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.