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?