Crowley Approves $19 Million For Affordable Housing

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed a spending package Monday that will put $19 million into affordable housing projects throughout the county, with a particular focus on the suburbs.

The funding comes from the county’s $183.7 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The county’s ARPA task force, charged with reviewing and recommending proposals for spending the unprecedented pool of federal funds, recommended the spending in May. It includes $15 million for gap financing of affordable housing developments and $3 million for the renovation of tax foreclosed homes.

The county executive signed the spending package at a press conference outside of a tax foreclosed home in Wauwatosa. James Mathy, director of the county’s Housing Division, explained at an ARPA task force meeting that the county won’t exclude projects in the city of Milwaukee, but is trying to leverage these funds for suburban projects, to give those eligible for affordable housing more options for where to live. Also, he noted, the city received its own ARPA allocation and it’s using some of it on affordable housing projects.

Compared to the city, there is little affordable housing in the county’s suburbs. Historically, the suburbs have been resistant to affordable housing projects and this, combined with the history of housing discrimination based on race, has had a disproportionate impact on Black county residents. “The foundation of housing is one of the main social determinants of health, and there still remains a large gap as relates to homeownership for African-Americans throughout Milwaukee,” Crowley noted. 

“There’s often times, unfortunately, some opposition to these projects that we have to overcome,” Mathy said, speaking to the county board’s Finance Committee in June.

The county will use the $15 million as a pool of funding to leverage increased investment throughout the county. In May, Mathy estimated that $15 million could leverage as much as $100 million invested in affordable housing.

Beyond the history of discrimination and suburban resistance, property and construction costs have also become a barrier to affordable housing outside the city, Mathy said. The county plans to make the funding available to projects that may have been planned as market rate projects in order to ensure they include affordable housing. The funding would also come with deed restrictions to maintain the affordable housing inventory for at least 20 years.

“This isn’t the end-all, be-all, but this is a step closer to our goal of reaching the type of equity that we want to see across the county,” Crowley said.

The housing division plans to use the funds to leverage affordable housing projects in as many suburbs as it can. “We can’t concentrate everybody that needs affordable housing only in the city of Milwaukee,” Crowley said.

Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride also attended the press conference, and noted that Wauwatosa is not just a “city of wealthy homes” and pointed to the foreclosed home behind him saying “but occasionally has a problem of upkeep. It certainly has a problem of affordability. Every community in the country is facing this problem; every public official is aware that we have a crisis of affordability.”

Along with new development, the county will invest $3 million in existing housing stock by rehabilitating homes that come under its ownership through tax foreclosure. Homes will be renovated and sold to families, with a priority going to first-time homebuyers. Asked by a reporter Monday how many homes would be rehabilitated, Crowley said, “As many as possible.” When the proposal went before the ARPA Task Force, Mathy said that the county’s Opportunity Knocks program would give some people incarcerated at the House of Correction job training in rehabilitating some of the foreclosed homes.

County Board Supervisor Shawn Rolland, chair of the ARPA Task Force, said the foreclosure program would create affordable homes for purchase in Wauwatosa and other suburban municipalities. “That’s why this is so transformative,” he said.

“We know that homeownership helps people build wealth. We know that stable housing helps educational outcomes,” Rolland said. “When you have an affordable home it makes every part of life more affordable and easier to accomplish.”