of a factor in the future as more of the health care reform begins.  As more and more people are covered by insurance, bad debt and charity care should decrease, and people will not be as reluctant to visit hospitals when needed.  As more people have access to health care, our overall health should increase as more preventive care is used rather than last-minute emergency room visits that basically only can put a band-aid on long-term problems.
Despite the announced cuts, Aurora Health Care President and CEO Nick Turkal stated that "the number of caregivers we employed at the end of 2009 have risen more than 5 percent year to date." 

Segregation & Foreclosures

Somewhat related to my previous post, here's an interesting article from HuffingtonPost that someone sent me.  But first, let's be clear where the blame lies:

The guilty parties in the foreclosure crisis are many: greedy homeowners, unscrupulous investors, lax underwriters, asleep-at-the-wheel regulators, sloppy mortgage servicers, and more. No doubt all share in the blame.

Focusing on lenders, it's evident that too many lenders do not act ethically, as evidenced by this:

...when subprime lending peaked in 2006, just 18% of white borrowers received subprime loans compared to 54% of African Americans. An unfortunate irony, as the Wall Street Journal reported in 2007, is that over 60% of subprime borrowers had credit scores that qualified them for prime loans, underscoring the discriminatory nature of the marketing.

The article discusses the effect of segregation, and how it allows subprime lenders to target heavily segregated areas.

Discriminatory lending patterns do not happen by chance. As the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has reported, in recent years racial minorities and minority communities were deliberately targeted by predatory lenders for subprime lending. The more segregated a metropolitan area is, of course, the easier it is to find exploitable clients. Segregation creates natural pockets of financially unsophisticated, historically underserved, poor minority homeowners who are ripe for exploitation.

Milwaukee metro area, of course, is one of the most segregated in the United States, so the foreclosure crisis will be with us for a long time.

Depressing realization

I subscribe to a newspaper.  Yes, one of those paper & ink newspapers.  I'd fallen behind on my reading and was catching up yesterday going through multiple issues.  Halfway though, I realized that the legal notices section seemed to be bigger lately, and took a look.

It was nearly all foreclosures & sheriff's sales.  I've known for a long time that foreclosures have been a problem in the metro area and across the nation, but for some reason, reading it in the newspapers, seeing the addresses, somehow made it more real.

Many of those homes were someone's dream, a very exciting and proud moment in someone's life, the result of years of saving and budgeting.  Then because of a bad economy, job loss, health reasons, or a predatory loan, those homes are being lost.

The Conservative Case for Rail

While I have plenty of problems with some of what William Lind, the Director of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation, is saying, the interview is a good example of why it's silly that rail is perceived as a liberal policy position that conservatives oppose.  There are plenty of reasons on both sides of the party line to support rail.

William Lind argues that national security concerns should cause conservatives to support rail-we are entirely too dependent on foreign oil, and discusses the fact that there's a myth that rail is subsidized and highway isn't.  He refers to the fact that property values have risen near rail stations in many cities, yet the opposite is true of highway interchanges. 

And the interview doesn't shy away from race and class issues.

PETRA Discussion

In the Creating Communities blog, I've discussed Preservation, Enhancement and Transformation of Rental Assistance Act (PETRA) here and here.  But I haven't gone in-depth into PETRA because it's an incredibly complicated topic.  Basically PETRA would-among other things- allow public housing to be privatized (sort of), which would bring in new funding for improvements and replacement, but also with it risks and other changes.

ShelterForce takes a look at PETRA in their Summer 2010 issue with a variety of articles, interviews and analyses. 

Peter Drier, author of one of the articles, summarizes it as thus:

Since 1973, Congress has failed to provide adequate funding to maintain and repair these (public housing) developments. In the past 15 years alone, about 200,000 units have been torn down. Only about 50,000 of those units have been, or are planned to be, replaced. After years of neglect, the nation’s remaining public housing projects now need $20 to $30 billion of critical repairs. Current subsidies aren’t enough to pay for decades of deferred maintenance.

The best solution would be for Congress to simply allocate the funding for a one-time infusion to make long-neglected repairs. But because there are so few people who live in public housing, and because they are not well organized, Congress has little incentive to do so.

So HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, who has spent his career improving housing for the poor, has proposed that local housing authorities be permitted to borrow money from private lenders to help fill the funding gap. Some tenant groups and their allies worry that, if PETRA passes, private lenders will care more about the bottom line than about tenants’ needs, and put their lives, and their housing, at risk. They worry, too, that private investors might be careless stewards of this valuable housing resource. As one public housing tenant activist testified to Congress in May: “Make no mistake, the private market’s only motivation here is profit, and let us not forget that this is the same private market that just crashed our economy, took billions in taxpayer funded bailouts, and aren’t fixing the mess they created.”

The End of Public Housing article is harsh in their analysis.  After pointing out that PETRA is virtually identical to a previous proposal, “Public Housing Reinvestment Initiative” (PHRI), during the Bush Administration that was roundly rejected twice, the authors state:

TRA does not enable more funding for the existing public housing program. It opens up public housing as a new source to feed the addiction to credit. Under the banner of preservation, public housing ceases to be public as it passes into the cradle of debt and leverage with its future mortgaged off to banks for profit. As such, TRA, like the preceding shifts in federal assistance to Section 8, is not meant to truly help poor households and individuals, but is a means of getting the federal government out of the low-income affordable housing business.

While the Housing Authority of City of Milwaukee has been very fortunate in being the recipient of numerous HOPE VI awards which have enabled them to replace many of their aging buildings, there are many aging public housing buildings around the state and the nation that are in bad shape.  From a disability perspective, many of those buildings continue to be very inaccessible, and new funding would enable more accessible housing to be created in many communities.  But the risks (as summarized by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)) includes:

• Subsidized units being lost in 30 years
• Units not being replaced on a one-by-one basis with some units being replaced by vouchers
• Weakened resident participation and tenant protections
• Residents would have the right to move out after two years using a voucher, but there are not additional money for vouchers meaning they would bypass people currently on waiting lists for vouchers

NLIHC also points out that HUD has never asked for additional funding to cover the capital needs of public housing.

I have been pleased with Secretary Donovan's HUD under President Obama.  While I have not agreed with some of their proposals and been disappointed by some of their efforts, the very fact they're making dramatic far-ranging proposals and sustainability planning which includes collaboration with other agencies show that they take their mission seriously.  The current status quo is not good enough for them, and they believe HUD and the U.S. government can, and should, do better.  They're willing to look for new ways to do things.  The question is, will they listen to the input from communities and advocates, especially on something as dramatic as PETRA?

Changing neighborhoods around new transit stations

Not very relevant to Waukesha County (especially if general opposition to high-speed rail results in no stations being built in the county), but here's an interesting look at new or improved transit stations, and the changing neighborhoods around them.  Some of those changes seem very contradictory to the transit stations!

By evaluating changes in 42 neighborhoods around new transit stations in 12 metropolitan areas, the researchers found that:

• 64% of new transit neighborhoods saw higher population growth than the region as a whole
• 62% saw a larger increase in owner-occupied housing
• 62% saw a larger increase in median household income
• 74% saw a larger increase in rent
• 71% saw a larger increase in automobile ownership

As paradoxical as it sounds, new transit stations resulted in higher auto ownership in those neighborhoods.  The thinking is that as more affluent people move in attracted by the new development(s), auto ownership rises.  This is reflected by the fact that 40% of the new transit stations actually saw a drop in ridership (57% saw an increase).

A concern is that the gentrification of neighborhoods pushes out people who depend on transit to get around.

It should be noted that some of these effects may be in a city’s interest, whether or not transit ridership increases. Having higher-income residents move into a neighborhood may increase the local tax base and reduce negatives like crime and blight. At the same time, displacement of poor people may reduce their ability to get around easily by public transportation.

That makes it more important that proper planning take place in communities.  There is a toolkit that assists in this process.

To give you an idea of how far behind the Milwaukee metro area is behind other metro areas, San Francisco Bay area is planning 100 new public transit stations by 2015.  No, that is not a typo.  One hundred new stations.  In the meantime, Atlanta is developing a 25-year effort totaling $2.8 billion (yes, with a 'b') to "create a network of public parks, multi-use trails and transit along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown Atlanta and connecting 45 neighborhoods directly to each other."

But here in metro Milwaukee, people can't even agree to rail.  While we're squabbling over whether to or not have rail, other communities are using rail to revitalize communities, to provide alternatives to the automobile. 

From a disability perspective, this is important-a healthy public transit system with transit-oriented developments provide more opportunities for independence for people who cannot drive for a variety of reasons.  It allows people to live, work, shop, and play more easily.

Update on Waukesha shelters

It looks like the shelter for the homeless being rebuilt by Hebron House will be delayed until past Thanksgiving.  Hopefully the mild weather will continue long enough so that families and individuals will not be at additional risk. 

Unfortunately, the search for the temporary overflow shelter during the winter has not been very successful (yet), but when they do find a site for it, if you live in the City of Waukesha, contact your alderperson and let them know that this is an important issue that they should support and ensure that it happens.

States investigate mortgage lenders

Many of you may have already heard that all fifty states are investingating the allegations of mishandled documents during this foreclosure crisis. 

"What we have seen are not mere technicalities," said Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. "This is about the private property rights of homeowners facing foreclosure and the integrity of our court system, which cannot enter judgments based on fraudulent evidence."

Wisconsin's Attorney General has sent letters to Ally Financial (most of you probably knew it as GMAC), Chase, and Bank of America.   The letters were sent October 7, with a response requested by Oct 15.

What strikes me as rather depressing about this is that advocates have been warning about this for years, warning about the impending crisis, about the sloppy practices, and about possible illegal activities, only to be brushed off by those in power until now.  And now those in power (not just in Wisconsin) will get the credit for "taking action" on this when the question should be, "why did you wait so long?"

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Because a cause of housing instability is domestic violence, mostly impacting women and children, I want to call attention to Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  From President Obama's proclamation:

Ending domestic violence requires a collaborative effort involving every part of our society.  Our law enforcement and justice system must work to hold offenders accountable and to protect victims and their children.  Business, faith, and community leaders, as well as educators, health care providers, and human service professionals, also have a role to play in communicating that domestic violence is always unacceptable.  As a Nation, we must endeavor to protect survivors, bring offenders to justice, and change attitudes that support such violence.  I encourage victims, their loved ones, and concerned citizens to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 800-799-SAFE or visit:  http://www.thehotline.org/.

Wisconsin created a plan to end domestic violence, Forward To A Domestic Violence-Free Wisconsin notes that domestic violence is defined as:

the threatened or actual use of physical force or power against another person, against oneself, or against a group or community which either results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death or deprivation.

The statewide plan notes that Wisconsin District Attorneys handled over 25,531 domestic violence incidents in 2006,and there were 19,333 incidents of abuse of older people or vulnerable people.  Domestic violence organizations fielded 75,922 crisis calls, and served 50,652 individuals in programs in 2006.  Clearly this is not acceptable.  Beside the human cost, particularly on children who are victims or witnesses, this is a drain on our resources as a society in responses (police, health & legal) to those incidents, as well as lost work and school time.

The plan also cited an estimate from the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the annual cost of domestic violence was $5.8 billion nation-wide in 1995 (adjusted for inflation to $7.8 billion in 2007).

The strategies that Wisconsin is taking are:

1. Strengthen and spread shared commitment to primary prevention of domestic violence.
2. Engage diverse institutional partners and allies in the primary prevention of domestic violence.
3. Conduct and use surveillance, evaluation and research to inform the development and continuous improvement of primary prevention policies and programs.
4. Catalyze action at every level of government.

Know the resources in your community.  Waukesha's resources can be found here.

Breaking News-WHEDA Director to Leave for HUD

HUD just announced that Antonio Riley, current Director of WHEDA, has been appointed by President Obama to be the new Region V Administrator of HUD.  Region V covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.  The Region V office is based in Chicago.

The announcement included a short description of Director Riley's career:

Antonio Riley is currently the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA). As the first African American to head the agency, Riley oversaw what is considered the second largest bank in the state, with a $3 billion mortgage portfolio. Under Antonio’s leadership, WHEDA helped develop hundreds of units of affordable housing and implemented new strategies that increased jobs, made homeownership affordable, and helped to renew and invigorate depressed neighborhoods. Riley was also very successful in creating greater opportunities for minority-owned businesses. Recently, Riley’s peers elected him to a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Council of State Housing Authorities. Before joining WHEDA, Antonio served 10 years in the Wisconsin Legislature representing Milwaukee’s 18th Assembly District. Earlier he worked for Milwaukee’s Department of City Development.

In 2009 Riley earned the prestigious Legacy Award for being a person who passionately promotes, supports and invests in efforts that increase entrepreneurial opportunities; and, consistently reflects passion through his actions in bold and innovative ways creating wealth-building opportunities for everyone.

Congratulations to Director Riley!

Update:  The Business Journal also reported on this.

Looking at Social Security

For many people with disabilities and for many older adults, Social Security is an important source of income, so I've been following Social Security reporting for a while, and came across this blog post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It discusses what Social Security does, how it is funded, and some of the myths about it. A good summary for those of you who are not familiar with it, and have heard that it is going bankrupt.

Jumping Around

In the past couple of days, some new materials popped up into my In Box, and rather than going into them in-depth, I thought I'd summarize and link.

The National Housing Conference (NHC) has issued ten wonky recommendations relating to reform of the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac).  After noting the key role both has played in the development of multi-family housing, not just single-family homes, NHC discusses the need for capital and the important role the government plays in multi-family housing financing.

The Center for Housing Policy (which is affiliated with NHC) focuses on researching solutions to housing issues.  They reviewed current research on housing affordability and and summarized them as thus:

Key Findings

• For every three units added to the rental stock between 1995 and 2005, two units were demolished or permanently removed from the inventory. Many of these new units target the higher end of the market and are unaffordable to lower-income renters.

• Only one in three poor renters benefits from housing assistance; as a result, nearly half of all renters pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.

• For every 100 extremely low-income renter households, only 44 units were affordable to and occupied by such households (or vacant) in 2007.

• By 2013, more than one million subsidized units will reach the end of their use restrictions, giving property owners the opportunity to “opt out” of their contracts and threatening the loss of critically-needed affordable rentals.

I would like to call attention to the third point; one argument I've often heard in communities is "we already have enough affordable housing here" meaning housing with lower market rates than average, not those that are subsidized or tax-credit.  Unfortunately, they often don't consider how many are actually rented to people with low income.  People with disabilities living on limited benefits or who are underemployed, for example, often are priced out of the market because other households with higher incomes are more attractive to landlords.  I discussed this previously.

Finally, the Center for Housing Policy also looked into the question of whether or not home ownership is really better for children.  Reviewing some recent studies, data indicates that perhaps it's not the act of home ownership itself that benefits children, but the fact that the type of  parents who become homeowners are also the type of parents that have other characteristics that benefit children.  Other factors include school quality, neighborhood quality, and residential stability.  This is interesting because the heavy promotion of home ownership over the years both by federal government and by local communities are based on the belief that, well, to put it bluntly, homeowners are better people.  Or maybe a better way to put it would be home ownership makes people better. 

I've been arguing recently that not enough resources are devoted to renters.  Society works hard to help people become homeowners through housing counseling workshops, etc. but not as much is done on helping people become better renters.  Or making people better landlords.

Update: Missing link added in.

Will Detroit be the future of Milwaukee?

Via The Political Environment at Gregory Sanford:

In short, unfettered suburban sprawl has played a key role in hollowing out Detroit. One problem with sprawl is the suburban habit of walling out poor people through snob zoning and other means, thereby putting the burden of poverty on the city, which, due to the flight of wealth to these very suburbs, have a declining ability to deal with the problem.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?  I especially like the term "snob zoning" which I think describes perfectly what has been happening in communities (I'm lookin' at ya, New Berlin!).

I've never understood the anti-Milwaukee mentality in the suburbs and elsewhere in the state.

In the long run, though, the hollowing out of Detroit, the metro area’s flagship, hurts the suburbs, too. A shabby main city tends to keep corporations away from the entire area, not just the city. What’s more, a vibrant hub acts as a magnet for the young creative class, which urban planners regard as vital to an area’s future prosperity.

Detroit has lost half of its residents, down from a peak of 1.85 million in the 1950s to 911,000 today.  Despite its losses, it is still 11th largest city in terms of population.  But it still has the expensive infrastructure of a much larger city.  Milwaukee has lost 5% of its population in the 1990s alone (although this has been reversed somewhat by the recent downtown boom), and is now ranked #26.  As reported recently, Milwaukee is ranked as fourth poorest.  Only three cities, including Detroit, has a higher poverty rate.

The question is, where do we go from here?  Will the suburbs and the state recognize that a healthy and prosperous Milwaukee is in their best long-term interest, or will they continue the short-sighted policies of the past?

Poverty Rates Across America

Check it out.  Wisconsin's poverty rate was 12.4% with 683,408 Wisconsinites living in poverty.  This is a bit under the United States average of 14.3%.  The highest rate was 21.9% in Mississippi while New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate with 8.5%.  I found it interesting that, with the exception of Michigan, the high-poverty states were all southern states.  Any thoughts?

Disappointing

In April, HUD announced the availability of vouchers for non-elderly persons with disabilities.  I believe the Housing Authority of City of Milwaukee and Kenosha Housing Authority both applied. HUD has awarded nearly $33 million to Public Housing Authorities that will fund nearly 4,300 vouchers.  Unfortunately, no Public Housing Authority in Wisconsin received the awarded vouchers at this time.

The program had two categories; one for what might be called "normal" housing vouchers for persons with disabilities, and the second category is specifically to assist persons with disabilities in transitioning out of nursing homes and other health care facilities. The announced awards cover the first category, and the second category which should be up to 1,000 vouchers, will be announced later in the year. 

Delinquent Mortgages Map

To follow up on a recent post, here is a map of delinquent mortgages in metropolitan areas in the United States.

WHEDA, Where Are You?

I've been meaning to get around to it for quite a while now.  First, go read this article about the "WHEDA Kiss of Death."  Matt Hrodey discusses the recent backlashes against development funded with tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) in Kenosha that "...mirrors the fiery one in New Berlin earlier this year...."

Keep in mind that recently there also have been community protests against tax-credit developments in New Berlin, West Bend (which eventually passed), Bayview, etc.   Journal-Sentinel columnist Tom Daykin also has noted the increasing number of opposition to proposals.

In some cases, residents and elected officials balk at the potential of a WHEDA housing development, saying it will bring with it higher crime, lowered property values, and overcrowded schools. My biggest frustration of the public discourse surrounding this issue are the level of misinformation about the WHEDA Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program which is relayed so frequently and fervently that some resident opponents quote it as fact.

First of all, the LIHTC program is NOT a social program, as many affordable housing opponents describe it. It is an IRS program (Section 42 of the IRS code), developed as a tax shelter program in the Reagan era. The legislature was able to get it passed by including some aspect of public good (affordable housing) in exchange for sheltering taxes. Not-so-coincidentally, this was also when the government drastically cut the funding of new project-based subsidized housing. Second, of all the tools that enable housing to be built affordably, LIHTC is the LEAST affordable, it serves the highest income population of all the affordable housing tools. In essence, the government stopped funding new housing for the very low-income and started funding housing for people that just qualify as low-income.

Many opponents of affordable housing like to bust out their Cabrini Green, tenement, or other Chicago public housing analogies. Really?! Have you seen the Park East Lofts, Blue Ribbon Apartments, Majestic Loft Apartments, Fifth Ward Lofts, Teweles Seed Apartments? These are all tax credit developments in or around downtown Milwaukee which brilliantly complement the downtown Milwaukee upscale condo market.

WHEDA does a lot of good work, both in home ownership and rental housing.  What's puzzling to me is WHEDA's absence in defending their good name.  They're being slandered in many communities as funding housing no different than Chicago's Cabrini Green.  Where are their representatives at the public meetings?  Where is the education & outreach campaign?  Where are the puff interviews?  The billboards? Their silence is puzzling.

I'm not asking for much-some basic outreach (letters to the editor, presentations to plan commissions, simple brochures) explaining the vast difference between developer subsidy and rent subsidy and between Cabrini Green and tax credit developments; informing us of the benefits that this housing development provides in terms of neighborhood property values, economic development and job growth; and educating people on the strict maintenance and screening standards to which LIHTC property managers must adhere.

WHEDA, where are you?



Puzzled

If I have a gun and steal $1 from you, I can look forward to years in prison.

But if I steal your house by faking some paperwork, the punishment is...what?  I'm puzzled.

Go to Rortybomb for the gory details. 

Things aren't this bad in Wisconsin, but take a look at what counties have been hit the hardest.

Update: Atrios is asking the same thing.

Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund accomplishments

2010 HTF Accomplishments Flyer
Originally uploaded by Brianind1

This flyer is being distributed listing the accomplishments to date of the City of Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund.

Poverty increases in Milwaukee

A Journal-Sentinel article reports the rise of poverty in the City of Milwaukee, making it the fourth poorest city in the nation.  Ignoring the partisan warfare in the comments section, I'd like to point out:

• Milwaukee's poverty rate reached 27% with African-American unemployment in some parts of the city possibly being as high as 60%-70%.
• Poverty rates in the suburbs were: Waukesha County (4.8%), Ozaukee (5.3%) and Washington (5.4%).

To me this confirms that most of the emerging job markets are in the suburban counties (more on that later) and combine that with a poor public transportation system that makes it difficult to travel to the suburbs, there's a real disconnection between people and jobs. Then there's the housing policies that makes it difficult for people to move to the suburbs into housing they can afford.

It doesn't help that communities compete for businesses and try to draw them from the City of Milwaukee with tax incentives.  We should be growing our businesses and trying to draw new employers from outside the region instead of cannibalizing what we do have. Wasn't that the whole idea of The Milwaukee 7?

Priorities!

Kudos to the Waukesha County Finance Committee for ensuring that there will be park and open space in the future.


In the meantime...Waukesha County homelessness agencies enter their third year of searching for a permanent site for a drop-in shelter for the homeless during the winter months.


Priorities!

Hard to Believe This Still Happens

Let's be clear.  The Fair Housing Act isn't some Johnny-come-lately.  It's been around since 1968, and it was amended to include minimunm accessibility requirements for multi-family housing starting with buildings ready for first occupancy after March 13, 1991.  By my math, that's almost 20 years with accessibility requirements in place.

So, then, why does stuff like this continue to happen? 

Brookfield Senior Housing Need

I found this article on Brookfield's senior housing and assisted living facilities by Tom Daykin interesting.  It refers to an article on Brookfield NOW by Aaron Martin.  It is true that as baby boomers age, there is an increasing demand for housing serving older people.

However, I was recently at a forum and spoke to someone about this issue.  I was surprised to learn that only 5% of the aging population actually live in those buildings targeted for older residents.  It is much preferred that people stay at home as it is much cheaper for them and services are less expensive in-home than at specialized facilities.  The question then is, can the homes be modified to meet their increasing accessibility needs?  Often it can be, so most will likely remain in their homes.

I'd like to point to the statistics for the graying population in Brookfield and Elm Grove.  It could be because the two communities are such a great place to live that people stay longer and eventually age in place.  Or it could be that with the housing costs, it's more likely that people with more earning power (in other words, older people) can afford to move into the community where they soon reach their 60s. 

Regardless, when nearly one in four of your residents are, or will be, elderly and less likely to spend money, that does not bode well for your local businesses.  If only the caregivers that work with them live locally and spend locally.  But Brookfield and Elm Grove can't have that, can they?

I know that sounds like a slam at Brookfield and Elm Grove, and perhaps it is.  But this kind of issues are a result of deliberate housing and zoning policies that they have pursued for a long time, and now they're starting to see the consequences of that.

Race and ethnicity: Milwaukee

Race and ethnicity: Milwaukee
Originally uploaded by Eric Fischer

I believe this is just Milwaukee County, but do you honestly think it's any better in Washington, Waukesha or Ozaukee Counties?

If you think this degree of segregation is acceptable, that says a lot about you. Eric Fischer has mapping of other cities in the United States, and Milwaukee isn't alone in this, but that doesn't make it right.

Funding of Homelessness

HUD has announced their Notification of Funding Availability (NOFA) for homelessness programs and services. The $1.68 billion in assistance will be awarded in two stages; current programs will have priority, and new projects will be funded later in the year.  Following the release of the new plan, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, applicants will be required to show that their proposals will meet the goals of the plan.

This funding follows last year's $1.5 billion for Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) and $1.43 billion in other assistance for homeless individuals and families.

In the meantime, Waukesha County agencies has seen their state and federal funding decline, a dramatic drop of $300,000 $509,000 last year to $209,000 this year starting July 1.  It is not that Waukesha is doing better lately, but that the need is worsening elsewhere, and there are only so many dollars to go around.

It is inexcusable that Waukesha County has not acted to find other funding resources to preserve programs and services.

Editorial Cartoon

I think this editorial cartoon really nails it-not just in New Jersey, but everywhere.

UPDATE:  I see now that this doesn't go to the cartoon that I initially linked to.  If you look at the archive, the one I referred to is the June 4 editorial cartoon on housing policies.

Kenosha Tax-Credit Developer Threatens Lawsuit

Just like New Berlin, a Kenosha developer had their tax-credit housing proposal, Uptown Brass, yanked after a public outcry.  And they're not taking it quietly.

According to Milwaukee News Buzz, Bear Development sent a letter to the City of Kenosha threatening a lawsuit in federal court, possibly under the Fair Housing Act.

And this part sounds awfully familiar from attending the meetings in New Berlin:

At one community forum in a school cafeteria in May, according to the Kenosha News, “residents retorted that the project would bring criminals from the inner city of Chicago,” and one man likened the proposal to high-crime housing projects in the Illinois city. Mills reportedly protested during the meeting, “People have to live somewhere.” People in the crowd responded, according to the newspaper, “Why here?” Objectors have also protested outside Bear’s office in Kenosha.

Bear Development also dropped another proposal in Kenosha in face of strong community opposition, although it sounds like they're not giving up on the Uptown Brass site yet.

Housing Discrimination Today

Someone sent me this Milwaukee News Buzz article on housing discrimination as it exists today.  A major source of discrimination complaints today is on the basis of disability.  Disability is one of the protected classes under the Federal Fair Housing Act, and states and local communities often create additional protected classes based on perceived community needs.   A full list of protected classes in Wisconsin can be found courtesy of the Fair Housing Council.

Poverty Rate

The poverty rate is now at its highest since 1994 as a result of the recession.  This has serious implication for social service programs such as employment assistance, food pantries, health care coverage, as well as a continuing foreclosure crisis.

I believe the stimulus program helped more than realized since "The 14.3 percent poverty rate, which covers all ages, was lower than estimates of many demographers who were bracing for a record gain based on last year's skyrocketing unemployment. Many had predicted a range of 14.7 percent to 15 percent."

It's easy for people to complain about "the government" but analsysts believe otherwise:

"Given all the unemployment we saw, it's the government safety net that's keeping people above the poverty line," said Douglas Besharov, a University of Maryland public policy professor and former scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

But the official poverty threshold has been criticized for many years as being artifically low, with many families struggling to get by, yet not being counted as living in poverty.

Beginning next year, the government plans to publish new, supplemental poverty figures that are expected to show even higher numbers of people in poverty than previously known. The figures will incorporate rising costs of medical care, transportation and child care, a change analysts believe will add to the ranks of both seniors and working-age people in poverty.

My question is, what are we all doing about this?  Does your Representative and Senators care about people living in poverty?  Let them know your feelings about this.

Boston's affordable housing

An interesting Boston Globe article on Massachusett's affordable housing law, "Chapter 40B" which is up for repeal.  Although I am not familiar with it, it sounds like an inclusionary zoning law. 

Chapter 40B is a state statute, which enables local Zoning Boards of Appeals to approve affordable housing developments under flexible rules if at least 20-25% of the units have long-term affordability restrictions

40B requires "affordability for households with incomes between 70% and 80% of the listed area (MSA) median income."  Assuming most housing units are priced for those at the top of  that limit, that means housing actually is pretty unafforable for very low-income households without other subsidies.  To their credit, the Chapater 40B website looks like it has resources for other subsidies.

Chapter 40B is credited with $9.25 billion in construction and related spending over the past ten years.

The (University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute) report, commissioned by a nonprofit group that supports the 1969 law known as Chapter 40B, also found that more than 21,000 housing units that are part of planned 40B developments would result in more than 54,300 jobs and another $10.42 billion in spending.

Polling prior to the Nov 2 election indicates that 56% are in favor of keeping the law.

A New Tune in West Bend

Initally after reading this article on the West Bend tax-credit housing proposal possily being rejected, I was planned to write a post titled "Haven't We Heard This Song Before?" but then I saw this.

West Bend's Mayor did what New Berlin's Mayor failed to do-stand firm in face of opposition and vote for affordable housing.  Kudos to her.

Something to keep in mind.  There were no firm offers on the property in five years. This is not Offer A vs Offer B.  This is Offer A vs No Offer.   Why is that so hard to understand?   A hamburger on the plate is better than a plate with no steak.


Update: D'oh! "West Berlin" corrected to "West Bend" in one paragraph.

Housing affordability worsening for low-income renters

The Center for Budget & Policy Priorities' blog, "Off the Charts" has a post on the worsening housing affordability for low-income renters. 

While home prices have fallen by nearly 30 percent since the market peaked in 2006, residential rents have merely leveled off over the past year and are actually 11 percent higher now than in 2006....

New Berlin Focus Group Meeting postponed

Tonight's (Sept 9) City Center Focus Group meeting for Aldermanic District 4 has been postponed.  No word on the reason.

The next scheduled meeting is for Aldermanic District 7 on Sept. 21.

Workforce Development Proposed in Racine

A developer has proposed a workforce housing development on a vacant lot near a closed Sam's Club (it moved).  The headline online is different than the headline of the paper copy, which was: 'Affordable housing' project proposed.  I got a chuckle out of that as I thought, "I see I'm not alone in thinking that tax-credit housing is not very affordable."

The first look at the plans was last night at the Racine Plan Commission meeting, and there will be a Public Hearing on Sept 14 at City Hall.

It'll be interesting to see if there's misplaced hysteria over this as there were in New Berlin and the City of Waukesha. 

Waukesha County CDBG 2011 Recommendations

Waukesha County has announced a public hearing for the 2011 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) recommendations.  Unfortunately, I cannot find a link to it online.  HUD funds the CDBG program which allocates money to entitlement communities for use to meet their needs.  Communities generally are given a lot of flexibility in how they use the money.

CDBG funds may be used for activities which include, but are not limited to:

• acquisition of real property;
• relocation and demolition;
• rehabilitation of residential and non-residential structures;
• construction of public facilities and improvements, such as water and sewer facilities, streets, neighborhood centers, and the conversion of school buildings for eligible purposes;
• public services, within certain limits;
• activities relating to energy conservation and renewable energy resources; and
• provision of assistance to profit-motivated businesses to carry out economic development and job creation/retention activities.

Any decision that Waukesha County makes on CDBG recommendations have to follow the Consolidated Plan.
 
This year's funding recommendations is anticipated to cover $1.6 million in grants, ranging from $2,942 for Dousman Village  for "Public Facilities" to $288,000 to Waukesha County for "Administration." 
 
Without knowing the details of the applications, I cannot really comment, but offhand, I'd say the most weak recommendation is $21,289 to Oconomowoc for "Economic Development."
 
Oconomowoc is the city that created the Pabst Farms and didn't include any affordable housing in the development.  According to HUD, each activity must meet one of the following national objectives for the program: benefit low- and moderate-income persons, prevention or elimination of slums or blight, or address community development needs having a particular urgency because existing conditions pose a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community for which other funding is not available.
 
Offhand, without seeing the proposals, I'd be hard-pressed to say how Oconomowoc would qualify for this.  I'm sure there were other applications that would meet those goals in a better way.

Update:  The Public Hearing is on September 15th at 3 PM at Waukesha County Administration Center at 515 W. Moreland Blvd, Room 355-59 in Waukesha.  For more information, contact Glen Lewinski, Community Development Coordinator.  Requests for accessibility accommodations have to be made at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.

Third round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program announced

HUD has announced the third round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program, continuing to focus on foreclosed properties.  This round will have $1 billion available to states and communities.

The funding announced today is provided under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. To date, there have been two other rounds of NSP funding: the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) provided $3.92 billion and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) appropriated an additional $2 billion. Like those earlier rounds of NSP grants, these targeted funds will be used to purchase foreclosed homes at a discount and to rehabilitate or redevelop them in order to respond to rising foreclosures and falling home values.

Previously, HUD Secretary Donovan announced the "First Look" program and the third round of NSP funding is designed to work with this program.

First Look gives NSP grantees an exclusive 12-14 day window to evaluate and bid on properties before others can do so. By giving every NSP grantee the first crack at buying foreclosed and abandoned properties in these targeted neighborhoods, First Look will maximize the impact of NSP dollars in the hardest-hit neighborhoods – making it more likely the properties communities want to buy are strategically chosen and cutting in half the traditional 75-to-85 day process it takes to re-sell foreclosed properties.

The City of Milwaukee received $2,687,949 with the rest of the state receiving $5,000,000 for a total of $7,687,949.  Looking at the rest of the states, it looks like every state, territory & D.C. received a minimum of $5 million, which doesn't really make sense-does sparsely populated states like Alaska, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Vermont really need $5 million each?  Probably a bit of politics in this distribution.

California ($149,308,651) and Florida ($208,437,144) are the big winners-or rather, the losers-in this round.

Snapshots on how communities are doing in their previous NSP grants can be found here.

Lack of oversight in Foreclosures

This is such a mess.  It's my contention that lack of regulatory oversight led to the collapse of the housing market, and the same lack of regulatory oversight is leading to abuses in the foreclosure process.

The NY Times article on what is happening in Florida should be a cautionary tale for all communities that are facing waves of foreclosures.  While it's not as bad in Wisconsin as it is in Florida, it's something that community leaders should learn from.

Google Invests Millions into Affordable Housing

Google has announced a partnership with U.S. Bank to invest $86 million into affordable housing in seven communities across the country, including Milwaukee (City? County? Metro area?).

Google is bringing fresh capital to the industry at a time when many developers of low-income housing projects have been faced with significant financial gaps. Their commitment to affordable housing marks a continuing expansion of the affordable housing investor base beyond traditional investors such as banks and insurance companies.

To date, mostly banks and insurance companies have been investors in the Low-Income Housing Tax-Credits offered by the federal government. But in this rough economic times, many have been hesistant.  The prices of tax credits have fallen far, from 94-95 cents on the dollar in 2006 to as low as 69 cents on the dollar at the end of 2009, if not lower.  This means that when a developer sells the tax credits awarded, the developer will not receive as much cash as the company may have received in the past.

The lower cost of tax credits may have made it more attractive for non-traditional investors like Google.  For more explanation of other benefits to Google, read this analysis. 

A report has estimated the size of the tax credit market to be less than $4.5 billion in 2009, less than half of its peak of approximately $9 billion in 2007. 

They're projecting 480 units nation-wide will be created as a result of the investment. Just a drop in the ocean on what is needed, but a welcome addition.  Reading this article on Multifamilybiz.com makes me think that those seven communities were selected mostly because of pre-existing relationships with developers who may already have projects in the pipeline.
 
 

Thoughts on housing preferences

I came across this on WHEDA's website.  This is the statistics "For WHEDA Financed, Tax Credit and HUD Contract Projects."

The left-hand numbers below are the number of projects of that type.  The right-hand numbers are the number of units.  Keep in mind this is not just tax-credit housing, but also housing financed through other WHEDA programs, and subsidized housing contracted with WHEDA for monitoring.  This is not all-inclusive, but should give us a good idea of the numbers.

27 ALL ELDERLY Projects - 1,926 Units

3 MAJORITY ELDERLY Projects - 368 Units

8 ALL FAMILY Projects - 520 Units 
 
As you can see, in Waukesha County, the vast majority of the units are targeted toward the elderly.  This is because communities tend to fight tooth & nail against any other types of units, often based on ignorance and misplaced fears.
 
To be sure, Waukesha County is hardly the only county to show a marked preference.  For instance, Ozaukee County has 8 projects with 402 units that are ALL elderly. 
 
So when people say, "this should not be built here, build it somewhere else" (as New Berlin opponents did with MSP development), often the "somewhere else" say the same thing.  This is called Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY). 
 
Predictably, when developers have the option of either building elderly housing that are more acceptable, or the option of building something that almost certainly will be opposed, the developer will take the easier choice.
 
The cruel irony here, of course, is that LIHTC buildings often are not affordable to people with truly low household income.  Instead, they're rented to households that are near the top of the income restriction limit.  In fact, in many cases, the rent actually is too high for people with rental assistance vouchers.
 
Which is a shame because many people with disabilities (who often have low income) would benefit from the increased accessibility that often results from WHEDA's competitive application process which rewards housing that incorporates Universal Design.

Two Opinion Pieces in Journal-Sentinel

The Affordable Housing Taskforce in Waukesha County's own Donna Ferency has an opinion piece in the Crossroads section of the Journal-Sentinel which ran on Sunday.  Offering an opposing viewpoint is Laura Karvala of Concerned Citizens of New Berlin. 

The two pieces are not quite pro & con as Ms. Ferency focuses on the larger issue of affordable housing in Waukesha County while Ms. Karvala focuses specifically on New Berlin.  But the two pieces do overlap. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I provided some feedback on Ms. Ferency's piece, so I'm hardly unbiased on this issue.  I don't expect everyone to agree with me, nor would I want them to.  But when there's a debate on an issue, I expect people to not try to mislead me, as Ms. Karvala seems to be trying to do with the readers.

Strong words, I know, but in terms of cold hard objective facts, I'll point out the following:

1) Ms. Karvala criticizes the MSP Project for having underground parking, without mentioning that either a covered attached parking or underground parking is required.  The alternative to underground parking is a "covered attached parking" which I'll interpret as a parking garage attached to the development.  Leaving aside the fact there are existing buildings with underground parking in the City Center, I can imagine what the good citizens of New Berlin would've said about a parking garage. Here we have an instance where she's being disingenuous. 

2)  She states, "The main building was very large, four stories high and out of character with other buildings."  That would be the building for those over 55 years old.  Yet it was not this building that the Concerned Citizens of New Berlin opposed-it was the "workforce" buildings that they opposed.  Their petition referred specifically to the workforce portion. Very odd that she left out that tidbit, isn't it?

3)  Ms. Karvala professes concern for young children because of the nearby ponds and creek.  But those ponds and creek would be there regardless of what type of residencies are built there-even luxury condos.  In fact, we have a real-life example. There is an existing condo/apartment building in City Center with a lovely view of a pond.  Was it opposed because of potential harm to children?  No.  In fact, opponents repeatedly said they wanted more of the same-high end condos (never mind the fact that the developer was forced to rent out condos due to a lack of sales).

There's plenty to take issue with in the rest of her piece, but I think those three say it all, don't you?

Thankfully, No Action on Homebuyer Tax Credit

The Obama Administration has indicated that they're unlikely to renew the Homebuyer Tax Credit at this time despite worse-than-expected July sales numbers. 

It's my opinion that all the homebuyer tax credit did was temporarily prop up the sales by robbing another time period of its sales, which we're seeing with the drop in July numbers.  People who want to buy homes will still buy homes-they just rushed to do so before the tax credit expired.  I'm not sure that the tax credit ever did any good other than trying to give the economy a tiny boost.  Instead, they're going to try other things:

Donovan said the administration would be rolling out two tools in the coming weeks to help homeowners: a Federal Housing Administration refinancing effort to help borrowers who are underwater, and an emergency loan program for unemployed borrowers.

New Berlin Center City Meetings

New Berlin is hosting focus groups at City Hall with people from various Districts to discuss the future of Center City. 

What was interesting to me, however, was this part:

An effort is underway to obtain input from New Berlin residents, business owners and property owners within this area....

So only residents and owners can participate, but the employee at Quizno's who commutes can't?  The staff at Regency Senior Housing can't?  How about school teachers who can't find a place to live in New Berlin?  Not even the staff who work at New Berlin day cares?

I think we know the outcome they want from this, don't we? 

Maybe they didn't intend to exclude employees of New Berlin businesses who would like to live in New Berlin, but that's a sure sign of their mindset and their bias, of who they consider to be "real New Berliners," just like excluding non-residents from speaking at public meetings.

Future of GSE (Part II)

Recently I blogged about the future of Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSE), more commonly known as Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae.  Blogger Kevin Drum discusses it, also.

Drum notes that Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae's traditional role is buying 30-year mortgages from banks that originates them, something it did well for many years.  They could return to this role, or they could be phased out for private market to take over that role, as it does for "jumbo mortgages" which are loans that are larger than what the GSEs can purchase.

Unfortunately (at least, in Drum's eyes), instead of going down either of those paths, the conversation is on creating a hybrid role that he and others feel depends too much on regulatory oversight which has proven to be lax in the past.

Drum is in favor of phasing out both, but I'm not so sure that the private market will entirely serve the same function.  A benefit that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac provides is that when banks sell their mortgages to the GSEs, the banks now have money to make the next loan.  With low-income homebuyers, would the profit margin be large enough for private market companies to be interested in purchasing those loans?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in their traditional roles, had guidelines on what type of mortgages they will purchase, which helped keep the lenders honest.  Can we say the same for the system that takes place in their absence?

I recall reading that the only reason the 30-year fixed rate loan is even possible is because of the GSEs.  Otherwise, every loan will look like an ARM loan, and homeownership will be more expensive.

Drum closes with:

More generally, I think we provide home buyers with too many bennies already, and we'd probably all be better off if we allowed the market to set prices here without the distorting influence of federal supports.

The idea that homebuying and homeownership is subsidized is something I've touched upon before here and here.  But I'm not quite ready to give up on the idea of Fanne Mae & Freddie Mac.

One Night, One Community Date Change

I mentioned a few days ago an upcoming community event to raise awareness of homelessness called One Night, One Community.

The date of this has been changed from August 26 to October 9, which will coincide with Mental Illness Awareness Week.

NAMI Waukesha appears to be coordinating this event, and interested people can contact Aaron Winden at (262) 524-8886.

Quick items on Homeownership Policies

Some quick items on homeownership policy issues:

An article on proposals that emerged from the Housing Conference yesterday.

Ezra Klein interviews the Center for Economic & Policy Research director, Dean Baker, who was not at the housing conference.  Even though he was right about the housing bubble.

Abuses in taxing designations

Just happened to notice something in this article about Pabst Farms:

Pabst Farms was able to change the designation of the land from commercial to agricultural assessment rates in 2009. As a condition to the road financing agreement, Pabst Farms will remain classified as farmland until construction begins on the Town Centre.

How is this right?  The land is clearly intended to be used for commercial purposes.  Looking at Google Map, there doesn't seem to be any crops growing there (unless it's hay).  This is an abuse of tax assessment, something that the Institute for Wisconsin's Future is trying to reform. This is a prime example of "real estate speculators who abuse agricultural assessment."  As a result, Oconomowoc is losing $500,000 each year the land has this designation.

Why are the people who are opposed to "handouts" and housing subsidies not livid about this?

Future of GSE being decided

Oh, by the way, folks, at this very moment, the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) that have been so vital to homeownership for the past few decades, is being discussed.

It's going to be interesting to see what results from this conference, especially since some of the profits from Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac were supposed to fund the Housing Trust Fund.  The housing market collapsed before a single penny was transferred.  Whatever the result, I hope that the Trust Fund will still receive funding in some way.

HUD Fair Market Rent

HUD has published its proposed Fair Market Rent for 2011.  This is the payment standard in areas for "the  the Housing Choice Voucher, the Moderate Rehabilitation, the project-based voucher, and other programs that require location-specific economic data."

The current FMR can be found here (Milwaukee amounts below, or search by metro area or county at this link).

In addition to the small-area FMR discussed previously, HUD previously increased some areas' FMR from the 40% level to 50% for a three-year period to aid with deconcentrating poverty. There currently are 17 areas using this higher standard, including the Milwaukee metro area.  

At the end of the three-year period, areas are evaluated to determine if the 50% standard would continue to be used, or if it will revert back to 40%.  Ten (including Milwaukee) will be evaluated in 2012, with the other seven being evaluated in 2013. A new area has been added this year for a total of 18.


Why is this significant?  Having a higher FMR means that rental assistance voucher holders will have a higher amount for the maximum rent they can rent to, which means more housing options, some which may be in areas with better academic and employment opportunities.

The rent amounts are listed for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4-bedrooms. 

• 2010: *Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI MSA............ 602   718   858   1081   1114
• 2011: *Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI MSA............ 617   736   879   1108   1141

There are rules on how many bedrooms a household can qualify for.

Keep in mind those amounts are at the 50% standard rather than the 40% standard.  The higher rent amounts for 2011 are probably reflective of the increasingly tightening rental market as more homes are being foreclosed on and former homeowners moving into apartments.

HUD is seeking comments on the 2011 levels.  Comments can be submitted at Regulations.gov using [Docket No. FR–5430–N–01]. They are due 30 days after the date of publication (August 4) which I believe makes it Friday, Sept 3.