As stay-at-home orders have been extended in most states due to the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a greater focus on housing more generally. Skyrocketing unemployment and uncertainty about the future has made it more difficult for people to make rent.
"There are a lot of basic things that are being brought home right now by the pandemic and our response to it. Things about, you know, stability of housing; things about the necessity of having health care available for people. It’s interesting to see how we’re responding to it as a community," says Tom Daykin, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Although the pandemic has highlighted the affordable housing crisis, it’s an issue that communities have been grappling with for a long time. Still, this renewed interest in the topic is helping some legislation move forward, which could get new units and vouchers in cities like Milwaukee.
"With the current economic crisis and with Congress working up different ways to provide cash to people and to businesses to help stimulate the economy, to help maintain jobs or better yet, create new jobs. One idea is: why don't we increase the amount of money allocated for these housing tax credits?" Daykin explains.
