Various promising approaches to the community’s need for affordable housing have produced some progress but even this combined effort has fallen short of what’s needed.
That was one takeaway from Thursday evening’s online discussion of affordable housing for the Chippewa Valley, presented by the Women’s Giving Circle (WGC) as its annual educational event. The WGC is a fund of the Eau Claire Community Foundation whose members pool their donations to provide grants to nonprofit organizations that work to enhance the well-being of local women and children.
Since its founding 15 years ago, the WGC has distributed grants totaling $401,421.
One approach to the need for more affordable housing is the one taken by Hope Village, which has developed a series of “tiny houses” in Chippewa County. Chris Maslonkowski, a Hope Village board member, said these small structures are currently located on the grounds of five churches but the plan is to bring them together at a single location both for efficiency and to create a greater sense of community.
The houses, which cost about $10,000 to build with volunteer help, serve as transitional housing where mentors help the residents develop “secure living plans” that include – among other things – financial counseling and access to mental, physical and spiritual health care. Maslonkowski called this one way to deal with the “shortage of low to moderate housing” and added that “our program is a stepping stone to permanent housing.”
Judi Moseley, co-chair of JONAH’s Affordable Housing Task Force, cited the nationwide trend toward “urban sprawl” – resulting in part from larger homes on larger lots – as one factor that has reduced the number of affordable homes. She said one response might be to revise zoning regulations to allow – for example – the construction of auxiliary housing on what now are single-family lots.
Billie Hufford, an associate planner for the city of Eau Claire, said that the city’s housing stock grew only 4% in the decade following the 2010 census while the population grew 7%, increasing the shortfall of available housing. This allows landlords to be quite “choosy” about who they will rent to, she added.
Moseley noted that one reason employers are having difficulty hiring workers is the lack of local housing that workers can afford.
She encouraged members of the public get involved in the efforts to deal with the housing issue and to let members of the Plan Commission and City Council know how they feel. Many people do that only when they oppose some pending measure and suggested that residents also need to let their representatives know when they favor a proposal, she said.
The program was recorded and is available here.
This story was reported by David Gordon, associate editor