Project Goal

Develop a strategy for churches to support more affordable housing in their communities, working together with others of faith and housing organizations. Underlying this project goal is the Wisconsin Council of Churches Statement on Economic Justice that calls us to live out Gospel values. The focus here is the compelling call to assure decent shelter for everyone.

Scope

The affordable housing strategy will be:

Based on a statewide picture of affordable housing needs with particular attention to the northwestern and southwestern rural areas of Wisconsin.

 + Informed by perspectives of affordable housing advocates and agencies on key housing needs and potential strategies by which people of faith might address the needs.

 + Developed by people of faith who discern how we in our churches can individually and collectively respond to affordable housing needs, as we grow in faith and faithfulness while serving our neighbors.

 + Directed toward potential action by (a) The Wisconsin Council of Churches itself, and (b) individuals of faith, congregations, and statewide denominations. The Council anticipates that it will play a role in state policy advocacy, and provide information and support for member churches to address affordable housing concerns at the community level.

Affordable Housing: Background

National and state studies point to a growing problem of housing affordability. One simple way of looking at this problem is an imbalance of supply of affordable housing, and the demand for affordable housing. Simply put, the supply or number of housing units that is affordable for poor/low-income people declined nationally with rents growing faster than inflation and wages in general. While supply is down, demand is up -- with more people of limited financial means who struggle to make ends meet. Very poor people most often rent, rather than own homes (although this is less true in rural areas). To illustrate the gap of supply and demand in the rental market, consider this: statewide, the 2002 estimated Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit is $596 per month; in non-metro Wisconsin, such a unit is $464 per month. Using the guideline that rent should not be more than 30% of income - a minimum wage earner can afford monthly rent of no more than $268 per month, and a person with a disability on federal Supplemental Security Income can afford rent of no more than $164. (Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition www.nlihc.org). Similar affordability challenges exist for home ownership. Home ownership is increasingly priced out of the means of young people and the poor, especially in urban areas.

To fill the gap between supply and demand for affordable housing, action is needed to add supply of housing units, or increase the buying power of the poor to demand housing.

 + More affordable housing units must be built with private and/or public capital. Public policy can help by changing zoning and building regulations or offering incentives so it is less expensive for private (profit or nonprofit) developers to create and maintain affordable housing.

 + Programs that subsidize renters or buyers of limited means can help affordability. Such programs now exist, but don’t meet demand.

 + Public policies and programs, and public-spirited voluntary efforts by individuals and organizations, can help to upgrade the incomes of the poor so they can better afford housing. For example, this could be training and support to secure better jobs, better minimum or living wage laws, more progressive taxes, or more generous public benefits to provide income and supplemental income support.

Affordable housing challenges are not just about money however. Other barriers or issues or special needs include, for example:

 + People with larger families and low to moderate income can’t find apartments or houses of sufficient size.

 + People with special needs due to disabilities, including frail elderly people, can’t find physically accessible units.

 + People with mental illness, substance abuse, poor rental history, or other circumstances may need treatment, temporary shelter and transitional housing, and a range of community supports to find and retain housing. Note that a combination of welfare reform and lack of health and social services to meet needs of these groups has been associated with increasing homelessness.

 + Poverty in general complicates housing considerations, notably in the area of transportation, with serious but differing issues in urban vs. rural areas.

 + Racial discrimination limits opportunities to access and retain housing.

While most often the poorest people in Wisconsin rent, some poor people are homeowners, especially in rural Wisconsin. Homeowners of limited financial means face both financial and non-financial issues such as:

 + Inability to maintain/repair property, a real need in older housing stock.

 + Costs of heating, property taxes and other home ownership.

 + Safety and accessibility issues for the elderly and people with disabilities, or for children (such as issues of lead-based paint).

 + Racial discrimination in accessing mortgages and other aspects of home ownership.

There is no single face of the affordable housing crisis: people have varying needs and circumstances. And there is no single “silver bullet” to resolve the crisis. Many people of good will, churches, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies have worked to improve the situation. Yet overall, we are losing ground. We are called to do better.

The Work of Churches and People of Faith

Church mission includes direct help or service and also advocacy for justice, important ways that churches carry out our call to love our neighbor. We can carry out these missions by volunteering our time and talents, by giving money or other resources to individuals or organizations, or by raising our voices. Churches can address affordable housing needs in all these ways. In this project, we will seek to identify key needs from the standpoint of housing advocates and experts, in order to help foster greater church engagement in this mission. We will also learn more about what churches now do in the area of affordable housing. We hope to inspire others by their examples, and find ways congregations and housing agencies can collaborate to build on existing good work.

As examples, we know that many congregations and individuals of faith volunteer time and provide money for enterprises such as:

 + Habitat for Humanity helping build individual homes.

 + Shelters for Homeless whether non-profit or church-based.

 + Individual needs helping specific people meet basic needs short term or long term.

Some congregations and denominations also emphasize advocacy for state or federal action, e.g.:

 + Better funding for anti-poverty programs or social services.

 + More adequate homeless shelter support and programming.

 + Other housing related initiatives.

There is more that churches can do, and that some churches have done:

 + Actually developed and maintained affordable housing units (sometimes, including integrated support services for families and individuals at risk of losing housing).

 + Worked with landlords and tenants in our own communities to address contentious issues concerning conditions of rental, eviction, and the like.

 + Focused on specific housing policy issues - often complex and controversial - such as land use/zoning barriers to special needs housing, economic integration of neighborhoods in our communities, and others where we can offer our faith witness and seek to find solutions.

 + Looked at member and congregational investments in vehicles that are socially responsible in general and foster affordable housing in particular.

Project Structure

 1) WCC Board/Executive Council: Responsible for oversight of all the WCC activities including this project.

 2) Project Steering Group: Responsible to guide the project, provide hands-on help in the forums, and develop the final strategy recommendations with support from WCC staff and the Housing Needs Assessment Group. Members will consist of: a) a member of the WCC Board; b) a housing agency and a congregational representative from SW Wisconsin; c) a housing agency and a congregational representative from NW Wisconsin; d) two housing agency and two congregational representatives from urbanized Wisconsin; and e) one or two others who bring particular expertise in how to engage the public and/or congregations in affordable housing issues.

 3) Housing Needs Assessment Group: This team will be asked to accomplish two tasks. First, they will be asked to develop the housing needs assessment, with proposed consensus on key needs and data both statewide and in SW and NW Wisconsin. Second, they will be asked to advise the project on where help from the faith community would be most valuable. This will be a voluntary group including some (or all) of the housing representatives from the Steering Group plus others. Federal, state and local experts will be asked to provide advice and information. The federal HUD officer has offered to play a key role in pulling together the housing needs assessment, and other experts from SW, NW, and urbanized Wisconsin will be invited to contribute as well.

 4) Staffing: Rev. Ken Pennings is the WCC project coordinator and Barbara Hummel is the project facilitator.

Contact: Rev. Ken Pennings (608) 837-3108