We are.
Sure, and the goal is we're not
cutting this, right?
We're going to try to do a...
Right. It's about a five minute
discussion, but you don't have to
worry about that.
That's my problem.
Yeah.
I'll let you do the hard work.
You do the hard work, I just ask
about it.
Affordable rental housing across
the state is getting a boost,
with the Wisconsin Housing and
Economic Development Authority
announcing nearly $50 million
in housing tax credits to
developers that are expected
to create some 5,000
rental units for working families.
For more on this, we are joined by
WIDA CEO Elmer Moore Jr.,
and thanks very much for being here.
I am delighted to be here and
share with you some of the good news
of the work we've been doing.
Where is the need most acute
for affordable rentals and
will these developments be located
in those areas?
You know, an interesting thing about
housing in today's
environment is that it's acute
everywhere.
The need for affordable housing is
experienced in rural, small
urban, and in
the city centers.
And so wherever we can make
strategic investments in
the form of housing tax credits
across the state, they're going to
be desperately appreciated.
And I want to make one minor
correction. And this is.
Uh, going to finance
more like
2,128
units, but those units
are going to support probably close
to 5,000, uh,
residents.
I see. So it's residents, not
units.
Absolutely, yes.
Gotcha.
So, and these
developments and developers will be
working across the state.
Absolutely.
It's 35 developments.
You know, one of the realities is
that we have not seen
a tax credit development in all
72 Wisconsin counties,
but in this instance,
we're going to be looking at
26 communities across the
state, which is actually pretty
successful.
What is the definition of
affordable?
I'm so glad you asked that,
and I'm going to give you two
definitions.
When we talk about affordable
housing, usually what we're
referring to is what
I refer to as capital A affordable,
which means a subsidized
housing development that is
rent restricted to people
with incomes 80%
or below of the area median income.
These are often financed with
tax credits or other public
sources.
The other side of affordability is
really just housing that occupies
no more than 30%
of a family's income.
So we have started a
conversation about affordable
housing with that capital A.
Also housing that people can afford,
which might be unrestricted, but
it's not necessarily as expensive
as what we have historically called
market rates.
So how do the tax credits
accrue to developers?
This is a great question.
Housing tax credits work very
differently than so many other
kinds of tax credits.
A developer or a
community applies for
competitive or non-competitive
tax credits, and they
sell those credits to
an investor.
The investor has the ability to
write down their tax liability for
up to 10 years, depending on the
type of credit.
For that amount every year.
So, for instance, a million-dollar
tax credit award can
generate something like
$9 million in equity,
you know, awarded by developers
who will, for 10 years,
write off a million dollar
investment from their tax liability.
The value of tax credits to
housing is it makes it possible
for the development of housing that
will be income and rent restricted.
But still operate in a
sometimes profitable way, but
certainly a solvent way.
It's just...
Otherwise... Go ahead.
Yes, I'm sorry.
I was just going to ask if this is a
model that has worked historically.
The the lie tech program, the
low income housing tax credit
program was a
bipartisan effort from
1986.
This was Ronald Reagan's
administration's work.
It is well understood
as the most successful
private published private-public
partnership in
our country's history.
It has generated hundreds of
thousands of rental
housing units and home ownership
units across the country.
For WETA alone, we're talking 61,000
units have been created using the
housing tax credit program.
You know, we have deployed, are you
ready for this number?
644 million dollars
in just tax credits.
That has really moved
the needle and it has incentivized
the investment of
communities and developers in
the form of housing across the
state.
How does a lack of such
kind of affordable rental units
affect the economic health of the
state not to mention the
needs of lower-income renters?
That is playing out
in the form of diminished health
outcomes.
There's an aspect to
educational outcomes.
Everything that we care about in our
society is impacted by whether
or not people have safe,
stable housing.
If they can't afford the housing
that they're occupying, and very
many people, something like 60%
of renters are
in housing that actually is
considered unaffordable. They are
rent-burdened.
The economic outcomes is they're not
able to make very key investments in
things that will support them
thriving, whether that's child care,
investing in their own education,
access to health care, whether it's
the choice between paying rent
or putting gas in your car so
you can get to work on time.
Housing is at the very core
of how we experience life.
You know, it's people who don't
sleep well because they're
cold, because they are cramped,
because the quality of the housing
that they have access to is
affecting their health.
They're not able to get to work on
time. They're able to make
investments in our economy.
They're showing up to school while
rested to learn.
Everything is better when housing is
better.
Is it the expectation though that
because of declining working age
population the need for
new housing units like this will
also decline?
Unfortunately, that isn't exactly
the case.
There's multitudes of housing,
whether it's senior housing,
family housing, housing for people
with special physical or cognitive
needs.
In Wisconsin, 60%
of the housing is more than 40
years old.
You know, I live in a house that's
120, and I can guarantee you,
when those craftsmen were building
that structure, they didn't
necessarily plan for me to be living
in it 120 years later.
That's how housing has always been.
We are in a crisis because
housing is both unaffordable,
we aren't producing enough of it,
and what we have is often aging out.
Well Elmer Moore, we leave it there.
Thank you so much for joining us.
I'm so grateful.
Thank you for your time.
Correct that number as well.
Thank you
We will correct we will
correct that number that
we set at the head.
Thank you
That sounds great.
Have an amazing weekend.
Thanks for your time.
Thank you. You too.
It was nice to see you.
Nice to see you.
All right, so I
got two leads to redo.