Affordable Housing Push In Waukesha County Winning Support

The Journal Sentinel editorial board is on the right side of the affordable housing issue in Waukesha County.

As this blog as observed often, affordable housing in the region has been forced into the City of Milwaukee and other urbanized areas, with smaller cities preferring upscale subdivisions, and using local zoning codes as the legal means to make the construction of more modest and multi-unit housing near impossible.

This disproportionate channeling of affordable housing into Milwaukee County, and to a lesser extent, Racine and Kenosha, contributes to an unequal distribution of jobs weighted where better housing is located, and that makes it harder for working families to live near their places of employment.

And that, in turn, extends commuting time and costs for the people least able to make the sacrifice, especially where there is a lack of transit.

It's great to see grassroots groups, activists and religious coalitions joining in the push for a housing trust fund to help create more affordable housing in Waukesha County.

And if the fund is created, it needs to target some resources away from the City of Waukesha, because the city is farther ahead of its nearby neighboring towns, villages and cities, and because the needs are great in those communities, too.