DOC Workforce Housing

Summary: In 2004 the Partnership worked with the state Department of Commerce (DOC) to devise a Workforce Housing Initiative. The project was designed in part to speed the integration of the Bureau of Housing into its new home in the DOC’s Division of Housing and Community Development. After holding workforce housing roundtables in four disparate Wisconsin communities, the Partnership prepared a report detailing information on each community’s roundtable session, recommending solutions tailored to each area’s unique situation, and proposing a future project for consideration by the DOC. Click here to view or download the report in PDF.

Staff contacts: Kristin Silva

Wisconsin Partnership's role: Consultant

Status of work: Completed in 2005

In 2003, following a government reorganization, the state’s Bureau of Housing moved from the Department of Administration into the Division of Community Development within the Department of Commerce (DOC). Community development is often focused on either housing or economic development, but rarely are these located within the same program unit.

To help integrate the two areas, the DOC asked the Partnership to help devise a unifying initiative. After a series of meetings facilitated by the Partnership, a project began to take shape. “Workforce housing,” loosely defined as housing affordable to the range of incomes represented by the Wisconsin workforce, became the focus, and employer-assisted housing was proposed as the mechanism for expanding housing options for the state’s workers.

Introduction of the project at the Governor’s Economic Development Conference in May 2004 generated widespread interest among local government officials, nonprofits, and employers from communities throughout the state. Four communities from widely disparate areas of the state were selected to participate in a pilot effort: Appleton, a moderately large city; Middleton, an urban suburb of Madison; Dodgeville, a small city located in a rural area; and Butternut, a village of 400 people in the North Woods.

With the help of local contacts, the Partnership invited local government officials, nonprofit and for-profit housing developers, and local employers to a roundtable discussion in each community. At each roundtable the Partnership first presented large charts showing the range of employer assisted housing mechanisms from both supply and demand perspectives. The charts described each mechanism, listed pros and cons, and detailed the resources available through WHEDA and the DOC. Local participants then discussed the workforce housing problems in their area, adding local resources to a blank column on the charts. Finally, Partnership staff helped participants formulate possible next steps, with a focus on partnership opportunities involving local employers, WHEDA and the DOC.

Although all of the roundtables followed the same format, local differences were key to identifying resources and gaps, and planning solutions. For example, the City of Middleton has a large number of employers, but relatively expensive housing, with many employees and business owners living outside the city. The Middleton discussion focused primarily on ways to make the existing housing more affordable, using a combination of employer, City and possibly federal resources. Butternut, on the other hand, has two large employers but an overall housing shortage. Because many of the employees live elsewhere, the local school is losing students and may be forced to close, putting the very survival of the village in jeopardy. The Butternut discussion focused on mechanisms for new housing production.

The Partnership’s project report includes detailed information on each community’s roundtable session, as well as recommendations tailored to each area’s unique situation. Click here to view or download the report in PDF. To receive a hard copy of the report, contact Kristin Silva, Housing Program Manager (608/258-5560 x29; kristinsilva@wphd.org).