HOME Dashboard Report

Available on HUD's website are reports on various HOME programs across the nation including a visual summary called the Dashboard Report. For the Waukesha County HOME Consortium which also includes Ozaukee, Washington, and Jefferson Counties, $14,344,122 was awarded to the Consortium in 2009. About 93% has been disbursed with another 3% committed as of December, which seems pretty effective to me, although slightly under the state average.

The Dashboard Report show a heavy emphasis on homeownership with 97% of the funds being committed to Homebuyer(72%) or Homeowner Rehab(25%) programs.

What I find striking is the demographics on pages two and three. The vast majority of people served were white (87.7% for rental, 88.5% for homebuyer, 96.1% for homeowner). Perhaps not surprising given the demographics of the counties involved.

For rentals, approximately half of the households served are the most needy, those that have Extremely Low Income, or under 30% of Area Median Income. By contrast, approximately 10% of the homeowners fall under this category and just about none of the homebuyers. The vast majority of the homebuyers are those earning 61%-80%. Remember that 72% of funds go to the homebuyer category. In other words, the vast majority of the HOME funds received by Waukesha Consortium aren't going to those who need assistance the most.

Regarding family size, about 60% of renters are single-person households (which may have more to do with the housing options available) while homebuyers and homeowners are more evenly distributed across family sizes.

About 20% of homeowner rehab assistance and 30% of rental assistance go to the elderly, but very little or none of the homebuyer assistance benefits the elderly.

There's another snapshot with numbers although I'm not positive this is the basis for the graphs in the Dashboard Report-it seems to be. In this snapshot, Waukesha is red-flagged for being in the bottom 20% (of all state public jurisdictions) for not having enough renters who with income of 50% or less than the Area Median Income. Overall, the Waukesha Home Consortium is ranked 7th out of the ten public jurisdictions in the state. I believe the Consortium's heavy emphasis on homeownership hurts the ranking because it does not effectively serve those who need assistance the most.