The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters. (Photo by HUD Office of Public Affairs)

Nineteen attorneys general and two governors filed suit in Rhode Island on Tuesday to stop the Trump administration from shifting nearly $4 billion in housing grants they say could place as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back out on the streets.

The group co-led by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is accusing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of violating “congressional intent” in its plan to dramatically reduce the amount of grant funds that can be spent on permanent housing, along with other conditions placed in its latest Notice of Funding Opportunity for Continuum of Care grants.

Enacted Nov. 13, HUD’s new policy instead shifts Continuum of Care funding toward transitional housing and other short-term interventions to the nation’s ongoing homelessness crisis. Only 30% of funds from the $3.9 billion grant program would be allowed to be used for permanent supportive housing — units that provide a subsidized, stable residence for formerly homeless people, often those who have experienced mental illness or spent years on the streets.  

HUD has previously directed approximately 90% of Continuum of Care funding to support permanent supportive units as part of its “Housing First” philosophy, according to the 55-page lawsuit.

“Addressing the crisis requires urgent action from our communities, institutions, and government,” the lawsuit states. “But instead of investing in programs that help people stay safe and housed, the Trump Administration has embraced policies that risk trapping people in poverty and punishing them for being poor.”

HUD’s latest Continuum of Care grants opportunity is open though Jan. 14, 2026. Grant awards are expected to be made May 1.

The new grant rules also eliminate funding for diversity and inclusion efforts, support of transgender clients and use of “harm reduction” strategies that seek to reduce overdose deaths by helping people in active addiction use drugs more safely.

“Individually, these conditions are unlawful and harmful,” the 55-page lawsuit states. “Together, they are a virtual death blow to the CoC Program as it has operated for decades and will lead to predictably disastrous results.”

If the policy isn’t blocked, Neronha warned the cuts would “further exacerbate already dire conditions for homeless Rhode Islanders.” Indeed, Rhode Island’s homeless care providers project a little over 1,000 formerly unhoused people across the state could wind up back on the streets under HUD’s new funding focus.

“This administration continues to punch down by targeting the most vulnerable Americans, and unfortunately this most recent attack on homeless individuals is consistent with their modus operandi,” Neronha said in a statement. “The president and his administration don’t care about making life easier or better for Americans; they only care about political capitulation, consolidating power, and further enriching the wealthy.”

The HUD Press Office said the agency stands by its Continuum of Care reforms in an emailed statement, calling Biden era homelessness assistance policies “an abject failure.”

“In fact, Biden’s policies harmed the vulnerable people that HUD intends to serve through the grant program,” the statement reads. “This new framework is the first step toward righting those failures with increased funding for those high performing programs that have demonstrated real success and accountability. HUD is dismayed that the plaintiffs have chosen to misuse the Courts and pursue this delaying tactic to serve their own personal political agenda at the expense of the homeless individuals, youth and families now living on our Nation’s streets.  Their use of the courts for political means seeks to prevent nearly $4 billion of aid to flow nationwide to assist those in need. HUD intends to mount a vigorous defense to this meritless legal action. HUD is confident that it will prevail in Court and looks forward to implementing the new Continuum of Care framework after it has done so.”

In addition to Neronha, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and New York Attorney General Letitia James are co-leading the lawsuit. 

Also joining the complaint are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin, along with the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

The coalition is asking Judge Mary S. McElroy, who was appointed to the bench during Trump’s first term, to declare the new conditions unlawful and reinstate language from prior funding notices.

HUD framed its new funding policies as a way to promote “self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans” and align with President Donald Trump’s July 24 Executive Order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.”

But the lawsuit filed Tuesday argues that Congress created the Continuum of Care program to ensure stability so providers can reliably serve people whose lives depend on it. The coalition says HUD’s changes are arbitrary and capricious because officials offered no explanation for abruptly reversing longstanding policies.

“HUD has failed to supply any rational explanation for these newly proposed conditions that are entirely unrelated to (and in some cases even inhibit) the statutory purpose of addressing homelessness,” the lawsuit states.

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Last winter, I got an intriguing story tip: Many Wisconsin manufactured home communities were operating with expired licenses. 

I didn’t initially know much about these communities, often called mobile home parks, where residents own their homes but rent the land they sit on. I quickly learned they provide a critical source of affordable housing in Wisconsin and beyond — the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. 

Housing experts and advocates told me private equity’s growing interest in the model threatens to change that. My reporting found that Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for owners. Still, some residents and groups see pathways for safe, affordable manufactured home ownership as a solution during an affordability crisis. 

That required talking to owners of manufactured homes across the state, starting with a February drive from Wisconsin Watch’s Madison newsroom to snowy La Crosse. There I met with a couple who moved into their manufactured home more than a decade ago. That meeting led to a months-long tour of similar communities. 

A Cumberland couple showed me their favorite part of their manufactured home, the fireplace. I passed out flyers in Richland Center and Spring Green, chatting with a surprising number of people who answered their doors.

As the weather warmed, I walked up to chatty neighbors sitting on porches in Wisconsin Dells. Menomonie residents stopped their yard work to talk. I left a set of Fond du Lac park interviews sunburned after standing on a porch for too long as residents lent me their time and perspectives. 

Not every homeowner’s experience made it into our “Forgotten homes” series, named after a lawmaker’s reference to the homes as “a forgotten segment of real estate.” But they often shared a lot of similarities. Here are some of my takeaways:

1. Park ownership is changing. While some residents said they know the person who owns their park, others were paying rent to out-of-state companies. Some mentioned concerns about what would happen to their homes once their local owner decides to sell. 

2. Residents don’t always know where to turn when conditions deteriorate. Wisconsin uses a patchwork of state and local agencies to monitor different aspects of manufactured home communities. That leaves residents unsure of where to complain about issues or unaware they have that option. 

3. People want to stay in their homes. Even as some residents face surging monthly payments, they struggle with the idea of giving up the space, independence and yards.

4. Owning a manufactured home outside of a park can be complicated. Wisconsin Habitat for Humanity affiliates are developing factory-built housing in residential neighborhoods. But local zoning can block certain homes from residential neighborhoods. And other park residents mentioned needing more money to purchase land themselves.

5. Manufactured homeowners often face stigma but are proud of their homes. Residents showed me carefully decorated lawns, peaceful walking routes through parks, kitchens with custom cabinets and the homes of their longtime neighbors and friends. 

Wisconsin’s forgotten homes: Takeaways from investigating manufactured housing is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

In his new book, Josh Silver says that despite progress from the Community Reinvestment Act, communities like Milwaukee could be left behind if the CRA is not reformed for the modern age.

The post 1977 law that effectively ended redlining is overdue for updates, new book author argues appeared first on WPR.

Documents collected and analyzed by UW-Milwaukee geography Professor Anne Bonds show examples of racial covenants in Milwaukee, one for a residential subdivision and another for a cemetary. (Wisconsin Examiner photo illustration).

“Do you ever wonder why there are Black neighborhoods?” Derek Handley, an associate professor of English, African and African Diaspora and Urban studies at UW-Milwaukee, asks his students. How did Milwaukee County become one of the most segregated counties in the country, and what has that meant for the generations of families who either benefited from that bigotry, or were the targets of it?

On Saturday Handley, alongside fellow UW-Milwaukee professor Anne Bonds, will unveil a new project that deeply examines the historic use of racial housing covenants in Milwaukee. From 1-3 p.m. at the Milwaukee Public Library’s Centennial Hall, the professors will present “Mapping Racism and Resistance,” the culmination of three years of work and reflection by thousands of Milwaukee residents. 

Racial covenants were legal clauses in property records that explicitly prohibited people who were non-white from living within, occupying, owning or even being present on certain properties. The first covenants in Milwaukee popped up  in the city of Wauwatosa in 1911, 10-20 years before neighboring states established similar practices. Covenants in Wauwatosa and the rest of the Milwaukee area pre-date the practice of redlining,  where financial institutions systematically denied mortgages and financial investments to residents from Black and minority neighborhoods, and which began in 1938. 

In fact, the covenants set the stage for later forms of discrimination like redlining. Bonds explained that redlining was “a process that re-enforced and layered upon racial covenants” and that the level of racism in some communities was so strong it motivated entire neighborhoods to send the message to Black, brown and non-Christian people that they were not welcome. 

Covenants became popular during the 1920s and continued into the 1960s, even after multiple Supreme Court rulings rendered them illegal and, in theory, unenforceable. 

Sometimes the covenants were established before houses were even built in an area. Other times neighbors spent time and money in the courts to create covenants in already developed areas. “It cost money,” said Bonds, “it wasn’t cheap to go and then insert these racial covenants into their property records kind of after the fact.” Not only did covenants root themselves in communities which did not yet have Black residents, there were actually more restrictive covenants than there were Black residents of Milwaukee from 1910 to 1960. Milwaukee had a very small population of Black people when covenants arose, Handley said, adding, “there were three times as many covenants as there were Black people.” Bonds stressed that, “None of this is really passive in any way, shape, or form…It’s a very active whites-only kind thing.” 

That history “disrupts the notion that Jim Crow only happened in the South,” Handley told the Wisconsin Examiner. Never before has a map of racial covenants centralized or visualized those records for study. A network of over 6,000 people helped transcribe and analyze 1.9 million images of deeds, wills, court cases, property records and other Milwaukee County documents from 1910-1960. The records needed to be indexed, converted and checked by five different people to verify that they were covenants. Although computer programs helped organize the bulk of the data, human volunteers were needed to sift out false positives and to verify the findings. 

Mapping Racism and Resistance is both a crowdsourcing effort and a reckoning for the community. Not only does it map where the racial covenants were in Milwaukee County, “but more than anything we wanted the project to be about teaching people more, exposing people to more about the mechanisms and the kinds of techniques that were used to segregate cities,” said Bonds. “And it’s really painful to see this language, and jarring…It’s really jarring. It’s one thing to learn about housing discrimination and to say, ‘Yeah, people didn’t want to live by people who were not white.’ It’s another thing to see that language that says, ‘This home can never be occupied by anybody of the colored race.’ And to see that language inserted in a legal document, it’s pretty eye opening.” 

Mary Roberts, one of the project’s volunteer transcribers who helped upload and verify the covenants, was shocked by what she saw. Having grown up in Sheboygan when the community was essentially whites-only before attending UW-Milwaukee, Roberts had a peripheral understanding of Milwaukee’s housing covenants. Now at retirement age, she was drawn to the project out of a desire to get involved in social justice issues in the city. 

“I have to confess, I did not really understand it,” Roberts told the Examiner. “I understood it in the abstract, but it really deepened my understanding in a way that I just don’t know if I can fully explain. You know, reading in black and white these very calculating and cold and indifferent property deeds…It was incredibly eye-opening to me.” Seeing the racial covenants went far beyond any lesson that can be learned in school, Roberts said. “I was born in 1965, so some of the racial covenants I found were like, they were living, breathing documents in my lifetime. So I went into this thinking that it was really more about history, but it is a living history that was really present in my lifetime. And I think that was very surprising to me.” 

A large portion of the covenants reviewed by Roberts were established in Wauwatosa and largely discriminated against Black people. However, she also found covenants from Greenfield, and others which also included Jewish people and other non-Christians including  Armenian people and Asian people. Covenants also existed to the north and east of Wauwatosa, as well as in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park, Sunset Heights and Roosevelt Heights neighborhoods on the South Side near the airport. “A lot of people talk about the way that Milwaukee is surrounded by its predominately white suburbs,” said Bonds. “And certainly when you look at the racial covenants, you can see that pattern playing out, that they surround the city of Milwaukee.” 

Roberts noticed that the covenants seemed to put the racial clauses alongside other restrictions like not being allowed to have livestock, or how close a lot could be to a street or property line. She described the covenants as “this very cold, unemotional, sickening language that really is treating people like farm animals, or like an out-building.” 

“So much of the language really was like, you know, no person of African American descent, no one who’s Armenian, could live at this property ever, unless you were a servant. Some of them even excluded servants from properties…It says that in one spot, and then in the next spot it says you can’t have any farm animals at this property. So it was really equating people to really sub-human status, essentially.” 

The Greenfield covenant Roberts found was created by neighbors who’d formed a homeowners association and signed their names to the record. As she transcribed the records, Roberts found herself thinking of her own life, and how the property she lives on now had been passed down through three generations of her husband’s family. “We could never have built the house that we did if we had not inherited land from his dad,” said Roberts. “So it really hammers home in a way that I think other things don’t, that ability to build generational wealth was really denied to a whole class of people in our community. And that those inequities persist today, because that is how things were back then.” 

The same aspect of the project struck Handley when he and Bonds met the descendants of Zeddie Hyler, the first Black homeowner of Wauwatosa. In 1955 Hyler sought to build a home in Wauwatosa, but had to get a white friend to buy the property before he could begin. Local residents attempted to harass him out of the neighborhood, and even resorted to arson. Hyler’s descendants told the professors that Hyler and his brothers were forced to camp out with shotguns in order to protect the house. Hyler died in 2004, and his home has been designated as a historic place. 

Handley recalled looking online to compare the value of the Hyler family home with the house he’d moved from in Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood. “We’re literally talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, so the racial wealth gap is so significant because of housing discrimination,” said Handley. Resisting racist housing practices took bravery and ingenuity. “Black people in Milwaukee knew about it, NAACP was actively fighting against it,” said Handley.

In the early 1940s, NAACP Attorney George Brawley surveyed plats filed in Milwaukee County and found that about 90 percent of the subdivisions in Milwaukee County since 1910 had some type of restrictive covenant which “pledged the owner not to sell or rent to anyone other than Caucasians.” Wilbur and Ardie Clark Halyard, who founded Columbia Savings & Loan Association in 1924, helped give Black people, poor whites and other disadvantaged groups the opportunity to get a loan to buy a house. While other states focused on winning in court, key players in Milwaukee worked on economic efforts to “break into certain neighborhoods, to provide the economic means for Black people to get the support they need to purchase homes, and then try to find pathways into those neighborhoods,” Handley told the Examiner. 

This history of defiance is also something the professors hope the Nov. 8 unveiling of Mapping Racism and Resistance will reveal to people, especially those who may not believe that the housing covenants really played a role in shaping their community, or who doubt that their legacy continues to endure. Hyler’s story particularly shows how far people would go to maintain whites-only communities. Although the covenants became unenforceable after the 1960s, communities like Wauwatosa maintained racist attitudes. In the late 1980s, a whistleblower exposed that Wauwatosa police officers, firefighters and residents were attending annual Martin Luther King Day parties where attendees wore Black face, distributed fliers suggesting hunting Black people instead of deer, and other racist behaviors. 

In late 2020, Mayor Dennis McBride acknowledged that “the Wauwatosa I grew up in was a racist, almost totally white community,” though he denied that it struggles with racism today. Earlier that year, some Wauwatosa residents received letters which stated: “We Whites must stand together. We must keep Wauwatosa free from Blacks and their lack of morals. We must keep Blacks from destroying our property, raping our wives and daughters, and recruiting our children into street gangs. We MUST keep Wauwatosa great. Together we can keep Wauwatosa White! Together we can keep Wauwatosa safe!” The Wauwatosa Police Department said that it didn’t plan to investigate who distributed the letters, and the department focused on surveilling and disrupting Black Lives Matter protesters that summer. 

Wauwatosa didn’t elect its first Black alderman until 2022. The following year, Wauwatosa’s common council voted to request that the state dissolve its housing covenants, which still exist today as invalid clauses of deeds passed to homeowners upon buying certain properties. Other Milwaukee-area suburban communities, like Brookfield, continue to struggle with accepting affordable housing developments and newcomers. 

Bonds cautions against the impulse to erase uncomfortable histories. Most people don’t want to live in a home with racist ownership clauses, Bonds told the Examiner, and “it’s a relic of the past, and something that is obviously really dark.” Yet, Bonds said, “We are wary of erasing the record,” because “removing them today obscures the work that they’ve already done. We can take them out of here now, but it doesn’t mean that they didn’t have an impact. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t do the work that they were set out to do when they were implemented in the first place.” The covenants conferred legal and economic power regardless of whether people who have benefited from them are “able to see it or understand it,” said Bonds.

A fully interactive website planned as part of the project has been delayed due to grant cuts, and Bonds and Handley are also working on a book. Viewers will be able to look up covenants for properties, and get down even to the parcel-level. “I definitely see this as just part of a longer study of trying to understand housing and the availability of housing to all residents of Milwaukee County,” said Bonds. “We really view this as a community project.”  

Roberts says Mapping Racism and Resistance captures an important history for people to see, especially people whose families have lived in communities built on a foundation of covenants and redlining for generations. “It’s important to not look away from that,” said Roberts. “And unless we’re having these tough conversations, I don’t think anything can get better.” Handley agreed, adding, “this is part of Milwaukee’s history, and what we can learn from it, and what we can do moving forward.”

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• Habitat for Humanity is turning to factory-built manufactured homes to cut costs and expand affordable housing during an affordability crisis.

• Modern manufactured homes meet federal code, are faster to assemble and rival traditional homes in quality and appearance.

• Stigma and restrictions in some communities challenge the expansion of factory-built housing across Wisconsin.

Kahya Fox knows a solution to Wisconsin’s housing crisis won’t fall from the sky. But she has seen a crane suspend one in the air. 

The Habitat for Humanity of the Greater La Crosse Region executive director watched this summer as semitrucks pulled into the Vernon County city of Hillsboro, population 1,400. Instead of bringing materials to build a traditional home, they each carried a preassembled half of a house.

Workers removed the wheels that carried them down the interstate. Then, a crane hoisted them up and onto a concrete foundation. 

The scene illustrated a transformation within Habitat for Humanity, which has since the 1970s relied on community members to help construct homes from their foundations to the roofs. But even with volunteer labor, construction costs have skyrocketed over the years. That has prompted the nonprofit to introduce factory-built homes as an option, finding savings that allow it to develop more affordable homes for first-time buyers and working-class families. 

Habitat’s La Crosse affiliate was early to embrace the factory-built model, which is spreading to affordable housing organizations nationwide. But the organization hasn’t gotten all Wisconsin municipalities and residents on board.

Some local governments use zoning laws to prohibit manufactured home developments like the one in Hillsboro. Others require extra work or alterations before allowing manufactured housing projects. Some green-light developers that restrict factory-built housing from filling empty lots where they build.

Several states require local governments to allow manufactured homes alongside site-built single-family housing. Wisconsin is not among them. 

Critics of the model still associate manufactured housing with cheaply built and short-lived mobile homes built in the 1960s and 1970s — before the government started to regulate construction, Fox said.

But construction must now follow a federal building code, and manufactured homes can appreciate in value at similar rates to traditional homes, a Harvard University study found. 

The cheaper cost of developing factory-built homes does not reflect poorer quality, Fox said. Savings come from finding scale in mass production, with factories buying materials in bulk and cutting down material waste through computer design. Building can unfold faster in factories than on site, where builders face unpredictable weather.

While Fox said building a traditional Habitat home can take professionals and volunteers longer than a year, four homes trucked to Hillsboro this summer were placed in one day.

Fox highlighted farmhouse sinks and stainless steel appliances as she walked through each house — features already assembled as the crane lifted the homes into place.

A seam in the laminate wood floors split the kitchen from the living room, the only interior evidence of how the home arrived. Drywall and floor boards will eventually cover the seams, making the Hillsboro homes look similar to any site-built development, Fox said. 

“It’s not until you see them standing there and get in and walk through and touch things that you’re like, ‘No, this is like any other house,’” Fox said. “It’s beautiful.”

‘The place that I can leave my family’

Russell and Katie Bessel expected to learn the fate of their Habitat for Humanity application on May 28. By 1 p.m. on May 29, Russell started calling friends and family to tell them they must not have been chosen for a new home.

The family was getting used to bad news. A motorcycle crash in 2024 paralyzed Russell from the waist down, around the same time Katie started dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

But just as Russell finished speaking with his mom, Katie walked through the door crying. She showed him an email once she managed to stifle her sobs: They would move to Hillsboro in 2026.

It didn’t feel real until they saw one of the Hillsboro homes this summer, Katie said.

“Beautiful countertops, cabinets, flooring. It’s gorgeous,” Russell said.

And most importantly, the home will be wheelchair-accessible, unlike the family’s current apartment.

Russell sleeps, bathes and eats in the living room because his wheelchair can’t fit through narrow halls and doorways. He can’t maneuver to the dining table, forcing him to watch from his chair or bed as his wife and three children eat dinner.

“I’m tired of that,” he said. “I want to sit down and have a family meal.”

Their new home will have a giant kitchen island where he can eat next to his kids. 

The family will move into one of 10 manufactured homes in Habitat’s Hillsboro development — three of them for traditional Habitat homeowners, including the Bessels, who must work a set number of hours for the nonprofit and earn less than 60% of the local median family income, $95,400 in Vernon County. 

Three other homes are for first-time buyers who earn less than 80% the median income and will receive down payment assistance. Families earning no more than 120% of the local median income will be eligible to purchase four homes, which Habitat listed this spring during the rendering stage for about $350,000.

The tiered system benefits families with different levels of need, Fox said. Proceeds from Habitat’s sale of the four homes will help finance the rest of the development. The nonprofit has attracted interest in the homes since posting photos of their move-in-ready state, Fox said. 

The city of Hillsboro will pay Habitat up to $206,000 if the development is finished by July 2026, according to its contract.

No- or low-interest loans will help keep the Bessels’ mortgage payments affordable. But the family will ultimately pay for the full value of their home, like any other buyer.

“It’ll be the place that I can leave my family,” Russell said. “I don’t have to worry about when I do pass from this earth, that they’re gonna struggle.”

Factory-built models catch on

A crane will do most of the work once the trucks with the Bessel home arrive in Hillsboro. That doesn’t eliminate the need for volunteers and future homeowners to work at the sites, Fox said. They will help landscape the nearly half-acre lots for the traditional Habitat recipients and construct two-car garages attached to each home. 

“The beauty of local businesses putting teams together and retirees showing up and picking up hammers is a piece of Habitat for Humanity that’s been there since the very beginning, and it runs through everything that we do,” Fox said.

Still, less reliance on volunteers helps at a time when fewer people are volunteering for nonprofits nationwide, said Kristie Smith, executive director of St. Croix Valley Habitat for Humanity.

Smith’s affiliate started its final site-built home last year. This year, it’s developing six factory-built homes — all purchased through the La Crosse affiliate.

So far, St. Croix Habitat has developed only modular housing, building homes inside a factory but for a specific plot of land in line with specific state and local building codes.

Modular housing cuts the affiliate’s costs and time spent by 30%, Smith said. Manufactured housing like what’s being developed in Hillsboro would be even more affordable.

Unlike modular housing, manufactured homes are built to a federal building code, allowing for larger-scale building with fewer customizations. The average manufactured home in 2021 cost half the price per square foot than a site-built home, according to the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research firm.

The Hillsboro homes are a relatively new manufactured housing model called CrossMod — built to federal code, but with room for amenities typically associated with a site-built home. The Hillsboro development will feature the first CrossMod homes placed on full basements. They will be more energy-efficient than traditional homes.

Stigma and barriers persist

Thirty minutes away from Hillsboro, however, Reedsburg’s zoning ordinances prohibit mobile and manufactured homes outside of mobile home parks, where homeowners pay a monthly fee to rent a lot. It is among many municipalities to limit such housing. 

“People want affordable housing, but they want it in the next town over,” said Amy Bliss, executive director of the Wisconsin Housing Alliance, a manufactured housing trade association.

Other local governments say they allow manufactured homes in single-family neighborhoods, but reject them in practice, Bliss said.

And the Habitat development isn’t unanimously popular in Hillsboro. Several local homeowners strongly opposed it, arguing that the city does not need more housing or should add it to a different neighborhood, according to previous reporting by Hillsboro Sentry-Enterprise.

A decades-old federal policy bans zoning that discriminates against factory-built housing, industry leaders say. But a lack of government enforcement leaves developers and customers to fight the restrictions in court, a costly, rarely pursued process, Bliss said, adding that projects like the one in Hillsboro should help ease any stigma surrounding nontraditional homes. 

“Some municipalities are coming around because they realize that that’s the only way to get housing that is affordable for their workers,” Bliss added.

A new start 

The Bessels’ 8-year-old daughter isn’t thinking about how her house will be built.

“When we have the yard, we can play tag. We could play whatever game we want,” she said. 

With months left until the move, she’s already planning summer barbecues in a new yard. Her parents will cook while she rides bikes with her siblings and new friends.

Russell hopes this will be the last time his kids must start over after bouncing around Wisconsin in search of housing. They’ll finally lay down roots in the Hillsboro home.

“This is the end of the road for us,” Russell said. “This is finally ours.”

Trisha Young of Wisconsin Watch contributed to this report.

‘Finally ours’: Factory-built homes help families realize ownership dreams. But stigma and barriers persist. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A more efficient, affordable development model helps Habitat for Humanity build more homes during a housing crisis. But some Wisconsin municipalities exclude manufactured homes from neighborhoods.

The post ‘Finally ours’: Factory-built homes help families realize ownership dreams. But stigma and barriers persist. appeared first on WPR.

Earlier this month, the village of Ashwaubenon’s public works committee unanimously recommended the Village Board approve an ordinance prohibiting camping or lodging on village-owned property.

The post Green Bay suburb considers ban on camping on public property appeared first on WPR.

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The median price of a home in Wisconsin rose nearly 120% over the past decade, from $155,000 to $337,000 according to data from the Wisconsin Realtors Association.

But median Wisconsin incomes have increased only about 50% in that time period, illustrating just one of the reasons why voters and politicians are increasingly concerned about a housing affordability crisis.

Past bipartisan efforts at the Capitol have worked to address these issues. In 2023, the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers dedicated more than $500 million in the biennial budget toward several loan programs at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority aimed at creating new affordable housing, rehabilitating homes and transitioning space in commercial buildings. 

But state lawmakers and both Democratic and Republican candidates for governor in 2026 are seeking more ways to address Wisconsin’s housing challenges. 

Multiple bills passed through the Assembly in early October, from a proposal with a financial mechanism to ease the costs of infrastructure for building homes to another creating a grant program for converting multifamily housing into condominiums. 

Several of the proposals received public hearings in the Senate’s Committee on Insurance, Housing, Rural Issues and Forestry last week and lawmakers could vote on them in the coming weeks.

What bills are in the Legislature? 

The housing bills making their way through the Legislature touch on multiple avenues to boost the state’s supply of affordable housing. 

One set of proposals creates a residential tax increment district, which can ease the costs of housing infrastructure on developers and lower the initial price of starter homes.

“We’re not talking about subsidized housing, we’re talking about affordable housing … the housing stock that was built just a generation or two ago,” Rep. Robert Brooks, R-Saukville, said at a September press conference. “We’re talking about small ranch homes, bungalow homes, some of those homes built without garages or alleyways or detached garages.”

Another set of bills would establish a condo conversion reimbursement program administered by WHEDA. Legislation would provide $50,000 per parcel to convert multifamily properties to condominiums, according to the bills. The dollars would be funded through up to $10 million from a WHEDA housing rehabilitation loan program created in 2023. 

Other legislative proposals include requiring cities to allow accessory dwelling units on residential land with a single family home. But Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, expressed concerns over a prohibition on short-term rentals for accessory dwelling units.

Assembly Democrats in early October argued some of the Republican proposals fall short. An amendment offered by Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, would have allowed housing cooperatives to participate in the condo conversion program. It failed after Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, raised concerns about the renovation costs of housing co-ops, which Nass referred to as “communes,” while he disparaged Clancy, a Democratic Socialist, as a “communist.”

“I will be voting for this… but it is so disappointing to have to do that because we had something better in front of us,” Clancy said.

What are candidates for governor proposing? 

The candidate field for Wisconsin’s 2026 gubernatorial race is not yet finalized, but housing affordability is a priority for many of the candidates who responded to questions from Wisconsin Watch. 

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany told Wisconsin Watch he wants to lower housing costs through freezing property taxes and cutting government regulations. Tiffany additionally said he wants to explore how to steer the state’s housing affordability programs to focus on homeownership rather than renting. 

“We need a red tape reset that cuts regulations and lowers costs while keeping safety a priority,” Tiffany said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch. 

A campaign spokesperson for Republican Josh Schoemann said the Washington county executive would bring county programs statewide. The Heart and Homestead Earned Downpayment Incentive program helped Washington County residents with down payment loans on homes under $420,000, which could be repaid through volunteering or charitable donations. Another program, Next Generation Housing, brought together developers and local government leaders to encourage development of smaller starter homes in Washington County below $420,000.

Democratic candidates said their housing plans focused on local engagement and encouraging different financial and zoning reforms to boost affordable housing construction in Wisconsin. 

A campaign spokesperson for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said Crowley would gather local leaders in rural, urban and suburban communities to find housing solutions that fit their communities. Crowley has done this with partners to build affordable housing throughout Milwaukee County, the spokesperson said.

Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, said in a statement that as governor she would use a combination of tax incentives, zoning reform and public bank-backed construction financing stabilization to make it easier to build affordable housing. She said she would also encourage home ownership models such as community land trusts and limited-equity co-ops.

Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said she would direct more dollars to existing affordable housing programs to speed up the time it takes for developers to get necessary funding. Roys said she wants changes to zoning laws to allow types of housing that works for certain neighborhoods around the state, such as accessory dwelling units or higher density housing in transit and commercial corridors. Additionally, Roys said she would encourage more market-rate housing development and expand support systems such as housing vouchers to help ease costs of buying a home. 

Crowley, Hong and Roys all expressed interest in a Right to Counsel program that would provide free legal representation for tenants at risk of eviction. 

A campaign spokesperson for Missy Hughes, the former head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Hughes will share a more “comprehensive vision” of her housing plan over the course of the campaign. 

Beer vendor Ryan Strnad said he would be open to increasing subsidies for lower-income housing across the state. 

Notable

Watch your mail if you’re a disabled worker. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development began sending notices to 13,000 disabled workers who might be eligible for past unemployment benefits they were previously denied. 

Several legislative committees meet at the Capitol this week. Here are a few worth watching: 

• Assembly Committee on Agriculture: The committee on Tuesday will hold a public hearing on Assembly Bill 30, which would entirely prevent a foreign adversary from acquiring agriculture or forestry land in Wisconsin. The bill follows a national trend of states that are passing stricter prohibitions on who can purchase farmland. Current state law prohibits foreign adversaries from holding more than 640 acres for purposes tied to agriculture or forestry. 
• Senate Committee on Health: Lawmakers will hear public testimony during its meeting Wednesday on Senate Bill 534, a Republican-led bill to legalize medical mairjuana and create a regulation office for patients and caregivers tied to the Department of Health Services. 
• Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency: Lawmakers will hold an informational hearing following a Cap Times report that 200 cases of teacher sexual misconduct and grooming cases were shielded from the public between 2018 and 2023.

Wisconsin faces a housing affordability crisis. Here’s how lawmakers and candidates for governor plan to address it. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

St. John's Lutheran Church in Madison, Wis., is being converted into a 10-story high-rise that will combine a worship space with more than 100 affordable apartments. Lawmakers see the potential for much-needed housing on church-owned land, but opponents worry local communities could lose their authority over neighborhood development. (Video screenshot courtesy of St. John's Lutheran Church)

Growing up in a religious family, Florida Republican state Sen. Alexis Calatayud has seen how many church communities are no longer anchored to a single building in the way they used to be. Her small prayer groups take place over chats these days, not necessarily in person or sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in pews.

With churches in her Miami-Dade County district grappling with shrinking membership and aging buildings, Calatayud thinks those institutions can do good with their unused land, by acting as anchors of new housing rather than as bystanders in neighborhood redevelopment.

“When you look at someone sitting on a small church, on a 10-acre property with a dwindling congregation, the question becomes, ‘How can this entity continue to be the beating heart of the community?’” Calatayud said in an interview.

“I think it’s to create a village, where we can create more housing and even centralize other needs in the community on that land.”

This year, Florida enacted a measure, sponsored by Calatayud, allowing multifamily residential development on land that is both owned by a religious institution and occupied by a house of worship, so long as at least 10% of the new units are affordable. Some housing advocates believe the zoning override has the potential to unlock roughly 30,000 parcels statewide.

Florida’s new law is part of a growing movement known as YIGBY — Yes in God’s Backyard. Touted by many faith leaders, lawmakers and developers, the movement imagines a connection between a religious mission to serve and the very real hurdles of building affordable housing.

If the U.S. is to meet the nation’s demand for new apartments, developers are going to need land, experts say, and parcels owned by faith-based organizations are starting to become a part of the solution for some states. At the same time, some skeptics question whether the movement could strip local communities of having a say in neighborhood development.

Places of worship are found in every corner of the United States. Land owned by faith-based organizations makes up 84 million square feet in New York City, for example, with enough land for 22,000 units on just the vacant lots and surface parking lots of those organizations, according to the Furman Center of New York University. Elsewhere, HousingForward Virginia says faith-based organizations own 74,000 acres in the state, nearly twice the size of Richmond.

California enacted what is considered the first statewide YIGBY law in 2023. It cleared the way for churches and other places of worship, as well as nonprofit universities, to create affordable housing on their land. It allows landowners to bypass public hearings, discretionary votes by city councils or planning boards, and certain environmental reviews so long as they meet affordability requirements, with at least 75% of the homes affordable for low-income households.

Several states — Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Texas — have considered YIGBY legislation this year, though none has passed. And a bill filed last month in Congress would allow rental properties to be built on currently unused church land with federal assistance.

Opponents of the Colorado bill frame it as state overreach on local zoning decisions and worry about a potential pathway for religious landowners to bypass Fair Housing Act protections for housing applicants who may not share that faith, according to a position paper opposing Colorado’s YIGBY legislation.

Beverly Stables, a lobbyist for the Colorado Municipal League, told Stateline that local governments worry YIGBY bills could undermine constitutional home-rule authority and saddle towns with unfunded state mandates.

“Our members have worked successfully with schools and churches on housing projects already,” she said. “The question is, what problem are we really trying to solve?”

The Rev. Patrick Reidy, an associate professor of law at Notre Dame who has studied the relationship between housing and faith-based organizations, says states and cities are eager to partner with faith-based organizations to use their land.

It’s not an easy decision for faith leaders to switch the purpose of their land from a devoted congregation space to housing, he said.

“The decision to change the way church land has been used historically for decades or even centuries is not easy for a place of worship to make, so lawmakers should meet faith communities where they are,” said Reidy, who also is co-director of Notre Dame’s Church Properties Initiative.

“It’s more an understanding that the way places of worship approach housing is from a moral mission to serve, so things like financing, zoning and legal know-how to create housing requires some walk-through for faith-based organizations,” Reidy said.

“The real challenge is learning to speak each other’s language.”

‘Right in the middle’

Every afternoon at 3:22, members of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin, pause what they are doing and pray. Whether they are working, at home, watching baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers or sitting in a temporary worship space, they pray at that exact time.

It isn’t random: “322” is the address where the German Lutheran church has stood downtown at East Washington Avenue and North Hancock Street — just a block from the state Capitol — for 170 years, the Rev. Peter Beeson said.

Congregation members no longer worship there because the site could be set for the biggest transformation in its history: trading in stained-glass windows and church pews for a 10-story high-rise that will combine a worship space with more than 100 affordable apartments.

Beeson told Stateline that the congregation moved out of the building in the fall of 2023 for a groundbreaking later that same year.

“Our current building was built in 1905, and was nearing the end of its useful life, with many additions and renovations over the years,” Beeson said. “And it made sense to sacrifice our existing building to build affordable housing plus worship and community space as a way of serving our mission — providing much needed affordable housing for 130 or so families, and providing a home for the congregation for the next 150 years.”

The congregation, founded in 1856 by German Lutherans, has evolved with the needs of its community.

The church hosted a men’s homeless shelter for more than 20 years, ran a drop-in center for people with mental illness and offered small-scale aid for residents seeking anything from bus tickets to steel-toed work boots to child care, Beeson said.

Before construction could get underway on the housing project, though, Beeson and the church ran into a familiar issue that constrained housing across the country in 2023 — rapidly increasing construction costs and skyrocketing interest rates.

Beeson said he isn’t deterred. Other projects have taken 10 to 15 years to break ground, he said. “So keeping that timeline in mind, we are right in the middle.”

He believes the project, which has received sizable donations from community members via GoFundMe, is a God-ordained mission to provide a service for its community.

“We are continuing to move forward with the project. There have been setbacks and challenges along the way,” Beeson said. “However, like God led the Israelites through the wilderness with a pillar of fire by day and a pillar of clouds by night, God continues to open doors and pave pathways to bring this project to completion.”

Ceding local control

The economic realities surrounding homebuilding are among many hurdles challenging congregations that want to develop new housing.

In states such as Colorado, local governments worried that a proposed statewide development measure that would give preferential treatment to faith-based organizations could undermine local control and even potentially open the door to religious discrimination.

“Not suggesting it from all entities,” said Stables, of the Colorado Municipal League, “but we were concerned about the potential for discrimination, and potential violations of Fair Housing Act requirements.”

Stables also thinks this year’s legislation was premature, just a year after Colorado lawmakers made sweeping changes to land use rules — including new laws removing parking minimums and encouraging transit-oriented developments and accessory dwelling units — that she said haven’t had time to take effect or be meaningfully implemented locally.

She also said the bill would have stripped local governments of zoning authority while offering no new resources. More than 200 municipalities opted into an affordable housing fund created through a 2022 ballot initiative, Stables said, but the legislature has been sweeping out some of that money for other budgetary needs, leaving cities under-resourced to deliver on those housing goals.

In the end, Colorado’s legislation passed the House but died in the Senate after supporters concluded it didn’t have the votes to pass.

YIGBY supporters elsewhere have had to balance the tension between state goals and local zoning authority. A 2019 Washington law requires cities and counties to offer density bonuses for affordable housing on religious land — an incentive, but not a legal override of zoning laws.

In Minnesota, state Sen. Susan Pha, a Democrat, told Stateline she modeled some aspects of her YIGBY proposal off the California law. She also tailored aspects of her bill — such as a focus on middle-housing options like small studios — to find solutions that work specifically for her state.

Pha said some of her big battles have been around the allowances of small lot sizes, such as 220-square-foot studio units, which she said the state “really needs” in order to make a dent in its housing shortage.

“The obstacle really is zoning,” Pha said. “If we can change some of those zoning requirements, we could produce more affordable housing and leverage the space and the dedicated work these faith-based organizations already do.”

Pha’s bill failed to reach a floor vote.

Other YIGBY-like policies have passed in localities including Atlanta; Montgomery County, Maryland; and Seattle. Atlanta’s program aims for the creation of at least 2,000 units of affordable housing over eight years.

When New York City passed its City of Yes housing initiative in December 2024, it permitted faith-based organizations to convert underused properties into housing by lifting zoning, height and setback requirements.

Unlocking land, a bit at a time

In an interview with Stateline, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens pointed out that some of the city’s historic churches sit on prime land with underused parking lots that at one time were filled by many of the churchgoers’ cars.

Unlike many developers who might flip properties after short-term affordability requirements expire, Dickens said, churches may offer stability, since their mission is to serve “the least, the less and the lost” — meaning they might be less likely to sell off the property due to market pressure.

Atlanta is working with financial partners such as Enterprise and Wells Fargo to guide faith-based institutions that need that help, he said.

“Churches are usually on great corners, and they’re hallmarks of the community with land that’s underutilized, and their mission aligns perfectly with affordable housing,” Dickens said. “We’ve got churches that say, ‘Teach us how to develop. We have no idea what we’re doing.’”

The potential is vast, experts say. California faith-based organizations and nonprofit colleges own about 170,000 acres of land, equivalent in size to the city of Oakland, and much of it could be developed under the state’s YIGBY law, according to a 2023 report by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

In North Carolina, congregations have had small successes. A Presbyterian church in Charlotte turned an unused education wing into 21 units of permanent housing, and an Episcopal church in Chapel Hill built three tiny homes on its property for a trio of formerly homeless residents.

Eli Smith, the director of the nonprofit Faith-Based Housing Initiative, argues that state YIGBY laws should ease affordability requirements for small infill projects such as those in North Carolina and allow them to get built more quickly. Otherwise, he said, small churches’ projects “can’t get off the ground.”

“Think of it as a cottage neighborhood tucked behind a sanctuary — people know each other, it’s beautiful, it’s meaningful,” Smith said. “The future of this movement isn’t in [high-rise apartment] towers; it’s in small, intentional communities that fit their surroundings.”

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

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• Looming sales of manufactured housing parks can cause anxiety among residents who own their homes but rent the land they sit on — especially as profit-maximizing private equity companies increasingly make purchases.

• In some communities, residents have purchased parks themselves and run them as cooperatives. Converting into a cooperative often initially increases monthly fees, but residents typically see smaller increases over time when compared to commercially owned parks.

• Wisconsin’s relative lack of consumer protections and incentives for co-op sales doesn’t make the process easy. Minnesota offers more resources to make co-op purchases more viable.

Standing on her porch, Vikki Braker pointed out her favorite lawn cutouts, arranged in a colorful scene: Silhouettes of two children smelled pink flowers as a line of googly-eyed red ants marched beneath their feet. A tree stretching over them wore a Green Bay Packers hat.

The decorations were among many Braker inherited during nearly half a century at Cedar Falls Acres mobile home park near Menomonie, Wisconsin. She figures more people get to enjoy her outdoor display than anything she keeps inside.

Neat rows of brick bordered each decorative scene atop grass her son had trimmed. Even as she slows down in her yardwork, the 67-year-old can’t imagine giving it up.

But Braker does not own her yard, only the home that sits on top of it. She worries about who will soon control her well-manicured lot.

Like thousands of Wisconsinites, Braker lives in a manufactured home, the more accurate name for what many call mobile homes or trailers — structures that make up the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. 

Braker has rented her lot since she was 18. It’s where she raised three children, battled cancer and took care of her dying husband.

She paid rent to the same owner for most of those years: Vince Hague, 81. But he’s retiring and selling the lot. Braker and her neighbors are nervous about what’s next, especially as profit-maximizing private equity companies are buying manufactured home communities nationwide. 

Some of Braker’s neighbors have discussed buying the park themselves and running it as a cooperative. Many view the model as a way to keep communities well-maintained and affordable. But forming a resident-owned cooperative can be difficult — especially in Wisconsin.

Might Braker want to join a cooperative if she gets the option? She’s not sure. She wants more information to feel more comfortable about her future.

Co-op conversions aren’t easy

Braker and her husband, Roger, bought a mobile home in Cedar Falls Acres 49 years ago, seeing it as an affordable way to move out of Roger’s parents’ house. They planned to buy land of their own and build a home when they got older. But as decades passed by, they remained happy enough in their peaceful community.

“We never did buy a house,” Braker said. “We were always very comfortable here.”

Roger worked as a school bus driver. Braker worked in education before managing a Walmart and a gas station. Even when the couple could have afforded a down payment on a traditional home, they worried money would later get tight, she said.

The looming sale of Cedar Falls Acres — and the anxiety that comes with it — makes her wonder whether they should have tried to make traditional ownership work. Or if she should give up her home and yard and consider an apartment. 

“But I just can’t make myself do it,” Braker said. “I love being outside.”

In an ideal world, Braker said, Hague would find another local buyer to step in to keep the park peaceful and affordable. But such “mom-and-pop” owners are increasingly rare. Large corporations are taking their place, often raising lot rents and sometimes neglecting conditions.

Braker attended multiple resident-led meetings to explore whether a cooperative might preserve a semblance of the status quo. She left “really confused.”

Converting a manufactured home community into a resident-owned cooperative isn’t easy. 

In this case, Cedar Falls Acres homeowners and those at a neighboring park Hague owns would likely form a limited equity co-op. Residents would pay little up front but would not profit from their ownership over time.

Residents of limited equity co-ops pay a small fee to join, usually between $100 and $1,000, and simply get that fee back if they leave, even if the co-op’s land increases in value.

Cooperatives need large loans to cover the land purchase and any overdue maintenance.

Residents pay monthly fees to pay down park debt over time and cover routine maintenance. When major projects pop up, like fixing septic system issues, residents may vote to increase lot rent or refinance the debt.

What would a co-op mean for Braker’s pocketbook? 

When they first moved in, Braker and her husband paid $60 in monthly rent. That gradually increased to the $360 she pays today, slightly above the rate of inflation since the 1970s. Braker now lives on a fixed income from Social Security and can’t afford to pay much more.

Converting into a cooperative often initially increases monthly fees, said Victoria Clark-West, executive director of CoNorth, a nonprofit focused on developing manufactured home co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin. But residents typically see smaller rate increases over time when compared to commercially owned parks.

CoNorth is part of a nationwide network called ROC USA. The organization has reached out to Hague about a resident purchase of his Menomonie parks, Clark-West said.

CoNorth-supported cooperatives see a 2% average annual increase, less than half of the average market increase, according to the organization’s website.

Co-ops allow community residents to control what happens to the equity their land builds over time, Clark-West said.

“Manufactured home communities are uniquely positioned to be really successfully, cooperatively owned,” she said. “You have an existing constituency of folks that already own their home, and they have the land in common.”

But like a business, co-ops can fail. For instance, a ROC USA co-op in Colorado faced foreclosure earlier this year. While residents are not liable when a co-op defaults on a loan, they lose their say in what happens to the land. 

None of the co-ops CoNorth has supported since 2004 have defaulted on their debt, Clark-West said. Only one has voted to dissolve. Typically, co-ops’ loan agreements specify that if a co-op decides to sell its land, the profits go to a nonprofit.

CoNorth has answers to Braker’s questions, but the organization does not start fully engaging residents until a park owner agrees to sell to a co-op. 

Hague said he’s open to selling to any qualified buyer. He’s ready for someone else to take over. The Menomonie resident has enjoyed interacting with residents during his decades running Cedar Falls Acres.

Unlike Wisconsin, Minnesota incentivizes co-op sales

But it’s getting harder for residents to compete with commercial buyers as investors increasingly eye park sales, Clark-West said.

Wisconsin’s relative lack of consumer protections and incentives for co-op sales doesn’t help.

CoNorth assists 13 co-ops in Minnesota but just three in Wisconsin. That’s partly because of the nonprofit’s St. Paul headquarters, but it’s also because Minnesota offers resources to make co-op purchases more viable, Clark-West said.

“There’s definitely more scrapping it in Wisconsin.” 

The Minnesota Legislature in 2023 enacted a 5% tax incentive for park owners who sell to resident-owned co-ops or nonprofits — along with expanded requirements that owners notify residents about potential sales. 

Wisconsin has no such incentive or requirement. Legislation last session would have required such notification and “good faith” negotiation with co-ops, but it failed alongside a proposed grant and loan program to fund park improvements. 

Policies interfering in the sales of communities could have unintended consequences, said Lesli Gooch, the CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute, national trade group for the manufactured home industry. 

“If this market is stifled, you are going to see more community closures,” Gooch said.

Private owners often increase rents to cover the costs of deferred maintenance. Those increases are necessary to preserve communities that remain more affordable than other forms of housing, she said.

When residents form co-ops, they are taking on the maintenance responsibilities without the property management experience of many for-profit owners, she said. 

Expensive maintenance costs can challenge any owner. That’s why Minnesota’s grant dollars for park infrastructure projects have been transformative for the state’s co-ops, Clark-West said. 

The neighboring state has allocated millions of dollars to help manufactured home park owners make major repairs. That allows co-ops to avoid taking on more debt and bolsters lender confidence, Clark-West said. 

Two decades of community ownership 

Steve Parliament has observed the anxiety a pending manufactured housing park sale can bring — like when he learned 20 years ago that Countryside Park in Cumberland, Wisconsin, was set to close and residents were being evicted. The news sent him door knocking. 

The details are now fuzzy, but he remembers the tears. Residents felt helpless, with many of their homes too old to survive a move. 

Parliament had organized co-ops in Minnesota and San Francisco before starting at West Central Wisconsin Community Action Agency, a quasi-governmental agency created to fight poverty. He told one park resident to invite his neighbors over for coffee and a discussion about trying to buy their community. 

“That was the easiest organizing job I ever did,” Parliament recalled.

Financing the purchase was more difficult. After working with the city to address the park’s sewage issues, Parliament’s employer, WestCap, stepped in to help. The organization lined up loans and grants to purchase the community before the co-op was ready to take ownership.

The cooperative is still running today. 

Replicating the Countryside sale today would be difficult, Parliament said, adding that the rise of private equity has only bolstered the need for co-ops.

That was his motivation to co-found the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance late last year. The nonprofit aims to keep manufactured home communities viable by pushing for stronger legal protections and helping residents organize. 

An antidote to loneliness

Co-ops are not the solution for every community, said Arica Young, director for housing access and affordability at the nonprofit Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which researches issues related to land use.

“They are a lot of work. There’s a lot of expense entailed,” Young said.

But co-ops may deliver benefits beyond housing stability, Young said, such as a sense of community that can counteract the loneliness epidemic.

Morris Bussewitz jokes that the friendliness of his neighbors at Countryside has become a problem. More than a decade after he and his wife moved in, he can’t finish a lap around his home without getting stopped for a chat, interfering with his exercise. 

He started walking in the cemetery across the street to get his steps in uninterrupted.

“My friends there, they don’t want to stop and talk to me. They let me walk right by,” he said.

Countryside had just become a co-op as Bussewitz and his wife were looking for a permanent place to retire. Community ownership was a draw.

Monthly fees for their lot started around $140 and have since increased to just $230. They are able to keep fees low by volunteering to finish park maintenance, Bussewitz said. 

“It has worked out really good,” he said.

Members attend multiple meetings each year to vote on significant spending items or changes. Residents volunteer as leaders. Bussewitz has spent years on the co-op’s board. Others take turns mowing the grass. One resident makes bird houses that decorate yards throughout the small park.

“People own part of the park,” Bussewitz said, “and they take care of it.”

Residents consider a cooperative future as manufactured housing parks go up for sale is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Worried about private equity ownership, residents explore purchasing parks and running them as cooperatives. Wisconsin doesn’t make it easy.

The post Residents consider a cooperative future as manufactured housing parks go up for sale appeared first on WPR.

Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) speaks before a vote on a housing-related bill in the state Assembly Tuesday. (Screenshot/WisEye)

A group of housing bills that Republican lawmakers have fast-tracked since they were first announced two weeks ago made it through the Wisconsin Assembly Tuesday — most with unanimous support, but not without criticism from Democrats.

In a floor speech before the Assembly began voting Tuesday, Rep. Kalan Haywood (D-Milwaukee), assistant minority leader, said the GOP housing package fell short of what might have been possible with bipartisan discussion.

“While there is support for many of these bills on our side, we are by no means satisfied,” Haywood said.

Haywood complimented the Republican chair of the Assembly’s Housing and Real Estate committee, Rep. Robert Brooks (R-Saukville), for his “willingness to listen and work together.”

He described bills enacted in the 2023-24 session as “a bipartisan housing package that we could build on this session,” and said that in the spring, bipartisan work had begun on a new round of bills, accompanied by “honest communication with both sides and with stakeholders.”

Those discussions stopped abruptly in June, Haywood said, and when the bills came out two weeks ago the results were “half baked.”

“There are some good things in these bills that may help create some additional housing, but we could have done much more,” Haywood said.

A series of procedural votes on the floor Tuesday surrounding one bill — AB 455, creating a grant program for condominium conversions from multi-family homes — was emblematic of the gap between how Democrats and Republicans viewed not just the legislation but the larger issue of housing.

In the Housing and Real Estate Committee meeting Friday, Oct. 3, Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) managed to persuade three Republicans to join the panel’s Democrats to pass an amendment that expanded the bill to include housing cooperatives, not just condominiums.  

After the amendment was adopted, Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) sent an email written in red to all state lawmakers of both parties, mocking Clancy’s amendment as applying to “communes” and criticizing its Republican supporters.

When the bill reached the floor Tuesday, the original author, Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Greenville), submitted a rewrite, known as a substitute amendment.

The rewrite included another amendment, from Democrat, Rep. Lori Palmeri (D-Oshkosh), giving tenants of a building being converted to condos the right of first refusal to purchase their residence. But it omitted the Clancy amendment.

“We had a brief and awesome moment of bipartisanship this last week, and then we had an all red email from Senator Nass,” Clancy said on the Assembly floor. “I did not realize that my Republican colleagues were beholden to him and not even their own leadership there.”

The substitute amendment, Clancy said, would “strike out this bipartisan amendment and just turn it into another handout to developers.”

Brooks, the housing committee chair, had announced at the Republican press conference before the floor session that cooperatives would be stripped out, calling the approach “very difficult to manage because of the financing mechanisms and other things.”

Clancy said he would vote for the legislation despite the removal of his amendment. “But it is so disappointing to have to do that because we had something better in front of us,” he added.

The bill, like most of the bills up for a vote Tuesday, passed on a voice vote.

Others that passed with broad support included AB 424, updating requirements for the rental of mobile and manufactured homes; AB 451, allowing cities and villages to designate residential tax incremental districts to help fund infrastructure improvements; AB 452, allowing land subdividers to certify their designs and public improvements comply with state requirements; and AB 456, making a variety of changes to real estate transaction practices.

A handful of measures labeled as housing bills passed with little or no support from Democrats.

AB 453 would require local communities to grant rezoning requests for housing developers if they meet certain conditions, including that the area is projected as residential in the community’s comprehensive plan. The party-line vote was 55-39.

Rep. Mike Bare (D-Verona) said the measure fell short of what could have been done and that it lacked funding for local governments that would have to bear the cost it would impose. The bill’s author. Rep. David Armstrong (R-Rice Lake) vowed to seek funding in the next state budget.

AB 450 would put off the effective date of Wisconsin’s updated commercial building code until April 1, 2026. Originally blocked in 2023, the new code was reinstated by the the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) after a state Supreme Court ruling this July held that state laws allowing the Legislature to block executive branch administrative rules indefinitely were unconstitutional.

The current effective date is Nov. 1.

Rep. William Penterman (R-Hustisford) said delaying the code further was needed “for clarity” because builders had been planning projects under the previous code.

After the GOP majority rejected an attempt by Democrats to replace the bill with language that increased funding for DSPS on a 54-41 party-line vote, the legislation passed on a voice vote — but with substantial, audible cries of “No” from Democrats.

AB 366 would allow landlords to demand a written statement from a licensed health professional attesting to a tenant’s need for an emotional support animal.

“There are numerous people that have contacted us about the fraudulent means of how you can get a service dog,” state Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), said at a Republican press conference before the floor session.

On the floor, Clancy criticized the bill for potentially harming people for whom emotional support animals are a necessity but who are unable to see  a health professional.

“To the extent that there is a problem, where we want to actually certify that some animals are supportive and some are not, we can fix that problem,” Clancy said. “But that requires actually talking to the stakeholders before taking pen to paper.”

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No matter what kind of home you live in, challenges will pop up.

If you own your home and a pipe starts leaking, you might call a plumber. If you rent, you call your landlord. But what if you own your home and rent the land underneath it?

Thousands of Wisconsin residents own manufactured homes and pay to anchor their homes in communities, often called mobile home or trailer parks. Owners of manufactured homes are responsible for repairs to their homes but rely on park owners to maintain things like roads, water drainage and sewage. 

And if landlords don’t respond and conditions deteriorate? A patchwork of laws and regulations governing manufactured housing leaves residents unsure of where to turn.

Here’s a list of options:

• Those with issues surrounding park maintenance should file a complaint with the Department of Safety and Professional Services using its online form. DSPS licenses manufactured home communities and determines if complaints warrant inspection and potential discipline. The agency accepts anonymous complaints. Find more information here. In 16 counties, the DSPS has delegated inspection authority to local health departments. Find a list of delegated counties here. 

• If the issue involves eviction, lease agreements or other landlord-tenant issues, contact the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Residents can submit an online complaint here. Complainants can leave identifying information off of the form, but it may limit DATCP’s ability to help address the issue. The agency contacts businesses on behalf of tenants to try to mediate problems, although the agency lacks the power to force mediation. Complaints — resolved or not —  help the agency track potentially unfair business practices. 

• County health officials have jurisdiction over complaints related to health and safety. Find contact information for your local agency here. 

• City, town and village officials can also adopt their own regulations on manufactured housing communities. Consider asking local officials about requirements in your community and who enforces them. 

Need help paying for repairs? 

Tomorrow’s Home Foundation, partially funded by the state, grants low-income manufactured home owners up to $3,000 for repairs or modifications or up to $1,500 to dispose of uninhabitable homes. Learn more about eligibility here, and download an application here. 

Have a question or know of a resource we should add to this list? Contact Addie Costello at acostello@wisconsinwatch.org.

Have an issue with a manufactured housing park? Here’s what to know is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The state Assembly approved a rash of bills on Tuesday aimed at expanding affordable housing in Wisconsin.

The post Assembly approves GOP housing package, including building code bill appeared first on WPR.

A builder frames a house under construction. An Assembly committee advanced a dozen bills Thursday, with several aimed at expanding the construction of affordable workforce housing. (Spencer Platt | Getty Images)

A dozen bills, some aimed at addressing the need for affordable workforce housing according to their Republican authors, passed the Assembly’s Housing and Real Estate Committee Thursday, with all but three gaining bipartisan support.

Several of the measures have already been put on the tentative calendar for the Assembly floor session scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 7.

AB 182, would modify Wisconsin’s low-income housing tax credit and require the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) to ensure that 35% of the tax credits it allocates are for projects in rural areas of Wisconsin.

AB 449 would require local municipalities with zoning to permit accessory dwelling units on the property of existing single family homes.

AB 451 would create residential tax incremental districts, to encourage residential developments with the resulting increases in property tax collection used to fund infrastructure investment. That measure passed the panel 12-2.

AB 454 would establish a workforce home loan fund through WHEDA to provide gap financing for new construction or significant rehabilitation of a single family home for the borrower.

AB 455 would establish a grant program at WHEDA for the owners of apartment buildings to offset converting their properties to condominiums. In an unanimous vote, the committee approved an amendment from state Rep. Lori Palmeri (D-Oshkosh) requiring grant recipients to give current occupants in a building being converted an opportunity to purchase their unit.

State Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) persuaded a majority of the committee, including four Republican members, to adopt an amendment allowing the proposed grants to be used for conversions to housing cooperatives as well as condominiums.

“Housing co-ops are an important alternative for households in our communities that lack the means to individually purchase and maintain stable housing,” Clancy said in a statement issued after the vote. “They provide the assurance of predictable costs, create the potential for innovative forms of cost sharing and cost reduction, and help strengthen the communities that embrace this well-proven model.”

Clancy’s statement also included a thank-you to the Republicans who voted with the committee’s five Democrats to pass the amendment, as well as the committee chair, Rep. Robert Brooks (R-Saukville), “for giving my proposed amendment to AB 455 a fair hearing.”

Clancy’s statement prompted Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) to email Republicans and Democrats in both chambers castigating Clancy and the Republicans who voted for his amendment for adding “communes” to the bill.

Four other bills involved largely technical matters, one lowering real estate transfer fees, one updating the requirements for renting mobile homes, one enabling subdivision developers to certify that improvements comply with state requirements, and one on changes in real estate practices for single- to four-family homes. All passed with unanimous or nearly unanimous votes.

Divided on party lines

Committee members split on a bill that would allow landlords to demand a written statement from a licensed health professional attesting to a tenant’s need for an emotional support animal.

The bill’s author, state Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), asserted at a public hearing that there was a “rising trend of emotional support and service animal misrepresentation in Wisconsin.” All nine committee Republicans voted for the bill and all five Democrats against it. 

On a second party-line vote, a bill giving developers an automatic rezoning right for residential projects if they met certain conditions passed with only the Republicans voting in favor.

The committee also passed on party lines legislation that would put off the effective date of Wisconsin’s updated commercial building code until April 1, 2026.

The building code update had been blocked in 2023, but a state Supreme Court ruling this July held that state laws giving the Legislature the power to block executive branch administrative rules indefinitely were unconstitutional.

After the Court’s ruling, the Department of Safety and Professional Services moved ahead to promulgate the new code, originally setting a Sept. 1 starting date. The department later postponed the effective date to Nov. 1.

In addition to the committee’s 9-5 vote Thursday on the bill postponing the date again, 29 Republican lawmakers sent DSPS Secretary-designee Dan Hereth a letter Wednesday also seeking to postpone the effective date to April 1. 

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• Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for owners of manufactured homes at a time when private equity firms are buying up parks to maximize profits.

• State regulators rarely inspect parks, allow many to go unlicensed and don’t even know which parks are operating.

• A patchwork of laws and regulations governing manufactured housing leaves residents unsure of where to turn when conditions deteriorate.

Priced out of traditional homes during an affordability crisis, many in Wisconsin have found another way to pursue an ownership dream.

Experts estimate that more than 100,000 Wisconsin residents live in manufactured homes, the more accurate name for what many call mobile homes or trailers — structures that make up the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. Many live in parks where they own their homes but rent the land beneath them. 

But Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for residents at a time when private equity firms are buying up parks to maximize profits, a Wisconsin Watch/WPR investigation found.

Wisconsin law requires operators to keep parks “in a clean, safe, orderly and sanitary condition at all times.” The Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) is supposed to enforce that law and licensing standards. But it rarely inspects parks, allows many to go unlicensed and doesn’t even know which parks are operating.

Separate state and local agencies handle issues related to leasing, water quality, and health and safety at parks. That patchwork leaves residents unsure of where to turn when conditions deteriorate.

“I don’t know what to do or if I have any rights,” a park resident in Wisconsin Rapids wrote to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

“Why is our government not looking into any of this?” a Hudson resident asked DATCP while facing septic tank failures and surging rent.

In Forest Junction: “I picked this location over a decade ago because of its affordability. I have nowhere to go.”

In Amery: “They know we do not have the resources to move the trailer out of the community.”

In Whitewater: “I don’t know who to reach out to. I’m so stuck.”

WPR and Wisconsin Watch spent six months speaking to manufactured home residents statewide. Some described tight-knit, peaceful and affordable communities. But others detailed sewage backups, dramatic rent hikes, hazardous dead trees and foul-smelling water — all while frustrations simmered with unresponsive landlords and regulators.

What many call mobile homes aren’t actually mobile. Moving them can cost more than $10,000, with risks of damaging older structures. That traps residents when park conditions worsen.

Predatory companies know this, said Paul Terranova, Midwest community organizer with the nonprofit MHAction, which advocates for park residents nationwide. 

While tallying every U.S. manufactured home community is difficult, experts estimate Wisconsin has more than 900, with 80 tied to private equity, according to data from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog. 

Wisconsin regulators are paying little attention, industry professionals, advocates and residents say. That’s as neighboring Michigan and Minnesota offer more resources for residents and stronger oversight. 

WPR and Wisconsin Watch also found:

• DSPS produced documentation of just 15 parks inspected between 2022 and February.

• DSPS lacks an accurate count of manufactured homes statewide. The agency previously published comprehensive data on all licensed communities, but it now posts records for only some counties, with many parks lacking identifying information. At least 27 parks filed evictions in the last two years but do not appear in current DSPS data.

• Of the roughly 700 parks DSPS lists in licensing data, roughly 30% have expired licenses. Some park owners say poor communication and a technology overhaul made applying for licenses more difficult.

• A legislative task force as far back as 2002 flagged problems with “a scattered state regulatory approach” to the industry that leaves residents confused about who regulates what. It hasn’t been fixed.

Affordable option has roots in Wisconsin

Cindy Philby, 60, sold her traditional, fixer-upper home after realizing she couldn’t afford needed repairs.

She poured all of her money into a manufactured home she found from an Iowa seller on Craigslist. It cost $4,500 plus $10,000 to deliver it to a rented lot at the Woodland Park community in the town of Fond du Lac.

She slept at a homeless shelter in late 2023 while waiting for the home to arrive.

“My next best thing to keep a roof over my head was a trailer,” Philby said.

She was embracing a housing option pioneered in Wisconsin. 

A Marshfield man’s innovation in the 1950s set the stage for the manufactured homes we see today. Rollohome Corp. founder Elmer Frey’s “mobile homes” — wider than recreational trailers — could be lived in year-round, more affordably than traditional homes.

Manufactured homes can be made quicker, on a larger scale and with less waste than other homes. Today Wisconsin owners of manufactured homes pay a median of $553 per month for housing, compared to $1,118 for all homeowners and $917 for all renters, according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Local zoning laws often exclude manufactured homes from residential neighborhoods. Parks allow owners to anchor their homes without requiring expensive modifications. 

Philby, like many community residents, owns her home and pays a monthly fee for the land and additional costs for utilities. Her lot is owned by Florida-based COARE Communities, a subsidiary of the private equity-backed conglomerate COARE Companies, which touts a focus “on establishing platforms across niche investment strategies.” 

Beneath an option to click on an “investor portal,” the COARE Communities website says it is “focused on solving the challenges of affordable housing through the acquisition and preservation of the most affordable type of housing in America – Manufactured Housing Communities.” 

The company hiked Philby’s base rent this year from $425 to $500, six times the rate of inflation. It declined to comment on the record for this story.

Philby has struggled to absorb the hike while relying largely on disability payments to get by. 

“They are squeezing everybody in this park to death,” she said. 

Philby and her neighbors describe a host of additional problems, including poor water drainage and crumbling roads. 

The community turns into a “mud puddle” or “lake” following heavy rains or snowmelts, they say. 

Wisconsin law requires manufactured homes to sit in “a well-drained” and “properly graded” area to prevent flooding. It’s up to DSPS to enforce the law, but the agency could not locate any inspection records for the park. The park does not appear in DSPS’ licensing database, even though the town of Fond du Lac has separately licensed it.

Philby wants more action.

“Do something,” she said. “Make these people do their work.” 

Calling for state regulators to ‘do their damn job’

Following months of door knocking in manufactured housing communities, Steve Carlson has little faith in Wisconsin regulators. He has seen dilapidated, abandoned homes and met residents who fear management will retaliate if they complain.

Carlson, a retired social worker and organizer from Washburn County, co-founded the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance late last year. It aims to keep manufactured home communities viable by pushing for stronger legal protections and helping residents organize. 

Carlson hopes his work will inspire state regulators to “do their damn job.”

They could look to Michigan, which recently created an inspection team focused on improving conditions at manufactured home parks — visiting them each year. 

DSPS inspects parks only when they are built, changed or draw a complaint that officials believe warrants one.

It’s possible parks built decades ago haven’t since been inspected. DSPS lacks records to show otherwise.

More regular inspections would likely require legislative action and more staff, DSPS spokesperson John Beard said in an email.

Local governments can help. 

Wisconsin law allows them to monitor parks and enforce regulations on top of state requirements.

“Some municipalities are very good, they go through the property every year,” said Amy Bliss, executive director of the Wisconsin Housing Alliance, a manufactured housing trade association.

“Others just ignore the fact that they even exist.”

The town of Fond du Lac did not inspect Woodland Park while issuing its permit. It inspects parks only when complaints relate to town ordinances, said town Clerk Patti Supple.

DSPS can separately delegate its authority to local health departments. One municipality and 16 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties regulate parks in that way. DSPS holds them to a higher standard than itself, requiring annual inspections of each park.

“What’s going on in the other 56 counties in Wisconsin? Well, it’s anybody’s guess,” Carlson said. “Maybe there aren’t a lot of problems out there. The point is we don’t know, and somebody should find out.”

He hoped Dunn County would seek delegated authority over its housing parks.

But learning the rules and carrying out inspections would require significant time and resources, Dunn County Health Director KT Gallagher said. 

DSPS would allow the county to keep 63% of community licensing fees, nowhere close to covering extra costs, health department staff said at a meeting in August.

Parks are supposed to pay licensing fees every other year that haven’t increased since at least 2006. The minimum fee of $250 would need to rise to $400 just to account for inflation since that time.

While DSPS can raise some fees, Beard said, spending extra dollars would require legislative action.

Dunn County could also raise fees, but officials worry residents would bear those costs. They also fear a scenario in which an owner closes a park instead of fixing issues flagged by an inspection. 

That happened in Eau Claire, Gallagher said. City and county inspectors closed a park, leaving some residents with nowhere to go.

That’s why DSPS avoids levying financial penalties even when inspectors find major problems. 

“DSPS focus is on gaining compliance,” Beard said. “Forfeitures are a last resort, especially when action could leave residents looking for a new home.”

States like Minnesota help address this dilemma by setting aside licensing fees for grants to defray relocation costs following a closure. Minnesota has also allocated millions of dollars in recent years for manufactured home park owners to make repairs. 

Lawmakers reject help for homeowners

One program helps owners of manufactured homes in Wisconsin. 

A portion of titling fees flows to the Tomorrow’s Home Foundation, which grants owners up to $3,000 for repairs or modifications or up to $1,500 to dispose of uninhabitable homes. The foundation received $120,000 from the state during the last budget cycle and raised additional funds on its own. 

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers this year proposed adding $40,000 to the program over two years. The Republican-led Joint Finance Committee rejected the proposal and a separate provision to add $1.68 million that could help owners repair failing septic systems.

Meanwhile, the state is missing out on uncollected fees from potentially hundreds of parks without active licenses.

Without extra funds, Dunn County declined to pursue state authority over inspections.

“This is a terrible situation without any easy answer,” said Dr. Alexandra Hall, a family physician on the county health committee. “But maybe we wouldn’t have gotten here if the state was actually enforcing its own laws.”

Licensing system causes headaches

DSPS records show Philby’s Woodland Park community had an active license in 2020, but the department lacks updated information. Beard said the agency is reaching out to the park about renewing.

Confusion has swirled around DSPS licensing dating back to 2020, Bliss said. Frustrations escalated last year — the first time park renewals were done using the LicensE, an online system for the 200-plus industries DSPS regulates. 

Among criticisms aired at a February legislative hearing: Park owners weren’t told DSPS would no longer process paper renewals; an online application asked some owners to fill out unnecessary information; and the portal charged just an $8 renewal fee instead of the accurate minimum of $250.

Addressing the rollout across all industries, Deputy Secretary Jennifer Garrett called LicensE “an overwhelming success, vastly expediting document handling and licensing decisions.” 

“We knew that the transition to an all-digital environment would present challenges to parts of this industry,” she testified to lawmakers.

The agency reached out to park representatives ahead of the change, but it lacked some contact information, Garrett added. Communities with expired licenses may have closed, rebranded, changed owners or failed to transition to the online system.

DSPS is working with the Wisconsin Housing Alliance to update missing information on its list of licensed communities, Garrett testified in February. 

Seven months later, the department’s licensing site still does not list each of the group’s members. 

Bliss said DSPS struggles to make time to meet with her alliance, making it feel like the “red-headed stepchild of the regulated community.”

The former Wisconsin Department of Commerce, which regulated manufactured homes until 2011, communicated far better, she added. 

That’s why she pushed DSPS to restart the state’s Manufactured Housing Code Council, an advisory body of representatives from across the industry and the public. 

State law requires the council to meet at least twice a year. It met this summer for the first time in more than a decade. 

To whom should residents complain? 

DSPS received just 18 complaints related to manufactured housing between 2023 and early 2025, only some from park residents. The data understates industry-wide disputes, considering that multiple agencies regulate the parks and residents don’t know where to turn.

In Minnesota, the Office of Attorney General compiled all state laws related to manufactured home parks into an online handbook. Nothing that comprehensive exists in Wisconsin’s sprawling system.

Have a problem with roads? Try DSPS, which regulates community standards and licensing.

Leasing? That’s the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Questions about park well water? The Department of Natural Resources is likely your agency.

County and local health departments generally handle other health and safety concerns.

Philby and other Woodland Park residents sent all of their complaints to DATCP, including ones related to conditions DSPS is supposed to regulate. 

DATCP received more than 100 complaints related to manufactured homes between 2023 and this March. Dozens mentioned issues in DSPS’ domain, like flooding, sewage and roads.

DATCP must identify a pattern of violations before launching an investigation, said Michelle Reinen, an agency administrator. It cannot legally represent individual consumers.

The agency and the Wisconsin Department of Justice in 2023 reached a $75,000 settlement with a Colorado-based park operator doing business in Wisconsin. That was after fielding more than 50 complaints about “unfair and illegal” renting practices.

DATCP and DSPS say they sometimes get information from other agencies. They collaborated on a 2023 investigation — responding to the Boscobel Dial’s reporting — that found violations at Cozy Acres Mobile Home Park in Boscobel.

Lawmaker seeks more clarity 

Rep. Scott Krug, R-Rome, wants to clear up confusion for homeowners and landlords.

His legislation, AB 424, specifies landlord-tenant laws for parks and expands on reasons residents may be evicted. It would also require park owners to issue a 90-day notice before closing. He hopes to hear more ideas from the operators and residents if the bill draws a hearing.

Krug calls manufactured homes “a forgotten segment of real estate” that won’t help solve the affordability crisis without state action.

Lawmakers might look backward for inspiration. 

A 2002 government task force on manufactured housing suggested consolidating oversight of manufactured home communities to address the state’s “disparate and confusing array” of oversight efforts.

‘They can just do whatever they want’

Park residents also battle public perception. 

Members of a North Fond du Lac Facebook group complain about the condition of Woodland Park, calling it a dangerous eyesore. 

Responding to one post, Philby explained people’s struggles to afford rent and urged people to push for local solutions.

“Should just flaten it,” one commenter responded.

Residents have sought state help. Stacey Murillo complained to DATCP in 2024 about issues including roads and garbage. 

DATCP sent her complaint, with her name, to the park’s manager for mediation. Woodland Park management provided the state with evidence that it was addressing some issues.

But Murillo said too little has changed.

Philby complained to DATCP after management gave her a lease that pre-checked a box to opt out of a yearlong contract. Wisconsin law requires landlords to offer 12-month options, more protective against evictions and rent increases.

DATCP reached out to Woodland Park to mediate Philby’s complaint in April but received no response, it told Philby in a letter. 

The agency cannot order businesses to participate in mediation, but it can issue notices of noncompliance, which it did in Philby’s case.

“Since your complaint was not resolved through mediation, you have the option to contact a private attorney to discuss your legal remedies,” the agency’s letter said.

“No one in this park can afford an attorney,” Philby said, still waiting for a longer lease.

“They can just do whatever they want,” she said. “The federal government’s allowing them to do it, the town’s allowing them to do it and the state’s allowing them to do it.”

‘They are squeezing everybody in this park to death’: Owners of manufactured homes get little protection as private equity moves in is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Elizabeth Brown faced five years of housing troubles, homelessness and other barriers. But she can now say she’s a homeowner. 

Brown, 51, always wanted to be a homeowner but said it just hadn’t happened for her. Just a few years ago, Brown was choosing between feeding her children and paying her rent. After moving into a home in Milwaukee near North 20th Street and West Auer Avenue that quickly fell into disrepair, she decided it was time to make a dream a reality. 

“I just couldn’t do that anymore,” she said. “I knew I didn’t want to deal with landlords anymore.” 

Brown purchased her home through Acts Housing and moved in June 27.  

Brown is a mother of nine children, four of whom she still takes care of. She is a community organizer and the current president of Amani United, a neighborhood group.

“I love that she has this house now,” said Doris Brown, Elizabeth’s mother. “It feels like she’s reached the beginning of being settled, like she deserves to be.” 

The journey

Brown’s homebuying process took about two years. But she spent even longer preparing for it.

“It was hard because one day I was trying to survive,” she said. 

Two of Brown’s children are school-aged and two more are in college. As she prepared to buy a home, she was working to support her children and serving her community through her work as a leader for Amani United. 

Brown has spent significant time giving back to the community. She said when it came to the process of buying a home, it was that same community that supported her. 

Amanda Clark, housing coordinator for the Dominican Center, which often works in partnership with Amani United, has known Brown for eight years. She said she was excited to witness Brown become a homeowner. 

“I don’t think anyone is more deserving than Elizabeth,” she said. “Elizabeth acted as a pilot so that we can, as a community, help other residents access homeownership without as many barriers.” 

Overcoming barriers

Brown said there were many days when she just wanted to give up on becoming a homeowner. 

One challenge, she said, was simply saving the money needed to purchase her home. 

“When you are working with programs and following steps toward your goal, life is still happening,” she said. “I was homeless for six months during this process because the home I was living in just became unlivable.” 

She said there were times when she’d have to rent hotel rooms to meet her and her children’s hygiene needs or rent other places to cook for them. 

“There is always something else you need to do,” Brown said. “You think you’ve taken all the steps, then a coach will say, ‘oh you need to do this and this.’ ”

While she bought the home through Acts Housing, she said other supports, like staff from the Community Development Alliance, Milwaukee Metropolitan Community Church, Northwestern Mutual and LISC, were helpful in her journey.

A fresh start

Brown said buying a home feels like the beginning for her. 

“I’m happy, and my children are so proud of me,” she said. “But there is so much more I want to do.” 

Brown said homeownership is possible for anyone who wants to achieve it, so long as communities care. 

“It was a long fight,” Brown said. “But I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason, and I had my experience so that I can help others do what I did.” 

A Milwaukee woman’s long journey to homeownership is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Klein Hall, which has helped some 1,000 veterans rebuild their lives since opening in 2007, is set to close on Sept. 12, displacing more than two dozen residents.
  
• Gov. Tony Evers proposed $1.9 million in new funding to support Klein Hall and a veterans home in Green Bay. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget writing committee rejected the proposal. 
  
• Elected officials have pointed fingers, but some lawmakers say their colleagues should put politics aside to prevent the closures. A pair of bills seek to do that, but opinions differ on the best path forward. 
  
• Meanwhile, most veterans already moved out of the Chippewa Falls and Green Bay homes.

Air Force veteran Blake Haynes faced an impossible choice during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic: pay rent or buy insulin. He couldn’t afford both. One month, he chose rent. His blood sugar spiked, sending him into cardiac arrest. Clinically dead for 10 minutes, he was revived by doctors, only to see him fall into a coma.

When he woke up almost three weeks later, Haynes said, everything changed for him physically and mentally. He couldn’t work. He faced eviction. He could no longer stay with his kids.

“I was going to end it all,” he said.

Eventually a nurse connected him with Veterans Outreach and Recovery. That led him to Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, which provides housing, job training and recovery services to veterans. During his year and a half there, Haynes stayed on track with medical appointments and found direction in his life. 

Two years after leaving Klein Hall, Haynes lives a new reality. He’s renting a home, leasing a new car, staying out of the hospital for diabetes issues and pursuing a nursing degree. Most importantly, he’s back with his kids.

“I have a life,” Haynes told Wisconsin Watch.

But Klein Hall, which has helped some 1,000 veterans rebuild their lives since opening in 2007, is set to close on Sept. 12, displacing more than two dozen residents. 

That’s after lawmakers enacted a budget without funds to cover rising costs at veterans homes. 

Gov. Tony Evers proposed $1.9 million in new funding for the Veteran Housing and Recovery Program. VHRP supports the veterans homes like Klein Hall as well as facilities in Green Bay — also slated to close — and Union Grove. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget writing committee rejected the proposal before hashing out the two-year budget Evers signed in July. 

Evers, a Democrat, called closures “a direct result of the Legislature’s failure to approve the investments” he proposed.

Some Republicans, in turn, have sought to blame Evers, saying he should have prioritized the veterans homes earlier in the budget process. The lawmakers highlighted other funding they approved for veterans.

Amid the finger pointing, some lawmakers say their colleagues should push politics aside to prevent closures that leave veterans with fewer services. A pair of bills seek to do that, but opinions differ on which offers the best path forward. 

Meanwhile, most veterans already moved out of the Chippewa Falls and Green Bay homes, and their closure date is fast approaching. 

A ‘stepping stone’ toward recovery

Klein Hall was a place of recovery for veterans like Haynes who wanted to get their lives back on track. For Army veteran Randy Nelson, it was a chance at stability after years of battling a methamphetamine addiction. 

“I feel so lucky by everything I’ve been given, and Klein Hall was a stepping stone for me,” Nelson said.

In February, Nelson completed a two-month chemical dependency program at the St. Cloud Veteran Affairs Medical Center to address his bipolar disorder and substance use. After completing the treatment, he was advised not to return to his trailer in Minneapolis and was directed to Klein Hall, where he could continue his recovery near his daughter.

Beginning in April, Nelson took part in many of the programs that help him manage his anger and remain drug-free. He met regularly with a social worker who helped him schedule medical appointments and drove him to places he needed to go.

When veterans first enter the program, they are evaluated, with two major focus areas being mental health and substance abuse, which affects about 60% to 70% of residents, said Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall.

Other programs focus on housing retention and anger management, like the one Nelson joined. Each resident also has an individualized service plan. Case managers work with them on housing, finances and health, but also tailor to more individual needs like job searches or accessing disability benefits.

In their leisure time, veterans often play puzzles and games, read books from the facility’s library or spend time coloring, an activity that Withrow noted can help those with anxiety redirect their focus.

As part of his therapy, one veteran, James Heber, turned to painting to create a mural for the facility. Filled with shades of green and blue, the artwork depicts Chippewa Falls and follows a veteran’s journey at Klein Hall — from military service to homelessness to stability, ending with finding a home of their own.

“It tears me apart that we can’t save this in some way,” Withrow said. 

Finding new homes

Klein Hall can house 48 veterans. At the time the closure was announced in mid-July, the facility housed just under 30 residents. Now there are just two. Staff worked quickly as soon as news broke to find alternative housing and program options for veterans. Efforts in Green Bay look similar, where the priority is finding veterans the resources and support they need to transition into new places ahead of the closure, said Katrina Currier, site director at the Green Bay facility.

“We’re losing a critical housing program,” she added.

Fortunately, many have found new arrangements and are in the process of moving into those places, the goal being to make sure no veterans are left on the street as the facilities close, Withrow said.

Nelson recently signed a lease for a place in Eau Claire, which he found through HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing. He said he hopes to stay there until he needs assisted living.

Other veterans were relocated to the facility in Union Grove, which is the only of the three VHRP-operated sites that remain open. But the adjustment came quickly.

Marine veteran Derek Aune said the sudden closure “thrust” him and other veterans at Klein Hall “into high gear.”

Aune came to Klein Hall after spending time in and out of jail and institutions. As someone who prefers to take things slow, he said he had no place to go after being released from prison and described Klein Hall as a stable place to land, somewhere he could get back on his feet before planning where to go next.

Instead, he relocated to Union Grove, a facility much farther from the people and hometown he knows. He said the closure forced him to switch medical providers, disrupted his plan to move forward at his own pace and made it harder as someone who deals with depression.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine after a while, but it sucks when you have mental health issues like that, and then you get flung from one thing to another,” Aune said. “It’s not very easy to deal with.”

Navy veteran Rob Lewandowski arrived at Klein Hall in early July, also hoping to better his life with the support of a community of fellow veterans. Just a week later, he learned the facility was shutting down.

Lewandowski spent years recovering from PTSD and maintaining sobriety, and said he was looking for a way to become a “productive member of society” again. He left his apartment in Rice Lake, where he had been isolating, in search of that at Klein Hall.

Instead, Lewandowski found himself at Building 47, a housing facility for veterans in Minneapolis. He said he’s grateful for the sense of community and progress in his housing search he’s found there, but the move had him give up a new job opportunity in Chippewa Falls that he secured right before he had to leave.

“I really, really, really wish that they hadn’t closed. I would still be there. I’d already be working,” Lewandowski said. “I would be that much further along on the way to being self sufficient, which I strive to be and I’ll be there one day.”

Saving Klein Hall

Before the closure was announced, the facility just received new mattresses, which still remain bagged in plastic. The next project was to refresh all the furniture.

But with the facility’s remaining days numbered, the priorities have shifted. Staff are focused on placing veterans and preparing to shut down the building.

“Sadly, every day we come to work, we’re here to shut the program down,” Withrow said.

Still, some advocates haven’t given up on saving the program. The funding that was cut from the budget was intended to lease a new building for Klein Hall residents, due to the aging condition of the nearly 50-year-old facility. Withrow said the building’s biggest issues are the roof and air conditioning system, along with other plumbing problems. The main concern, he noted, is that these repairs tend to be expensive.

Jerry Green, a veteran with 40 years of experience in real estate development, said the building is so outdated that repairing it to code standards would likely cost more than leasing a new space. He works for Goldridge Companies, a real estate firm based in Eau Claire, and explained that the plan was to use the proposed budget funding to lease a new facility in Altoona, close to transit, restaurants and pharmacies. 

There would be no construction cost to the state, Green said, only the cost of leasing the replacement building for Klein Hall. He pointed to the need to save the program, noting that a number of veterans die by suicide due to their struggles. In 2023, Wisconsin Department of Health Services data showed that while veterans make up about 6% of Wisconsin’s adult population, they accounted for 15% of adult suicides. 

“(Klein Hall) gets the veterans back on course, and helps them get employment and straighten out their lives, mostly to save their life,” Green said.

It’s just a matter of coming up with the funds to pay for it, but legislators remain divided on who is to blame and how to move forward.

Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, spoke to veterans in Howard last week, blaming Evers for the planned closures. He argued that the governor and Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs had enough funding to keep the facilities open. 

WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey pushed back on the claims, saying the department can’t freely spend its funds. Costs from Lutheran Social Services, the nonprofit managing the facilities, rose about 30%, he said — more than the department could cover without additional state funding.

The VHRP facilities operate under two grant and per diem awards from the Federal VA: one for Chippewa Falls, and another for Green Bay and Union Grove. Hoey told Wisconsin Watch the department could not renew the grant for Chippewa Falls without the extra funding from the state. 

In the renewal application for the other two facilities, WDVA reduced the total number of beds from 57 to 40 to reflect the closure of the Green Bay facility. Hoey said there were beds available at Union Grove to accommodate those displaced by closures.

After Evers’ funding proposal was rejected by the joint finance committee, Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, and several other Senate Democrats introduced an amendment on the Senate floor to fund the programs. But it was voted down by all but one Republican on the committee. 

Budget committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, told Wisconsin Watch in a statement that the Legislature invested in veterans’ programs in the state budget. The budget included a 15% increase to VHRP, $5 million to support the state’s veterans homes and $2.5 million for the Veterans Community Project, with additional funding to county-level services.

However, Born did not address the decision to exclude funding for the facilities set to close or outline any future plans to address those closures.

In response to the lack of funding for the facilities, Smith introduced a standalone bill aimed at keeping both Klein Hall and the facility in Green Bay open before their scheduled closure deadline. 

Smith hopes that a floor session expected in September could address this issue, but it is ultimately up to the Republican leadership to decide what gets discussed and whether the bill moves forward. Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, cosponsored the bill, and told Wisconsin Watch that he would “be honored to vote yes” on the bill once it reaches the Senate floor.

Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, introduced another bill that includes the over $1.9 million to keep the VHRP sites open, along with other veteran-focused initiatives. The legislation aims to also expand the property tax credit for veterans and fund the University of Wisconsin-Madison Recovery Project to help recover and identify remains of Wisconsin service members missing in action.

Jacque told Wisconsin Watch his bill aims to address other important veterans’ issues left out of the final budget, while also providing funds to save Klein Hall. He said “it appears that the governor could still use discretionary funds to keep the facilities open and I encourage him to do so.”

Smith expressed frustration at what he described as a “political cat and mouse game,” rather than simply passing a “clean bill” to ensure veterans have access to critical recovery and housing services.

Hoey believes that if a funding bill passes, the Green Bay facility could reopen relatively quickly. Reopening Chippewa Falls would take longer, as WDVA would have to reapply for the grant, and funds would not be available until Oct. 1, 2026.

For Smith, the solution lies in putting politics aside to do what is right for veterans.

“It is not about Democrat or Republican. This is about people that we owe every available resource to, to be sure that they are able to recover or to have housing,” he said. “We have a program for that, and it’s provided through Klein Hall, it’s provided through the facility in Green Bay, which they are also going to close, and we cannot let that happen, period.”

Lasting impact

Withrow reflected on the effect Klein Hall has had on numerous veterans. He recalled one veteran who came in after losing his leg, wheeling himself around in a wheelchair while struggling with addiction and unemployment. Withrow got to see him leave the program. The veteran now has a prosthetic leg and showed Withrow a video of him jogging. 

He witnessed another veteran come in with a poor rent history, anger issues and substance abuse. He now owns a home.

“We had residents that come in with nothing and then end up in a place that they’ve always dreamt about being, that (they) didn’t think they could have,” Withrow said.

Nelson, one of the last remaining residents at Klein Hall, moved into his new apartment. He said he’s grateful for the support he received at the facility and that it’s been instrumental in maintaining his sobriety. He didn’t think once about using during his time at the facility.

“It’s a shame that this is shutting down,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d be right now had it not been for here.”

Veterans say Klein Hall gave them a new life. Now it’s set to close. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Wisconsin Watch reporters joined more than 60 volunteers in Brown County’s summer point-in-time count last month — a one-night snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness in communities across the United States, including Wisconsin.

• Some volunteers had experienced homelessness themselves. 

• The volunteers officially counted 179 people experiencing homelessness. That’s seen as an undercount because volunteers do not count people who are sleeping or unable to respond to surveys. And some people don’t want to be found.

At  4:31 a.m. the first slivers of light peeked through dark clouds over Green Bay’s waters. 

Along the edge of Point Comfort in the town of Scott, a pair of volunteers surveyed the landscape for people experiencing homelessness as the summer “point-in-time” (PIT) count wound down in Brown County. 

One was Cody Oberhuber, a county economic support specialist. He has missed just one count since January 2022, initially working as part of his former job at the anti-poverty agency Newcap, Inc. His passion for talking to the people behind the numbers prompted him to return this year as a volunteer after switching jobs. 

“It gives you a fresh perspective of being boots on the ground talking to these individuals, you’re kind of looking at the humanity side of things,” Oberhuber said. “That’s what drives me, that’s my mission.”

Oberhuber joined 66 other volunteers between 11:30 p.m. to nearly 6 a.m. beginning on July 23, hitting spots where the group previously encountered people experiencing homelessness. 

The PIT count serves as a one-night snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness in communities across the United States, including Wisconsin. Wisconsin Watch in January followed the annual winter count in Jefferson County — examining why the data recorded in the process underestimate the true levels of homelessness in communities, especially rural ones. The  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates such winter counts. 

Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care, which covers all 69 counties in Wisconsin besides Milwaukee, Dane and Racine, requires each county to also count during the summer, when the tally is typically far higher than winter, when freezing weather pushes more people to shelters.

The majority of Brown County volunteers most years work with direct housing providers or other housing-related programs, according to Meaghan Gleason, Newcap’s funder expert and the Brown County PIT count lead. 

But this year, almost half of volunteers had no association with housing providers, a record number of unaffiliated folks. Thirteen volunteers shared that they previously experienced homelessness in their life. That’s a point of pride for Gleason.

To address the problem of homelessness, she said, “we need to include the people who know what that experience is.”

The Brown County volunteers broke into groups to cover more ground. In the county’s northwest corner, a group searched for people sleeping in cars in the rural village of Pulaski. In the county’s urban center, volunteers counted people camping in Green Bay’s downtown parks. 

PIT counts often happen at night, when people settle into the places they sleep, Oberhuber said. This approach, he explained, prevents volunteers from simply assuming where someone stays. 

Volunteers usually see the most unsheltered people on downtown Green Bay’s east side, and that was the case this year. Several people sheltered in open spaces and under hooded structures, often surrounded by their belongings: bikes, coolers, wheelchairs, bags and blankets. Some slept on church steps or on park benches. Bugs swarmed in the humidity following recent rain.

A volunteer asked a man where he had gone earlier to stay dry. 

“Nowhere,” he replied. “I’m wet. I’m still wet.”

Others asked volunteers for food or dry tarps. Volunteers handed out gift cards and asked people to take a brief survey to shed light on what resources might help.

The surveys included questions such as: Have you served in the active duty or other armed forces of the U.S.? Are you fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence or stalking? Have you ever been in the foster care system? Is this the first time you’ve been homeless?

Some people answered questions they were comfortable with. Others thanked the volunteers and declined to participate.

“I’m going through enough as it is,” one person told the volunteers.

When people are found sleeping, decline to participate in the survey or are in locations volunteers can’t safely access, their presence is documented through observation forms. Although the official count tally excludes those observations, they paint a broader picture of the unhoused landscape. Outreach workers sometimes later follow up to verify their status and connect them with services. 

Brown County’s official tally this year: 179 people experiencing homelessness. That included 100 single individuals and 25 households with children. The official unsheltered count has increased each year since at least 2022, when 89 people were counted in July.

Northwest of Brown County, Newcap’s Northeast Coalition counts unsheltered people in mostly rural Florence, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto and Shawano counties. The summer count recorded 36 people. 

“That may not sound like much,” Gleason later wrote in an email. “But it is the highest count I have seen out of the last eight counts.”

In Brown County, volunteers tallied zero people in the rural areas Wisconsin Watch observed. But Oberhuber knows people are experiencing homelessness in communities like Pulaski, based on previous counts and conversations with police. Those people might not want to be found, Oberhuber said. They might intentionally set up camp outside of town or in the woods, where PIT count volunteers won’t look.

“That’s the difficulty with the rural count,” Oberhuber said. “There’s people out there, we just struggle to find them.”

Gleason said a “happy accident” prompted her to work in housing services after having volunteered at a shelter in college. She wouldn’t give up her position as the PIT count lead for Brown County even if someone told her to. 

She knows it’s impossible to count every person. But that’s what drives her to improve each count. Yes, homelessness is increasing, she said. 

“But if we can also increase our efficiency and our ability to capture that data and connect with those people, then that’s the best we can do in that moment.”

Homelessness is increasing in Brown County. These volunteers traded a night’s sleep to document the challenge is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Last week’s storms destroyed Sabrena Henderson’s Milwaukee home, leaving her family displaced. 

Not only did the basement of her Garden Homes rental unit flood, destroying her washer, dryer and freezer, but the heavy rains collapsed her ceiling.

While she does have renters insurance, she said, it’s been a long process of trying to apply for assistance, file claims and figure out next steps. 

“It’s only thanks to my family that we are not homeless,” she said. “But we can’t stay in our house, and we are waiting for the landlord to do their part.” 

Additionally, Henderson is a breast cancer survivor who is still in cancer care and should not be anywhere near her home. Mold buildup could be dangerous for her immune system, she said, making cleanup another major concern.

Henderson’s family is one of thousands trying to put their lives back together.  

Impact

Two American Red Cross shelters have been set up in Milwaukee at Holler Park, 5151 S. 6th St., and Washington Senior Center, 4420 W. Vliet St., to assist temporarily displaced individuals.

Jennifer Warren, the regional communications director with the Red Cross, said on Sunday, Aug. 18, the shelters housed 39 people. 

She said since the shelter has been set up, the Red Cross has served over 1,400 meals and snacks. Workers handed out 3,400 emergency relief supplies.

Vickie Boneck, the director of marketing and communications with IMPACT 211, a central access point for people in need, said her organization is supporting local emergency management offices by collecting reports of property damage caused by flooding.

Days after the storm, calls for flood-related assistance continue. 

As of the afternoon of Aug. 18, over 16,500 flood-related service requests had been made to 211 from Milwaukee County and the surrounding counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington. About 85% of those requests originated from Milwaukee County alone.

According to 211 data, the highest concentration of service requests came from Milwaukee County’s Northwest Side and the West Milwaukee area, particularly from ZIP codes 53218, 53209 and 53216.

ZIP code 53218, where Henderson’s home falls, reported the most significant impact, with 1,851 damage reports. It also led in utility disruptions, with 2,562 reports, and had over 850 reports of structural damage.

Of the data collected, approximately 6,000 referrals were for storm-related assistance, helping connect residents to county emergency services, disaster food programs, cleanup supplies and other recovery resources.

What’s next

Milwaukee County’s disaster teams are assessing damage. The Salvation Army has teams out handing out water and snacks to those impacted. 

Benny Benedict, the emergency disaster services director for the Salvation Army of Milwaukee County, said people are still trying to understand the full impact of the floods. 

“It takes a while to figure out basically what you’re dealing with, and it seems that this flood is definitely very significant,” Benedict said. 

Teams from partner agencies are also on site to help residents clean homes and basements. 

Both the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross are accepting monetary contributions to help those impacted as on-site donations are too much to manage at the moment. 

“Today it might be the masks that everyone needs, and then we get thousands of them, and next thing you don’t know, the need is baby formula, and all we have are masks,” he said. “So the monetary donation, we don’t have to sort it, it’s very fluid, and the Salvation Army takes great care in making sure that we’re just meeting the critical needs.” 

Benedict said in his experience, this will be a case of long-term recovery for many of those impacted. 

“Preliminary numbers are showing that there is a significant number of destroyed homes,” he said. “So, we know that the unmet needs are going to be quite large. 
That could be everything from just cleanup kits, flood kits, help getting the house mucked out, basically rebuilding, and then there’s going to be needs for household items that were destroyed.”

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How to get help

Residents who wish to report property damage may contact IMPACT 211 and speak to a community resource specialist. That is also the best way to access information and referral to programs and services that may help in the aftermath of this storm. If people just want to report property damage, the best way is to complete the online form 211 Wisconsin.

Thousands of Milwaukee residents still feel effects of storm wreckage is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.