Come to next event to learn about revenue sources

Come to the Task Force's next event, Finding Funding for County Housing Trust Funds on Wednesday, October 7 at 5:30-7:00 p.m. at La Casa de Esperanza, 410 Arcadian Avenue in Waukesha. The main speaker is Mary Brooks, Director of the Housing Trust Fund Project, a national resource on housing trust funds at the Center for Community Change in Washington D.C. She will speak about the dedicated public revenue sources other communities use to support affordable housing through housing trust funds.

We'll discuss funding options for a Waukesha County housing trust fund and the benefits of having one. If you plan to attend, please pre-register at maryp@cacscw.org or 262-354-4017.

New RTA proposal, but no Waukesha

Governor Doyle announced today at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station that a new Regional Transit Authority would created. Initially, there will be sub-RTAs before being eventually merged into a true RTA with proportional representation of each County. Details here.

The new RTA will be responsible for the continued progress of the new Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) rail connection as well as better positioning the communities to obtain federal funding.

When the bus and rail service is fully implemented, this should provide an economic boost to the communities involved, especially with the KRM connection. It should also make it easier for people to find housing-they'd have more options with a greater geographic area available for them to look in, and linkages to employment areas will make it easier to find jobs (and afford better housing).

It looks like at this time this RTA is limited to three counties, but there's no reason why Waukesha can't become part of it in the near future. But will Waukesha County?

Update: Story on JSOnline. Rowen notes that Waukesha is out by choice.

Department of D'oh!

A recent review of existing research on family homelessness has affirmed that the primary cause for most homelessness among families is the inability to find housing they can afford

D'oh! I would've never guessed that.

I know, I'm being sarcastic, but honestly, when communities enact policies that, deliberately or not, make housing more costly, what exactly do they think is going to happen? That all the people who work at their McDonald's, their Starbucks, who watch and educate their kids, clean their houses, will somehow magically appear at the start of each shift? And go away "somewhere else" (fantasyland, perhaps?) when their shift is done? Look to Oconomowoc, Pewaukee, even the City of Waukesha & their "ad hoc housing mix report" all seem to operate under the belief system that people of lower economic classes should live somewhere else-anywhere else.

When will people realize that it's simply not practical-or good for our greater community-to keep doing this? President Bush had an initiative to end homelessness and prioritized funding for that, a priority that continues to this day. Despite that, we see:

The release of this review comes on the heel of another release: the 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The report suggests family homelessness increased over the last year.

New Monthly Action for September

The monthly action for September is to let us know your county supervisory district! To find out which district you're in, click here. Type in your address to get a list of all your elected officials. About halfway down the page, your county supervisory district number is listed, and the name of your county board supervisor.

Please e-mail Mary Peschel to let her know you're an affordable housing advocate, and which district you're from. This action will help us to know if we have good representation from around the county when we contact our county board supervisors in support of a housing trust fund.