Dane County Housing Development Fund

Summary: The Partnership assisted Dane County in an effort to secure designation as an Urban County for use of federal CDBG funds, and staffed preparation of the Consolidated Plan. The Dane County Housing Development Fund, conceptualized during the planning process, was designed to combine county money and private-sector funds to acquire building sites and make them available at reasonable cost to nonprofit or for-profit developers. Later, the Partnership also assisted the Great Madison Chamber of Commerce in efforts to create a county Workforce Housing Fund.

Wisconsin Partnership's role: Consultant

Staff contacts: Bill Perkins

Status of work: Completed in 1999

In 1997, the Partnership offered to assist Dane County's newly elected County Executive in an effort to secure designation as an Urban County for use of federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, and a Participating Jurisdiction (PJ) eligible to use federal HOME funds. Using a combination of a consulting contract and our PJ TA funds, we began working to document the threshold requirements for both designations. Our work included negotiating agreements with the required number of local governments. We also designed a process for preparing the Consolidated Plan that would be required if either designation were received.

In 1998 Dane County was designated a CDBG Urban County, and the Partnership was asked to staff the steering committee appointed to develop the Consolidated Plan. In the course of interviews and focus groups with lenders, employers, home builders, real estate professionals and developers, the high cost of land and land development emerged as the single most important barrier to producing affordable housing in Dane County. In response to that finding, we proposed that the steering committee recommend creation of a development fund to support the development of land for use in affordable housing projects.

The resulting Dane County Housing Development Fund was designed to use county money in combination with private-sector funds to acquire building sites and make them available at reasonable cost to nonprofit or for-profit developers. Preference was to be given to developments providing mixed-income housing -- whether for ownership or rental -- in projects embodying Smart Growth land use policies.

Following these efforts the Partnership proposed creation of a Workforce Housing Fund to serve Dane County. The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce subsequently launched the fund to complement Dane County's efforts to encourage affordable workforce housing. Incorporated in 2002, the fund was envisioned as a capital pool that could make loans at below-market rates, and under flexible terms, for the purchase and improvement of building sites for workforce housing projects. The Partnership's role also included recommendations for the types of projects the fund might assist, and financial modeling to demonstrate the impact that lower-cost land development financing might have on final housing costs.