Jeramey Jannene
Eyes on Milwaukee

Shorewood Chooses Affordable Housing

Suburb makes history with its use of TIF district. Could this influence other suburbs?

By - Mar 3rd, 2021 02:08 pm
Village of Shorewood. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Village of Shorewood. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Shorewood Village Board unanimously chose to create a $2.5 million affordable housing fund Monday evening.

“This is a good start, this is the right start,” said trustee Wesley Warren.

Warren, the first Black trustee in village history, said he was fortunate enough to move to the village with his single mother when he was a junior in high school. “Frankly, I don’t know that people would be lucky enough to have that opportunity that I have now,” said Warren, now an attorney with Northwestern Mutual.

The village estimates its average home is worth $300,000. In the city of Milwaukee it’s closer to $100,000. Shorewood’s population is 2.9% African American, versus 40% in Milwaukee, and 3.4% Hispanic, compared to more than 17% in Milwaukee.

“The Milwaukee area’s historical problems with classicism, segregation and affordable housing are all extremely well established,” said Warren.

But Shorewood will now become a leader in leveraging a relatively new provision in state law. It’s extending a tax incremental financing (TIF) district for one year, delaying property tax relief for residents, to establish an affordable housing fund.

Since 1995, incremental property tax revenue generated by properties along N. Oakland Ave. and E. Capitol Dr. (the rough boundaries of the TIF district) has been redirected to pay down debt issued to rebuild streets, provide cash grants to developers and construct parking stalls. That debt has now been retired, triggering the chance to use the 2009 state law provision.

The village’s Community Development Authority recommended on a 4-2 vote that the trustees skip the one-year extension, providing property tax relief faster. The average homeowner would see an approximately $225 to $250 annual reduction according to village treasurer Mark Emanuelson.

But speaker after speaker Monday evening reminded the trustees they had a historic choice in front of them.

“We no longer have restrictive communities with racially restrictive covenants; instead we have barriers to affordable housing,” said Kori Schneider-Peragine, senior administrator of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council.

Lois Quinn, a Shorewood resident and retired UW-Milwaukee researcher, said she first studied racially-restrictive housing covenants 40 years ago. “I can remember the very week I saw the covenant for Shorewood,” she said. She said it was a chance to reverse a wrong.

“This is a moment in time where we can reverse historical segregation that has plagued not only Shorewood, but this region for decades,” said Ellen Gilligan, a village resident and head of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

Area Assembly Representative David Bowen said the decision to extend the district would be precedent-setting for other communities. Milwaukee routinely uses the affordable housing provision, but according to a 2018 League of Wisconsin Municipalities report no other Milwaukee area municipality has done so.

He was backed by Senator Lena Taylor. “I am so proud to be your senator,” she said, noting there were plenty of village meetings she has left unhappy.

A host of other residents spoke in favor of the measure. None against.

Trustee Tammy Bockhorst said over 30 residents had reached out to her, be it by email, social media or stopping her while she was walking her dog.

Kathy Stokebrand, one of two trustees on the development authority, originally voted against the measure when it was before the CDA. Monday she voted for it. She told her fellow trustees that she backed affordable housing, but favored creating the fund from a second TIF district that was expected to expire in 2023. “Hopefully the recession would be over and we wouldn’t have as many people struggling to pay bills,” she said. Stokebrand said that her most important reason for originally voting against the extension was that she believed lowering the property tax rate would make housing more affordable.

The trustees voted to create the fund, but do not have an immediate plan to spend the money. They tasked the CDA members to work with the Fair Housing Council and the Milwaukee County Office on African American Affairs on strategies to utilize the money. State law does not include a deadline for expending the funds.

When the district ultimately closes in two years, the average property owner will see a one-time property tax bill reduction of $400 said Emanuelson. That figure would then be reduced to $225 to $240 annually based on an expected reduction in state aid to the school district under an equalization formula. The recently passed school district referendum was based on the assumption that the district would be extended, said a district representative.

At approximately $700,000 in municipal revenue (the village’s share of the $2.5 million annual TIF increment), the district’s closure would offset approximately 6% of the village’s $11.7 million levy. The total levy is capped by state law.

For a more detailed examination of the impacts of the district’s extension, see our coverage from last week.

4 thoughts on “Eyes on Milwaukee: Shorewood Chooses Affordable Housing”

  1. hillard says:

    I’m proud of this, and I look forward to a well-designed proposal for the funds.

  2. kcoyromano@sbcglobal.net says:

    Thanks you Shorewood for doing the right thing!

  3. gerrybroderick says:

    I was always proud to represent Shorewood while on the County Board. Here is one more reason why. If only a sense of enlightenment would find its way into the State Legislature.

  4. Thomas Martinsen says:

    I missed part of this story. Are there plans to build or subsidize affordable housing in Shorewood? If so, where and at what price? I await enlightenment on these matters..

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