This coming weekend, Memorial Day
weekend, kicks off the summer
tourist season in Wisconsin.
In years past, tourism hotspots
have seen difficulty hiring enough
workers.
Part of the trouble with hiring has
to do with employees finding a
place to live that they can afford
in these sought after areas.
This week, new workforce housing
units opened in Vilas County
in Lac du Flambeau.
The two and three-bedroom units
are very, very welcome,
according to the chair of the Vilas
County Economic Development
Corporation, Jim Tuckwell.
He joins us along with the
developer, Kevin MacDonald, and
thanks to both of you for being
here.
Thanks for having us.
So Jim, first to you,
why are these units so very
welcome?
Well, as you pointed out, Frederica,
we, we badly need affordable
housing here.
Um, our, our population
is skewed to older residents.
We have a lot of retirees in Valos
County and conversely,
uh, the, the people
that are age 20 to 34, those
that would be looking for affordable
housing, most likely as they're
starting out their careers, um,
we have, uh much fewer,
like 8% fewer.
People in residence in that age
group than the state of Wisconsin.
So we really badly need
units like Kevin's to
attract younger people
who can join the workforce.
As you pointed out,
So Kevin, tell me about this new
development of apartments.
They're described as workforce
housing, but also luxury
affordable with rents
ranging, I saw from about 900
to $1,200 a month.
What are the units like?
Yeah, I mean, the units are really
great.
They're all townhouse style
units, individual entries,
attached garages.
All of the buildings have rooftop
solar.
And in terms of the affordability
and the level, we have a wide range
of residents that we're serving.
So we have market rate
units, which we have actually
a tremendous demand for, a huge
waiting list right now.
We have...
On the other end of the spectrum,
something called 811 housing voucher
units that are for folks that have
some type of disability, physical,
mental, emotional.
There's a number of different types
of disabilities that can qualify for
those units, but those units are set
aside for individuals with very
low incomes, 30%
or less than the county mean income.
And then we have about
27 out of the 40 units
are what we'd call kind
of more traditional workforce
housing units.
Set aside for 50 to
60% of the Vilas
County median income.
Why did you decide to break ground
in Lac du Flambeau?
Um, so originally,
um, when we started, it was kind
of the beginnings of COVID,
the work from home kind
of movement was starting.
And we saw a lot of people
moving into areas like
Vilas County, um
and thought there'd be some of
that trend would continue.
Um, when We got into
Vilas county and started working
with Jim and the county and
the local tribal members, we
realized kind of how much of a need
there was for the
local, tribal members as
well. So it was kind of originally
more with kind of
tourism, kind of economy
in mind with the
kind of work from home thought
and then just the need in the
area for the tribal members was
tremendous as well
Interesting. So Jim, how will
40 new two and three
bedroom town homes help
the affordable housing crunch
in your county?
Well, the key here is that
this development serves not
only Lacta Flambo, but also
the surrounding community.
So people typically commute
anywhere from 10 to 30
miles for work,
and so this is gonna serve a
wide range of the surrounding
communities.
Jim, you've described that some
people can't take jobs that are
offered to them in
your region because they
can't find the housing.
What are employers saying to you
about that issue?
Oh, we hear this and
have been hearing it for a while
from employers that in
some cases they've offered and had
jobs accepted.
And then the individuals
can't find an affordable place to
live and have to turn the job down.
Um, and others just aren't even
applying for the jobs just because
again, they can't a place to
living in advance.
So it's a very key issue
in this. This serves a very, very
significant need for us.
Speaking of seasonal
jobs, tourism,
what does the worker
shortage that we've experienced
post-COVID look like
this year?
Well, it's significant.
We continue to see a lot of
help-wanted signs, and
particularly in tourism-related
retail and services businesses.
So it's a very key thing.
Kevin, you were talking about you
originally went looking for
the remote worker that would
have moved north to
build housing.
What about that, the kind
of demographic of folks that are
now living outside
of cities?
Is that a kind of a new frontier for
developers?
Yeah, I mean, I think we're seeing
some of that stick, for sure.
I think it's
kind of a constantly changing thing.
Obviously, we're seen companies
kind of backtrack on that
policy, but we're also seeing a lot
of companies kind of maintain
that work,
work from home, flexibility.
So I think that will
probably be here for a long
time. But,
yeah, so we're...
The world has definitely changed a
lot, right? And I think we are
seeing kind of more of those
features kind
of incorporated into developments.
We're adding Zoom rooms and
things like that into some of our
developments and just trying to keep
that in mind.
You know, internet, high speed
internet is huge at all of our
development. And we're trying to
make sure we have really great
options for residents to
work from home when that's an option
for them.
How rewarding is it for you
to build these
affordable units for folks?
Um, it's really,
really rewarding.
I mean, going to a grand opening
or an open house where we get to see
residents come in and like
the smiles on their faces is
priceless.
And Jim, was that your experience as
well with the open house
that you had up there?
I think that was just this week.
What was the kind of response from
folks?
Oh, it's tremendous.
I mean, we toured, we toward, you
know, individual town homes,
you a three bedroom town home with
an attached garage and two and a
half baths.
I've been very, very high quality,
very well done and very
impressive. So it's a
it's A phenomenal development.
Great, we leave it there.
Jim Tuckwell and Kevin MacDonald,
thank you so much.