Fiscal Note
Funding of $100,000 for the Work Force Housing Initiative is authorized in the 2011 Adopted Operating Budget as part of the Homebuyer’s Assistance Program (p. 32).
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Authorizing amendments to the Homebuyer’s Assistance Program to provide work force housing loans to eligible borrowers to fund a portion of the acquisition and/or rehabilitation cost of eligible properties in the Greenbush and Vilas Neighborhoods.
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The Greenbush and Vilas neighborhoods are well connected to a variety of local amenities, shopping, restaurants, transit, parks and trails, lakes, as well as the University of Wisconsin and downtown. The neighborhoods are home to Meriter and St. Mary’s hospitals, which provide significant services and employment to the surrounding neighborhoods and region. The neighborhoods are witnessing many positive signs; however, some overcrowded and poorly managed rental housing remains a challenge, and much of the housing in the neighborhood is unaffordable for the employees working nearby at St. Mary’s, Meriter, Edgewood College, and the University of Wisconsin.
The recently adopted Greenbush-Vilas Housing Revitalization Strategy requests that City agencies consider including the recommendations of the Report in future work plans and budgets and proceed with the implementation of the priority projects contained in the Plan. The Economic Development Division of the Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development has responded by evaluating the Homebuyer’s Assistance Program for amendment to provide work force housing loans in the Greenbush and Vilas neighborhoods and securing $100,000 in the City’s 2011 Adopted Operating Budget for the operation of the Program.
Meriter Health Services has taken a leadership role in the revitalization of the Neighborhood by creating Madison’s first workforce housing assistance program. Their Healthy Neighborhood Initiative, in collaboration with WHEDA and Common wealth Development Corporatio...
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