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More affordable housing units coming to Milwaukee County suburbs, partly thanks to ARPA money

 former Bucyrus site
Chuck Quirmbach
/
WUWM
About 80 affordable housing units will built at this site, the former Bucyrus Corp. complex in South Milwaukee, thanks in part to federal ARPA dollars.

Milwaukee County is a step closer to having more affordable housing units in the suburbs.

That's thanks to nearly $10 million in federal money that county government has steered toward projects in Wauwatosa, Brown Deer and South Milwaukee. There could also be state action this year on affordable housing.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said making sure more county residents have access to safe, stable and affordable housing is a top priority. He remembered what things were like growing up in a low-income family in Milwaukee.

"When I think about my own upbringing, when I faced different types of evictions, when I faced housing insecurity, having to move all the time," Crowley said, during a news conference in South Milwaukee.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaking
Chuck Quirmbach
/
WUWM
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks during Tuesday's news conference in South Milwaukee.

Now, Crowley said the county has about 70,000 families where household income averages $15 an hour or less, but there are only about 30,000 rental units that are "affordable" under a federal index that says affordable rent is 30% or less of household income.

Crowley said the need for more affordable housing dovetails with another goal of his — to reduce racial segregation in the county. "The only way we're going to do that is through partnerships, and through collaboration," he said.

Crowley's newest partners are developers that are promising to build more than 200 affordable housing units in the mostly-white suburbs of Wauwatosa and South Milwaukee, and in racially-mixed Brown Deer.

The county executive signed a resolution Tuesday providing nearly $10 million of the county's share of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the developers who say they need the assistance to be able to hold down rents in some of their units.

Developer Que El-Amin
Chuck Quirmbach
/
WUWM
Developer Que El-Amin comments during Tuesday's news event.

Que El-Amin is president of Scott Crawford, Inc., which in the next two years, plans to open 78 affordable units in the former Bucyrus Corporation complex in South Milwaukee.

El-Amin explained the current financing math: "It was important for additional dollars to come into the project because we are putting affordable housing in a place where there traditionally wasn't any. And so, to make those numbers work, with higher construction costs and now higher interest rates, it needs gap funding."

The Milwaukee County push for more affordable housing comes about six weeks after a Brookfield alderperson spoke against an affordable housing project there, saying the affluent suburb shouldn't ''step down to a West Allis or Wauwatosa.''

South Milwaukee Mayor Jim Shelenske was asked Tuesday, about possible opposition in his city. "I've only been elected mayor for a short time. But, anytime something happens, there's always people who oppose it. Yes, we did get a few people concerned. But, it's for the best for everybody, and we're going to proceed as is," he said.

 South Milwaukee Mayor Jim Shelenske
Chuck Quirmbach
/
WUWM
South Milwaukee Mayor Jim Shelenske answers a question during Tuesday's news conference.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Shawn Rolland, who represents Wauwatosa, said at a budget briefing last fall he heard a lot of requests for more affordable housing. "In particular, there were a lot of parents of kids with special needs, adult children with special needs who were looking to find an affordable place where they could live. Stay in the community that they grew up in," he said.

There may also be more state help coming for affordable housing. In his two-year budget plan, Gov. Tony Evers (D) is proposing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on various housing assistance programs.

Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Committee on Housing and Real Estate informational hearing.
WisconsinEye
Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Committee on Housing and Real Estate informational hearing.

Republicans controlling the Legislature say they plan to draft their own proposals. At a GOP-run legislative hearing Tuesday that accepted only invited testimony, Tom Larson of the Wisconsin Realtors Association said local regulations on new housing are often a problem.

"Local governments get to dictate the number of housing units, the size of housing units, the appearance of housing units and ultimately the cost of housing in the state of Wisconsin," Larson said.

Just who wins — backers of so-called regulatory reform or lower-income renters and homeowners simply needing some financial help — could be one of the more contentious battles at the state Capitol this spring.

But conservatives and liberals seem to agree there's a workforce housing shortage hampering economic growth.

Editor’s note: Audio from Tuesday's legislative hearing is from WisconsinEye.

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