As the Trump administration continues to focus on the legal immigration statuses of many across the country, a revived proposal by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development could impact many families’ ability to receive rental assistance.

The proposed rule would prohibit “mixed-status” families  —  those including U.S. citizens and people without legal immigration status — from living in public and other subsidized housing. It would apply to HUD public housing, Section 8 rental assistance, and some housing development grants. 

Current regulations allow mixed-status families to receive decreased assistance based on the number of household members with legal status. The proposed rule would limit that assistance to 30 days as HUD verifies family members’ legal status. 

HUD Secretary Scott Turner has said the change could redirect $218 million to other qualifying families. 

“The law is clear: Housing assistance must only go to eligible individuals. This requirement exists to protect the families and taxpayers who fund the nation’s welfare system. It draws a hard line,” Turner wrote last week in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. He wrote that some 24,000 people living in HUD-assisted housing are likely ineligible. 

HUD’s own analyses from previous mixed-status rule discussions estimated there are about 25,000 mixed-status households living in HUD-assisted housing, fewer than 1% of all households receiving federal rental aid.

The proposed rule would update regulations barring HUD from providing assistance to individuals who are not U.S. citizens or do not have legal or eligible immigration status. Under this proposal, all assistance-eligible tenants and applicants under housing programs — regardless of age  — would need to verify their citizenship or status.

This proposal was initiated in 2019 under the first Trump administration, but was blocked. The rule would remove the existing “do not contend” option, end certain exemptions for older participants and expand the use of Social Security numbers and the federal SAVE system for status verification. The SAVE system (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) is run under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and also is being used to help verify voter citizenship status and public benefits eligibility. 

Nearly three-quarters of potentially affected households live in California, Texas and New York, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis of HUD administrative data. California accounts for the largest share of affected families, followed by Texas and New York. In these states, thousands of households that currently receive prorated rental assistance could lose eligibility entirely if the rule is finalized, rental housing advocates warn.

These states also have high housing costs in concert with long waiting lists for assistance. The policy would primarily affect families with children, many of whom are U.S. citizens, and could increase demand for emergency housing and other local safety-net services, advocates say.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates 80,000 people could lose housing assistance, including an estimated 37,000 children, nearly all of whom are U.S. citizens.

The proposal is open for public comment through April 21.

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

The ultimate goal of the city’s Vacant to Value program is to remove neighborhood blight by making old homes new again, with the nearly free properties potentially netting significant savings to the buyer.

The post Superior looks to fight housing blight — a dollar at a time appeared first on WPR.

While median wages in Wisconsin have kept pace with inflation over the last 25 years, many essential household costs have risen much faster than wages and overall inflation.

The post Essential household costs are driving Wisconsin’s affordability challenge, report says appeared first on WPR.

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• A pair of Democrats are proposing legislation to limit rent increases in Wisconsin’s manufactured home communities, require inspections and make it easier for residents to purchase communities through cooperatives. 

• It’s a response to gaps in state oversight that leave residents vulnerable to deteriorating conditions and dramatic rent hikes.

• Private equity companies are increasingly purchasing manufactured housing communities, spurring concerns.

Democratic lawmakers are proposing to limit rent increases in Wisconsin’s manufactured home communities as residents voice concerns over steep rent hikes and the growing influence of large, out-of-state owners.

The proposal is part of broader legislation to protect residents of communities often called mobile home parks. Proposed by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, and Rep. Jodi Emerson, D-Eau Claire, the bill would also require annual state inspections and make it easier for residents to purchase communities through cooperatives.

The lawmakers say they aim “to preserve one of Wisconsin’s last remaining sources of truly affordable housing.”

Without Republican support, the bill is unlikely to advance during the current legislative session. The Legislature will wrap up most action by the end of March. The sponsors hope the proposal will build momentum for future action. 

“We got to start somewhere,” Smith said. “We got to protect people.”

Priced out of traditional homes during an affordability crisis, thousands in Wisconsin have turned to manufactured housing as a more achievable path to ownership. Most own their home but pay a monthly fee for the land it sits on, and they are responsible for maintenance of their homes. While that model brings promise, gaps in state oversight leave residents vulnerable to deteriorating conditions and dramatic rent hikes, a previous WPR and Wisconsin Watch investigation found.  

In announcing the bill, Smith’s office highlighted how private equity firms are increasingly purchasing manufactured home communities — often leading to higher rent and less responsive park management. 

The bill would cap rent increases at 2% or 4% annually, depending on federal Consumer Price Index data.

Such a change would benefit people like Troy Wadina, who lives in Harbor Heights, a Racine County manufactured home community. His rent increased by roughly 18% this year alone.

“I had planned on staying here forever, and now I’m completely out of luck,” Wadina said. “I don’t want to leave.”

He bought his manufactured home in 2020. His parents lived across the street.

“We love being in this community. I know all my neighbors by name. Where do you get that?” Wadina asked.

But in 2024 the community sold to Illinois-based Ravinia Communities, which owns manufactured home communities across 10 states. It increased Wadina’s monthly rent by $95 last year and will add another $95 beginning in March.

Wadina didn’t learn of the sale until it was finalized.

Under the proposed legislation, he and his neighbors would have received a notice of a potential sale and 60 days to submit their own offer to buy the community. The bill would also offer a tax incentive to owners who sell to a resident-owned cooperative or nonprofit approved by the majority of residents.

Wadina isn’t sure he can handle any further increases. On top of his day job as a sales representative, he’s now selling items online to keep up. 

Ravinia defended its rent increases in an email to Wisconsin Watch. Rents under the previous owner failed to keep pace with the market, the company wrote, adding that rents at Harbor Heights remain lower than comparable communities. 

Ravinia said it encouraged residents to contact management for information about potential hardship assistance but no one has done so. 

The legislation would have limited Wadina’s monthly increase to around $20 unless Ravinia detailed to residents why growing operating expenses necessitated a greater increase.

Amy Bliss, executive director of the Wisconsin Housing Alliance, a manufactured housing trade association, opposes the bill as written. 

Capping rent would hurt owners’ ability to maintain their properties and cause investors and developers to put their money elsewhere, she wrote in a statement to Wisconsin Watch.

“Wisconsin Housing Alliance is happy to work with legislators to make meaningful reforms to keep rents in Wisconsin lower,” the statement said. “We do not agree that this bill will accomplish any of that.” 

Additionally, Bliss added, residents can already offer to purchase their communities through cooperatives, an ownership model that doesn’t always keep costs down or succeed in the long term. Requiring owners to notify residents during a potential sale could be a “restraint of free trade,” she said.

Limiting property tax increases and loosening municipal restrictions on manufactured housing development would more effectively bring down prices, Bliss added.

Smith and Emerson said they are open to feedback and potential changes to their legislation, particularly if it brings bipartisan support.

“Some affordability and some safety is better than having no guardrails on it at all,” Emerson said. 

The bill will need Republican support to draw a public hearing. Smith doubts that will happen during his competitive reelection campaign. 

A similar bill has received bipartisan support in Pennsylvania, said Steve Carlson, co-founder and board president of the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance, a nonprofit organization pushing for stronger resident protections that helped draft the legislation.

“Affordable housing is not a partisan issue,” Carlson said.

Wadina and his neighbors formed a resident association last year. But with no other mechanism to prevent further rent increases, association members are urging their elected representatives to support the legislation. 

The campaign has already yielded some intangible benefits. 

“We’re a lot closer now as a community than we were before,” Wadina said. “We’re doing the best we can to support each other.”

Bill would limit rent hikes in Wisconsin mobile home parks 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.

Democratic lawmakers propose capping annual rent increases and adding other resident protections as corporate ownership expands in manufactured home communities.

The post Bill would limit rent hikes in Wisconsin mobile home parks appeared first on WPR.

An aerial view of residential housing under construction at a planned community in Fontana, California, on Sept. 17, 2025. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats began detailing their affordability agenda Thursday ahead of the November midterm elections, starting with a focus on housing. 

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during an event at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, that if Democrats regain control of the House and Senate they would pass legislation to expand rental assistance, reduce barriers to home ownership, build more housing and address predatory practices. 

Schumer listed several statistics he finds concerning, including that the median price of a home has gone up by 55% since the coronavirus pandemic, that rent has risen by one-third and that the average age for a first-time home buyer is 40. 

“That’s a record high,” he said. “That’s a devastating statistic that should shake up everyone in a position of power at the federal, state or local levels.”

Schumer said the outline for housing is just the first of several cost-of-living policy proposals Democrats will detail this year as they seek to sway voters in key districts and states to vote for their candidates over Republicans.

Democrats, he said, will also focus on how to curb the rising cost of groceries, electricity, child care and health care as part of the midterms messaging. 

On housing, Schumer said Democrats will focus on legislation that would 

• incentivize construction companies to build more housing to address shortages throughout the country;
• expand rental assistance, including Section 8 vouchers for low-income families;
• reduce barriers to home ownership;
• expand the low-income housing tax credit;
• allow the Department of Housing and Urban Development to use the Defense Production Act to purchase “housing materials in short supply”;
• create an agency focused on advanced research into housing issues, similar to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and
• block “predatory companies” from being “allowed to gobble up entire neighborhoods so easily and turn them into profit machines.”

Democratic bills would provide down payment assistance, lower the cost of mortgage insurance, expand access to portable mortgages and “reform homeowners insurance which is now at a crisis level and so important for people who can’t afford that down payment,” Schumer said.  

Democrats have relatively good odds of winning back control of the House during the November midterm elections, especially since the president’s party tends to lose that chamber two years after taking power. 

Campaigns to regain control of the Senate will be much more difficult for Democrats, who face challenges keeping seats in Georgia and Michigan, while trying to flip Republican seats in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio. 

Even if voters were to give Democrats control of Congress, leaders in the party would still need some Republican buy-in to move legislation past the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster and need President Donald Trump to sign legislation into law, unless they had the two-thirds needed in each chamber to override a veto. 

A ‘family conversation’

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said during a panel discussion with Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth that was moderated by CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden that he’s been “radicalized on housing” and pressed for members of the party to talk realistically about issues with supply and affordability. 

“And the reason is that our shortage nationwide, but especially in Hawaii, is so acute that people can’t make the math work anymore,” Schatz said. “In Hawaii, people are paying more than 50%, all-in, of their income for housing, either rental housing or paying a mortgage. And what I have come to realize is that we are the problem.”

Schatz argued that the government “is the primary impediment to alleviating the shortage” and said that realization has led him to have some “very difficult conversations.” 

In Hawaii, he said, there are environmental and cultural protections intended to safeguard “special places” but that have ended up applied more broadly, impeding housing development. 

“They were not originally conceived to prevent a walk-up apartment building on the corner of Eisenberg and King to house Native Hawaiian families,” Schatz said. “And yet those same laws are being weaponized against people in Hawaii even being able to live in the state of Hawaii.”

Schatz said Democrats must be honest with voters about what their housing policies would mean for communities throughout the country, contending the party needs to “solve the politics” around expanded housing before it can tackle the policy debate. 

“I actually think we have to have this family conversation around the politics of housing and realize that some of our base voters in the suburbs, who are otherwise good all the way down the line on all the progressive issues, also want to prevent a nurse or a firefighter or the disabled or the elderly or the student from living anywhere near them,” Schatz said. “And we have to have that conversation in the progressive coalition.”

Rethinking inspections, other processes

Duckworth said some solutions to housing could come through rethinking the processes in place now, similar to how the Department of Veterans Affairs changed its approach to homeless veterans. 

“VA used to say, ‘You have to get clean and sober, and then we’ll give you a voucher to get into an apartment.’ And so it made no sense, right?” Duckworth said. 

“So we had to change the thinking to what the homelessness community had been working on, which is reduction of harm — get them into the housing and then work on getting them clean and sober,” she continued. “And by changing that thought, we were able to immediately start pulling veterans off the streets, put them into housing units where they immediately were also getting counseling, getting treatment.”

Duckworth compared the sometimes slow process of housing inspections that can stop construction with the way the government approaches vehicle safety as one possible way to get things moving faster. 

“With automobiles, we say, ‘This car that you’re manufacturing must be able to withstand a crash at 35 miles an hour into a brick wall.’ And then when they meet and get that car approved, when we go buy that car, we don’t have to take that car to get it inspected from top to bottom, like we do with homes,” Duckworth said. 

She added: “So why would we not say to homebuilders, especially (prefabricated) homes, if you come to VA and you are willing to get two models of your home, pre-inspected, pre-approved, then when a veteran builds a new home and they say, ‘Hey, I’m going to choose one of these models that already has a VA good housekeeping seal of approval,’ they can shortcut that inspection process.”

A homeless teen, holding a sign “Only 19, alone on the street,” asks for help in Manhattan in New York City. A report from the Covenant House and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley finds that schools and agencies could do more to intervene when youth struggle at home. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Twenty-year-old Mikayla Foreman knows her experience is meaningful. Dealing with homelessness since 18 and currently living in a shelter, Foreman has managed to continue her academic journey, studying for exams this month in hopes of attaining a nursing degree.

But Foreman believes there were intervention points that could’ve prevented her from experiencing homelessness in the first place.

“If someone in school had understood what I was going through, things could’ve been very different,” she said in an interview with Stateline.

As more cities impose bans, fines or jail time for adults living on the streets, young people who have been homeless say they face unique problems that could have been addressed earlier. Through more than 400 interviews and survey responses, young people across the country recently told researchers how earlier guidance and intervention might have made a difference for them. The research suggests the country is missing its biggest opportunity to prevent youth homelessness — by intervening well before a young person reaches a shelter and years before they are chronically homeless.

The report, from Covenant House and the University of California, Berkeley, finds that the pathways into youth homelessness are different from those of adults experiencing temporary or chronic homelessness. A young person coming out to their family, or becoming pregnant, or experiencing untreated trauma can create conflicts that push them into homelessness. A lot of that doesn’t show up in current data.

The survey responses offer the nation’s schools and social services agencies the chance to get ahead of youth homelessness, researchers say, not only by intervening earlier, but also by pinpointing and responding to the diversity of needs among teenagers and young adults who might be close to losing their housing.

Advocates say there are multiple intervention points — in school, in child welfare organizations and inside family dynamics — where the worst outcomes can be avoided. States such as California, Florida, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington have explored some of those intervention points in policies that range from guaranteed income pilot programs to youth-specific rental assistance and campus housing protections.

Hawaii has made its youth drop-in and crisis-diversion program permanent, and Oregon and Washington have expanded rental assistance and education-centered supports for vulnerable youth. Florida now requires colleges to prioritize housing for homeless and foster students.

“With young people, we have opportunities to intervene much further upstream — in schools, in families, in child welfare — before anyone has to spend a single night on the streets. That’s simply not the case with older adults,” said David Howard, former senior vice president for Covenant House and a co-author of the new research, in an interview with Stateline.

“Even at 18, 20 or 24 [years old], young people are still developing,” Howard said. “Their vulnerabilities look very different from middle-aged adults, and the support systems they need are different too.”

One of the key points of intervention for potentially homeless youth is school. Public schools across the country have increasingly reported more homeless students since the COVID-19 pandemic.

And homelessness has many various regional factors outside of individual circumstances, such as climate-driven homelessness. More than 5,100 students in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina became homeless as a result of hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.

“Homelessness is multifaceted and lots of us slip through the cracks because the system isn’t designed for our reality,” said Foreman, a former Covenant House resident who helped conduct the new research.

Foreman’s insights and lived experience were included in the study, which showed that youth homelessness rarely begins with an eviction or job loss — frequent causes of homelessness among adults.

The top three reasons that young people experience homelessness for the first time, according to respondents, were being kicked out of their family homes, running away, and leaving an unsafe living situation such as one affected by domestic violence. Other instigators included being unable to afford housing, aging out of foster care, being kicked out of or running away from foster care, and moving away from gang violence.

However, respondents also had suggestions for ways government, schools and the community could help or prevent youth homelessness. They suggested youth-specific housing options, identifying and helping at-risk youth in health care settings, providing direct cash assistance and offering conflict resolution support within families.

Among the most common suggestions was to offer services that create long-lasting connections for young people.

“Strong relationships with non-parental adults, including mentors, teachers, service providers, and elders, were identified as especially important when family connections were strained or absent,” the report said.

The surveys and interviews also demonstrated that young people want mental health care tailored to their personal experience, said Benjamin Parry, a lead researcher on the report, speaking during a September webinar hosted by Point Source Youth, a nonprofit that works to end youth homelessness.

The research breaks out responses from a few specific groups — Indigenous, Latino, immigrant, LGBTQ+ people of color and pregnant or parenting youth — to understand their distinct needs, said Parry, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “There’s so much nuance and specificity within these different groups.”

Indigenous youth, for example, often are dealing with the effects of intergenerational trauma and alcoholism that have been projected onto them, Parry said. Those young people have far different needs than pregnant or parenting youth, he noted.

“They are like, ‘I don’t know where my next paycheck’s going to come from, I don’t know how to put food in my baby’s stomach, I don’t have a support network or someone to go to for this advice,’” he said. “That specificity is exactly why we need to understand this better and do better to tailor our approaches and responses.”

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

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In the national war for affordable housing, a familiar battle is raging in Richland Center, a little city in the Driftless Area that’s surrounded by wilderness and farm fields.

A move to put duplexes on a six-acre village green has pitted some residents against their city government.

“It’s the soccer field, it’s the picnic field, it’s the place where everybody goes,” said Jeri Rust, who grew up in town and now splits time between Richland Center and Arizona.

But “the city needs housing, and we have before us a proposal that would be the envy of any other community,” Richland County Board Chair David Turk said at a September city council meeting. 

Since 2017, the average home price in Richland Center has increased from about $102,000 to $180,000, a 76% change, according to Zillow, the real estate marketplace. 

Stori Field is the “crown jewel” of the neighborhood, said Greg Dettmann, a resident who grew up in the city and lives across the street. 

The field is named for teacher and coach Dave Stori, who revived the high school’s track team in the 1940s. For decades, Stori Field hosted athletic practices and P.E. classes.

“I threw up more than once on that field,” Dettmann, 74, joked about his own time exercising on the field as a kid. “You can’t get green spaces back once they’re gone.”

But Richland Center has between three and six times more parkland than what the National Recreation and Park Association recommends for the city’s population, city attorney Michael Windle estimated. And there are other venues for recreation around the city, he said.

It’s a common fight across the country as residents resist new housing to keep their neighborhoods from changing.

“When you say it’s easy to find places to build, no, it isn’t,” Mayor Todd Coppernoll said at a September city council meeting. “We don’t have adequate housing stock at any income level, in my opinion.” 

Richland Center, like many communities, is struggling to provide affordable housing, especially for older people, as its population ages and the number of small home builders declines, according to a Richland County analysis.

The community’s median income is lagging behind its median home value, and “there is not enough affordable housing,” according to a Richland Center study from 2024. 

The city has struggled to find companies to build. When one developer, Enke Properties, zeroed in on Stori Field and agreed to cover the costs for major expenses like utilities, sidewalks and street lights, the city jumped at the offer. On top of the additional housing, the 16-unit development would also generate about $100,000 in annual tax revenue to be split among the city, county and school district, Richland Center city officials estimate. 

The city greenlit the sale of Stori Field on Oct. 7. In response, but before the transfer officially went through, residents submitted a petition with nearly 700 resident signatures asking the city to prohibit any sale without the voters’ consent. Richland Center has a population of about 5,000 people.

On Nov. 13, the same day the clerk certified most of the signatures, the city rejected the petition, saying it omitted necessary language. The city officially sold the land for $1 to the developer the same day. 

“PR-wise, I think they fell on their face,” Mary Collins, a resident of Richland Center and the chair of the Richland County Democratic Party, said of city officials.

But “from a legal perspective, I’m not sure that there’s anything stopping the city in this instance,” said Derek Clinger, a senior staff attorney for the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

On Nov. 21 residents submitted a second petition, which the city acknowledged but says conflicts with the Oct. 7 ordinance it passed authorizing the sale.

In Wisconsin, Clinger said, a direct legislation attempt, in this case the residents’ petition, can’t be used to pass a city ordinance that clearly conflicts with an existing city ordinance. But the city’s actions could certainly have political consequences in future local elections, he noted.

Shelly Dobbs, another leader in the push to protect Stori Field who has also taken the issue to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said her citizen group is considering legal action. 

But the city’s focus on Stori Field has angered some who feel there are opportunities for development elsewhere. The city says it is considering more options in addition to Stori Field.

Ellen Kellar Evans owns two rental properties near Stori Field with her husband and had been working to build 19 single-family homes in the city. She said Richland Center even offered them a $1.5 million federal grant for the project. But she said the city’s unrealistic deadlines and the ire she feels about the Stori Field project have changed things.

“We don’t think we can trust them anymore to make good decisions,” she said.

The city has since pulled the grant.

Residents have repeatedly pointed to the decommissioned University of Wisconsin campus owned by the county as an alternative to Stori Field. In response, the mayor asked Turk, the county board chair, to give an update on the campus at a special meeting Sept. 24.

“The campus is a big chunk of land,” Turk said. “Is it ready to be developed? No.”

But in his emails to The Badger Project, Windle referenced a Nov. 19 presentation the city gave at a county meeting about a proposed subdivision on the campus.

“We feel like we were fooled by thinking that couldn’t be available for years,” Kellar Evans said. “I’m very confused, myself, and I think everyone else is. We just don’t understand.” 

The campus project, Windle said, would be in addition to Stori Field. 

“At this time,” Windle said, “Stori Field is the sole and exclusive property of Enke Properties, LLC.”

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

This article first appeared on The Badger Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Richland Center residents fight to spare park from city’s affordable housing plans 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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Edith Butler is dealing with a real-world math problem: Her housing costs keep rising while a tax credit intended to help keeps shrinking. 

The widow and retired nurse, 68, lives by herself in a two-bedroom Eau Claire home. She paid $9,000 in rent over the course of last year, eating up more than 60% of her Social Security paycheck — her primary source of income. Her utility costs are also expected to hike next year.

She received $708 last year from claiming a homestead tax credit, which is meant to help lower-income homeowners and renters recoup some property tax costs. That was down from the $900 credit she received five years ago after paying just $6,600 in rent. 

In the past, the homestead credit has paid to fill her propane tank for about three months during winter and offset some other costs. But it’s dwindling each year because the state rarely updates eligibility guidelines and credit calculations for inflation. Butler’s credit shrinks whenever the federal government increases her Social Security payment to account for the rising costs of living. 

She’s not alone. Statewide homestead credit claims dropped from an average of $523 per recipient in 2013 to $486 in 2025, with thousands fewer claimants as fewer people remained eligible.

“These things have never adjusted. But we’ve paid into these programs all our lives. I paid taxes for 50 years, (and) my Social Security is my benefit that I paid in,” Butler said. “You work hard and you pay into programs, and then when you need them in your older years like this, they’re not there for you.”

The Legislature has not substantially updated the homestead credit for 25 years, causing its value to erode. Recent Democratic proposals to update program guidelines have failed to gain Republican support.  

A tax credit’s history

By the 1960s, many in Wisconsin acknowledged the regressive nature of property taxes — that lower-income residents pay higher shares of their income than richer households do,  John Stark, then-Assistant Chief Counsel in the Legislative Reference Bureau, wrote in a 1991 history of property tax relief in Wisconsin. But the state Constitution’s “uniformity clause” restricted what type of tax relief lawmakers can enact. 

Against that backdrop, a State Commission on Aging in 1962 held hearings around the state in which older adults expressed concerns about health care and property taxes. The Legislature responded in 1963 with the homestead credit. Residents 65 and older could claim up to $225 (the equivalent of $2,380 today), with the precise calculation based on income, property taxes paid through ownership or rent.

The Legislature expanded eligibility over the years, notably in 1973, when it lowered the age minimum to 18. That dramatically boosted total claimants and payouts. By 1988, more than 250,000 people received a collective $100 million (roughly $270 million today) in credits.

The trend has since reversed. 

Fewer than 67,000 residents claimed a collective $32.6 million in credits last year — a precipitous plunge, Department of Revenue data show.

The program’s income cap today — $24,680 — has barely budged since 2000. The nearly identical cap of $24,500 in 2000 is the equivalent of $45,812 today when adjusted for inflation.

Meanwhile, the program’s “phaseout income” of $8,060, under which homeowners or renters can recoup the maximum 80% of property taxes paid, has increased by only $60 since the 1989 tax year.

Today’s maximum credit a household can claim ($1,168) is just $8 higher than the 1990 level.

Diane Hanson, Butler’s tax agent, said her clients are receiving smaller credits each year or becoming ineligible as inflation pushes wages or Social Security payments above the static income limit. 

Still, Hanson suspects many who remain eligible don’t realize it.

The homestead credit helped Hanson through her most challenging times. After learning about it at her local library, she claimed the credit for several years while raising her two children during a divorce, one of them with disabilities. 

After becoming a tax agent in 2019, she began to educate clients facing similar circumstances. They include Renata Braatz, who raises her 12-year-old son and spends about 30% of her monthly income on rent through the Section 8 voucher program. She claimed about $600 through the homestead program last year. She spent it on groceries and other expenses for her son.

“I never knew about it. I lived here for six years, and I just started doing it two years ago,” Braatz said. 

But asking questions paid off. 

“Renata was proactive, reaching out, phoning us, and asking if there could be any credits for her. I think that is more than some folks know to do,” Hanson said. “Before I was a tax professional, I myself didn’t know how much the federal earned income credit can help out parents.”

Democrats call for credit’s expansion 

Senate and Assembly Democrats earlier this year introduced identical bills to expand the homestead credit — allowing households earning up to $35,000 to claim it and indexing the maximum annual income, phaseout income and maximum credit to inflation. The proposal would have reduced state revenue by an estimated $36.7 million, $43 million and $48.8 million over the next three fiscal years.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers also proposed a homestead credit expansion in his last two-year budget. 

Neither  proposal advanced in the Republican-controlled Legislature. 

Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, authored the Senate version of the bill with colleagues. His district borders Illinois, which offers a range of more generous homestead tax incentives. Several constituents who previously lived in Illinois asked him why Wisconsin doesn’t offer what Illinois does, inspiring the legislation.

The Wisconsin Constitution’s uniformity clause prohibits lawmakers from enacting Illinois-like tax exemptions for older adults or other low-income residents, Spreitzer said, but the credit offers a legal work-around.

“There’s not really another credit that takes the place of this,” he said. “That’s why the homestead credit is so important.”

Spreitzer said he plans to reintroduce an expansion bill, and he encourages residents to share their perspectives with their representatives.

“If we want to do something about affordability, this is a very direct thing we can do,” Spreitzer said. “We’re not creating a new credit here. This already exists. We’re just talking about increasing who qualifies and how much money they would get back, and that’s money that they would directly be able to get back on their taxes and then spend to put food on the plate for their families.”

Hanson sees a path for bipartisan support for an update. 

“The alternative is to see it dwindle,” Hanson said. “It hurts the segment of people that actually need it, the people who just don’t get much help anywhere. They’re still working hard to be independent.”

As living costs soar, tax relief shrinks for low-income Wisconsin residents 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.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

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.

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Click here to read highlights from the story

• 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.

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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.

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Click here to read highlights from the story

• 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.

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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.

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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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Click here to read highlights from the story

• 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.

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• Rent Smart, a free, six-module course developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, educates people about the essentials of renting. It aims to serve people from high school students and incarcerated individuals to people in homeless shelters.
  
• Completion of the course earns renters a certificate that could make their applications more desirable to landlords.
  
• The interactive classes are accessible online, and they include “Train the Trainer” opportunities for professionals who want to educate renters in their own communities. Educators in Brown County are offering additional in-person training.

In an increasingly tough housing market, a University of Wisconsin program seeks to give renters a leg up in their search for safe, affordable housing by educating them about the process and improving their standing with landlords. 

Rent Smart, a free, six-module course developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, covers the essentials of renting — everything from what’s affordable, what to look for during an apartment inspection and what to ask a landlord while applying. 

“How do we create a really good business relationship between tenants and landlords? I think Rent Smart can help with that,” said Todd Wenzel, a UW-Madison Extension human development and relationships educator in Winnebago County and one of two state co-chairs of the program.

The program aims to serve a variety of people, from high school students and incarcerated individuals to people in homeless shelters. The interactive classes are accessible online, and they include “Train the Trainer” opportunities for professionals who want to educate renters in their own communities.

Successful participants receive a certificate outlining the modules they’ve completed. It can help renters stand out in cases when landlords receive dozens of applications for a single unit, Wenzel said.

Out of 462 people who completed the program and took a survey, 98% said they believed it “will or might help them obtain appropriate housing.” Meanwhile, 84% of those who moved after completing the course said their new housing was safe, more affordable and/or better quality.

For many participants — particularly those facing access issues, Rent Smart is their introduction to how the rental system works.

“Rent Smart (is) helping create potentially a better applicant pool of individuals,” Wenzel said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or you’re 80, or you’ve had an eviction, or you’ve been incarcerated — you have that knowledge that not only is going to help you as a tenant, but it is actually going to help the landlord.”

Patrick Leifker, executive director of the Brown County Housing Authority, said the hope is that landlords who see an applicant’s Rent Smart completion certificate will recognize the effort they’ve put in, whether that means overlooking past evictions or other challenges that might otherwise disadvantage the renter.

Rent Smart offers classes on Zoom 10 months out of the year. The remaining two months are dedicated to teaching people to administer the program locally, expanding the program’s reach. 

That’s what’s happening in Brown County, where Rent Smart trainers are working on making the curriculum more accessible. Previously, most Brown County trainers offered training only within their own organizations, Leifker said. Now, trainers are offering the classes to the broader public.

Rent Smart: just part of the housing solution 

Leifker believes programs like Rent Smart can promote housing stability for Brown County residents who most need it. 

Brown County, like many Wisconsin communities, is seeing housing prices and homelessness rise. 

Wisconsin’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment reached $1,204 this year, an increase of nearly 7% from 2024, according to a National Low Income Housing Coalition report released in July. Fair Market Rents estimate a typical amount a household moving today would pay for a “modest, decent-quality rental home,” according to the report.

Brown County residents must earn $22.06 per hour to afford Fair Market Rent, the report found. It’s the ninth highest wage among counties in Wisconsin, up from 12th highest in 2024.

Meanwhile, Brown County’s annual summer point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness on a single night on July 23 identified 123 unsheltered people on the streets, a preliminary figure that does not include people in homeless shelters. That was up from 31 people counted in July 2019, according to the nonprofit Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care. The figures are widely viewed as an undercount of the true homeless population.

Worsening housing challenges have prompted several Brown County organizations to step in, with some turning to renter education and landlord engagement.

Efforts to educate landlords, too 

The outreach includes making sure landlords understand what to expect when renting to housing assistance recipients.

Much of this work traces back to the formation of a landlord engagement work group as part of a broader plan to tackle homelessness in the region. The workgroup is now part of the Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition. It allows landlords to share real-time feedback on what’s working and what isn’t. 

“For a long time … we knew that we needed each other,” Leifker said. “They needed us to help their tenants ensure that the rent was being paid on time. We knew we needed them for places for our renters to live, but it was really kind of almost on two parallel lines and we never intersected.”

Bill Paape, city of Green Bay inspection supervisor, brings his guidance to the work group, helping answer questions about inspection processes and procedures. 

The city, in partnership with the police department, hosts regular landlord training sessions that bring together speakers from various departments to support both new and experienced landlords. These sessions aim to address issues created by what he described as evolving housing needs and economic shifts.

“Housing is very tough to come by in certain areas, depending on the housing types and the affordability part of it,” Paape said. “So it’s trying to brainstorm what we can do together to make it easier on everybody.”

Still, more is needed to help renters and landlords stay afloat, starting with addressing the root causes of the housing crisis, said Rick Van Der Leest, president of the Apartment Association of Northeast Wisconsin and Fox Valley Apartment Association. Programs are needed that help tenants pay their rent, rather than just delay eviction. 

“Owners cannot be successful without our residents also being successful,” Van Der Leest said.

How to access Rent Smart

Brown County is offering in-person Rent Smart sessions on Thursdays throughout August, with details about September sessions to be later made available. Those interested in registering can find more information on the Brown County UW Extension website or call 920-391-4610. 

People across Wisconsin can find more information about online Rent Smart courses by visiting the UW Extension website.

Rent Smart training helps tenants navigate Wisconsin’s housing crunch 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.