COVER FEATURE
by B.C. Kowalski
THE AFFORDABILITY QUESTION A new task force looks to address what to do about Wausau’s affordable housing - or lack thereof Say what you want about Madison, but they’ve been taking the lead on reimagining the challenges around affordable housing. Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway last month unveiled a number of new initiatives meant to “create affordable housing, combat displacement, ensure seniors can stay in their homes, and end homelessness,” according to Madison’s Channel 3000. City officials told Channel 3000 that these moves are crucial as the city, if trends continue, could see 70,000 new residents and 40,000 new households. Wausau is going in this direction too. The first hints at the demolition of the Wausau Center mall have begun as a private entity formed out of two non-profits starts to make it pad ready for developers, primarily for housing. The current number being thrown around is 1,000 new units of residential living in the downtown area in the next years to come. Those units are all primarily expected to be market-rate housing. And the market is going up in Wausau. It’s not always easy to find a good source for median housing prices, though some are certainly around. Median rent in Wausau in 1990 was only $360. That increased to $473 in 2000, and
$651 in 2013. Given that rate of increase, that would put the median rent at $754 this year. But that’s only projecting a median rate today based on the historical increase per year on median rent prices. A look through housing prices on apartment.com reveal the real median price — of apartments actually available to rent — might be a lot higher. A browse through apartment.com revealed several apartments in the $550$750 range, but many more were in the $900+ range. And some of the less costly apartments are income controlled, so can only be rented by folks who make under a certain amount. And all of the new units being built now tend to be in that higher price range. As the costs of building go up as material prices increase — as much as 10% in a month, by some accounts — the idea of building new affordable houses or apartments is pretty much out of the question. What’s left are renovation projects, and those usually rely on tax credits that also come with income requirements for renters. And, according to Mayor Katie Rosenberg, those credits only require an affordable price for 15 years, and some big ones
are coming up soon. “Then people are finding themselves squeezed out,” Rosenberg says. “What does that look like and how can we make sure that not everyone is squeezed out at the same time in our community?” It’s a problem Wausau is hoping to address with a new affordable housing task force.
Housing in Wausau
Although the task force will be tasked with studying the housing needs of the city, a lot of the work has already been done. The city released a report earlier this year called The Housing Affordability report. And that report is clear: The city needs more affordable housing. Demand for public housing is high, the report says. Public housing units run by the city’s Housing Authority typically see 100% occupancy or darned close to it. Even their subsidized units have very high occupancy, according to 2020 reports. Median rent in Wausau ranges from $552 for a one-bedroom apartment to $1,063 for a four-bedroom. About onequarter of the units in the city are one-bedroom apartments, according to the report. One really surprising statistic out of the
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Gentrification
City Council Member Tom Kilian didn’t mince words at an Economic Development Committee meeting where the affordable housing task force was discussed. It ought to include an anti-gentrification element to it, he told fellow committee members. It didn’t go over too well. Kilian didn’t feel that an early idea he’d brought up at the committee — Community Land Trusts — went over well either. The idea behind Community Land Trusts is that they help ensure housing affordability for residents to help them avoid being priced out of their own neighborhoods. Communities as distinct as Oakland and Houston have adopted the land trust model. Community Land Trusts are essentially anti-gentrification measures. But is gentrification necessarily a bad thing? Not everyone agrees. UCLA housing researcher Nolan Gray in an article for The Atlantic Monthly argues for more luxury housing, not less. Gray points to an apartment complex in Seattle that was once designed for young professional tech workers and says
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report: More than half (52%) of all households in Wausau are considered low income by HUD standards. Also interesting, owner-occupied units (ie houses) go for 65% of the national median; but rent is 72% of the national median, lending credence to the notion that it is often cheaper to buy than rent in Wausau (as Rosenberg points out, as long as that someone can get past the barrier of coming up with a down payment, that is.) If anything demonstrates the need for affordable housing it’s that.
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