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leave it on that note. Jeff
Lamont, thanks so much.

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>> Thank you so much.
>> Affordable rental

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housing across the state is
getting a boost with the

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Wisconsin Housing and
Economic Development

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Authority announcing nearly
$50 million in housing tax

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credits to developers that
are expected to create

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rentals for up to 5000
people from working

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families. For more on this,
we are joined by WHEDA CEO

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Elmer Moore RFK, Jr. Thanks
very much for being here.

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>> I am delighted to be
here and share with you

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some of the good news of
the work we've been doing.

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>> Where is the need most
acute for affordable

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rentals, and will these
developments be located in

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those areas?
>> You know, an interesting

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thing about housing in
today's environment is that

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it's acute everywhere. The
need for affordable housing

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is experienced in rural and
small, urban and in the in

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the city centers. And so
wherever we can make

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strategic investments in in
the form of housing tax

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credits across the state,
they're going to be

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desperately appreciated.
>> And these developments

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and developers will be
working across the state.

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>> Absolutely. It's 35
developments. You know, one

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of the realities is that we
have not seen a tax credit

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development in all 72
Wisconsin counties, but in

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in this instance, we're
going to be looking at 26

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communities across the
state, which is actually

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pretty, pretty successful.
>> What is the definition

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of affordable?
>> I'm so glad you asked

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that. And I'm going to give
you two definitions. When

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we talk about affordable
housing, usually what we're

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referring to is what I
refer to as capital A

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affordable, which means a
subsidized housing

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development that is rent
restricted to people with

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incomes 80% or below of the
area median income. These

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are often financed with tax
credits or other public

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sources. The other side of
affordability is really

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just housing that occupies
no more than 30% of a

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family's income. So we have
started a conversation

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about affordable housing
with that capital A also

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housing that people can
afford, which might be

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unrestricted. But it's it's
not necessarily as

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expensive as what we have
historically called market

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rate.
>> I was just going to ask

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if this is a model that has
worked historically.

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>> The the light tech
program, the low income

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housing tax credit program
was a bipartisan effort

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from 1986. This was Ronald
Reagan's administration's

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work. It is well understood
as the most successful

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private public, private
public partnership in in

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our country's history. It
has generated hundreds of

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thousands of rental housing
units and homeownership

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units across the country.
For WHEDA alone, we're

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talking 61,000 units have
been created using the the

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housing tax credit program.
You know, we have deployed.

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Are you ready for this
number, $644 million in

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just tax credits? That has
really moved the needle,

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and it has incentivized the
investment of communities

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and developers in the form
of housing across the state.

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>> How does a lack of such
kind of affordable rental

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units affect the economic
health of the state, not to

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mention the needs of lower
income renters?

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>> That is playing out in
the form of diminished

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health outcomes. There's an
aspect to educational

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outcomes. Everything that
we care about in our

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society is impacted by
whether or not people have

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safe, stable housing. If
they can't afford the

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housing that they are
occupying. And very many

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people, something like 60%
of renters are in housing

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that actually is considered
unaffordable. They are rent

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burdened. The economic
outcomes is they're not

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able to make very key
investments in things that

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will support them thriving,
whether that's childcare,

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investing in their own
education, access to health

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care, whether it's the
choice between paying rent

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or putting gas in your car
so you can get to work on

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time. Housing is at the
very core of how we

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experience life.
>> Is it the expectation,

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though, that because of
declining working age

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population, the need for
new housing units like this

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will also decline?
>> Unfortunately, that

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There's multitudes of
housing, whether it's

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senior housing, family
housing, housing for people

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with special physical or
cognitive needs. In

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Wisconsin, 60% of the
housing is more than 40

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years old. You know, I live
in a house that's 120. And

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I can guarantee you, when
those craftsmen were

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building that structure,
they didn't necessarily

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plan for me to be living in
it. 120 years later, that's

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how housing has always been.
We are in a crisis because

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housing is unaffordable. We
aren't producing enough of

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it, and what we have is
often aging out.

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>> Well, Elmer Moore, we
>> Well, Elmer Moore, we