By Julian Emerson
When Kate Beaton heard that Eau Claire City Manager Dale Peters had proposed moving up by two years the expenditure of $200,000 to address affordable housing needs more rapidly, she quickly backed the idea.
Beaton, an Eau Claire City Council member, bought a small home in the city’s Third Ward a year ago. She got a good deal on the house, she said, and feels good about building equity instead of renting. Peters’ measure to provide city funding via the capital improvement project budget to buy a vacant city lot and foster the development of as many as 50 affordable single-family residences hit home for her.
“Being able to afford a home of my own made me feel financially empowered,” Beaton said, “and I wanted (to) support action that would help others do the same.”
Then Beaton heard a series of heartfelt comments by city residents addressing her fellow City Council members during Monday’s council meeting. As she listened to speakers describe the challenges they face simply affording a place to live, even a run-down home, Beaton decided the council needed to do more.
Residents’ comments spark action
“After what we heard last night, it was clear to me that ($200,000 proposal) wasn’t enough,” Beaton said after the meeting. “We had to do more, to do better. The issue of affordable housing is as urgent as ever, and we needed to allocate more money to renter occupied, low-income housing as well as single-family homes.”
Beaton and her City Council colleagues did just that. She and Councilman Andrew Werthmann proposed a budget amendment to spend $500,000 originally scheduled for 2023 on multi-family housing next year. The council approved the measure by a 9-2 vote, with David Klinkhammer and Emily Berge voting “no.”
The council also voted to adopt Peters’ recommendation, moving up $200,000 from 2022 to next year to buy a vacant lot and help fund as many as 50 single-family homes. That vote was part of the Council’s adoption of the 2020-2024 capital improvement budget that includes $209 million to be spent for a wide variety of projects.
City officials have not yet identified the property where those homes would be built because of concerns it could hinder the project.
The City Council’s actions mark the first time the city has addressed affordable housing so directly in its budget. That’s a sign of an affordable housing dilemma across the Chippewa Valley and elsewhere that has grown in recent years and is reaching crisis status, according to council members, other local government officials and community activists.
‘Courageous’ comments cited
Werthmann agreed that residents’ “courageous” comments Monday about challenges affording housing prompted him, Beaton and others to support added spending for affordable housing next year.
“The testimony we heard was asking us to be bold and to prioritize (affordable housing) in our budget,” he said. “To me, that is exactly what we needed to do. The 200 thousand is a good first step, but we needed to go further.”
Emily Shields was among the people who spoke during Monday’s council meeting about the need for more attention toward affordable multi-family housing. She and others who live at Maples Mobile Home Park on Eau Claire’s north side face removal from their homes because of unsafe housing conditions there. Those who live there can’t find housing for a number of reasons, chief among them a lack of money and available housing they qualify for.
Shields praised the council’s allocating more funding sooner for affordable housing, saying many city residents need assistance.
“It’s amazing,” an appreciative Shields said today. “The push that we at Maples made, it’s good to know that what we said helped (council members) realize the importance of this issue. And it’s not just Maples. This will make a difference for so many people.”
Second affordable housing measure backed
Council members backed another affordable housing initiative Tuesday, approving multiple actions related to a housing project in the Cannery Redevelopment District that would include more than 100 units, some of them projected as low-income housing.
The council’s action provides $800,000 in Tax Increment Finance district funding for the housing development. The project is scheduled to be built in two phases – the first market rate housing and the second comprised of affordable housing apartments. Plans call for the first phase to begin later this year and the second portion next year, although the timing is not certain.
How much of that project will be comprised of affordable housing remains in question, officials said. Funding to subsidize the developer’s cost is dependent on obtaining low-income federal housing credits.
“The affordable housing part of this really does depend on obtaining low-income housing credits,” Beaton said, noting city officials feel good about the chances that will happen despite the competitive process to do so.
Berge notes other budget challenges
Berge said while she strongly supports efforts to provide more affordable housing, she voted against the $500,000 measure because of the last-minute nature of the proposal and questions about how exactly that money will be spent. In addition, she said, multiple efforts – such as community block grant development funds, the Cannery District project and a transit transfer center development – will address affordable housing, while other community challenges like mental health, limited transportation, stagnant wages and healthcare costs also need funding and attention.
“I was not expecting to vote on an amendment for $500,000 for multi-family housing in 2020 (Tuesday),” Berge said. “I had too many questions, such as where will this development go? Who will build it? What is the timeline? There are many concerns in our community … and not enough money to go around.”
A regional affordable housing task force has been working on the affordable housing issue for the past year and last week released a report listing multi-family affordable apartments as a top need.
“These are biggest strides toward affordable housing in our city’s history,” Werthmann said of Tuesday’s Council votes. “It’s something we felt compelled to do.”