Spend $1 million, get $15 million back: Restoring the Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund

This entry is from Tracy Straub, new Housing and Services Project Leader for the Milwaukee Aging Consortium. The Housing and Service Project is a multi-faceted effort to promote housing and service options that result in livable communities for older adults.

Today, Tracy shares information about the Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund, which was created but then only partially funded.

In November 2006, the Milwaukee Common Council created and Mayor Barrett signed legislation creating the Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund (HTF). Under the trust fund guidelines, 25% of the trust fund's dollars will be used to develop housing and provide services for people who are homeless, 35% will be used to develop or rehabilitate rental housing, 25% will be used to create and maintain home ownership, and the remaining 15% of the fund will be "flexible" and used for other housing needs.

For 2007, the city committed $2.5 million to the HTF to be raised by issuance of a general obligation bond. The response by housing developers has surpassed all expectations. The HTF has received 21 funding requests totaling more than $5.6 million. More importantly, the applicants would bring to the table $85 million dollars in matching funds.

In other words, for every $1 the city funds an additional $15 is invested from other sources.

As proposed in the original legislation, it was anticipated that the city would contribute an additional $1 million to the HTF in 2008. Unfortunately, the Mayor’s 2008 budget reduces funding for the HTF to $400,000. After making the bond payment, this will leave $160,000 available to fund projects in 2008. Clearly, the proposed funding is not anywhere near the originally anticipated amount and woefully inadequate to support affordable housing development in the city.

If you would like to weigh in on this issue, you can contact your alderman at 414-286-2221 or write to him/her at 200 E. Wells, Milwaukee WI 53202. If you are not sure who your alderman is, you can find out here.