Eau Claire Housing Authority Hosts Senator Tammy Baldwin Visit

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin visited Eau Claire this week, touring a property recently renovated by the Eau Claire Housing Authority.

Senator Baldwin discussed the widespread impacts of the affordable housing crisis during the visit, saying it’s become a much more common issue across the state.

“No matter where I travel in Wisconsin, I am hearing about a housing crisis, especially for those who need affordable housing,” she said. “People in the workforce, I hear from business owners that, as they try to grow their workforce, people come and say I’d love to work here, thank you for the job offer, I can’t find housing in the area. That is not healthy for our communities and it’s a crisis and a challenge that we really need to work in partnership to address.”

Senator Baldwin highlighted the 21st Century Road to Housing Act during the visit, a significant legislative package passed by the Senate earlier this year. The legislation seeks to lower housing costs and limit the amount of single family homes that corporate landlords can purchase.

The City of Eau Claire is facing its own affordable housing struggles, with a vacancy rate below the state average and typical healthy levels. Senator Baldwin noted some ways that the City has already started to address that issue.

“The City has identified lots that have not been developed yet that potentially could be,” she said. “If the City owns that, that’s a really great opportunity for a partnership to, you know, give a discount on the land so it can be developed more affordably. If it’s not something that the City owns, the City could play a role in negotiating with the landowner of vacant property and, you know, see if it’s suitable for housing development.”

Senator Baldwin also highlighted the need to push domestic manufacturing companies into building more housing components here, as well as providing homebuilders with more of an on-ramp to meet buy America requirements for things like fire suppression systems that are not currently made in large quantities domestically.

“We have to send a strong signal to U.S. manufacturers that if you start making this, you will have a market, we will buy it because of these buy America requirements,” she said. “But until then, the homebuilders have to have a place to source the components.”

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act passed with strong bipartisan support in the Senate, but the House of Representatives has not yet considered it.