Housing
When I was elected to be your mayor, I promised to tackle Madison’s housing crisis. Despite a global pandemic, we have made significant progress. We have more than doubled the affordable housing budget since 2019 and have built thousands of new housing units, but there is more work to do. The city must use all the tools in its toolkit to encourage the construction of affordable housing and solve our housing crisis.
My Housing Forward initiative, launched in 2021, is an ambitious plan to increase housing choice, promote affordable housing throughout Madison, combat displacement and segregation, ensure seniors can stay in their homes, prevent evictions, and work to end homelessness.
We have delivered on many of the promises I made to you when I first took office and I look forward to continuing to build a better Madison.
I promised to...
Expand the allowable uses of the Affordable Housing Fund to include anti-displacement efforts and land banking for affordable housing.
Preserve existing affordable housing and improve its quality. Strengthen and support programs that provide low income loans and free assistance for home improvement programs.
Produce more units of housing – both market rate and affordable.
Fully leverage Tax Increment Financing [TIF] and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to encourage the production of more affordable units in all neighborhoods.
Explore waiving requirements like parking minimums and setbacks, and allowing a density bonus for projects containing a significant number of affordable units, and projects located near transportation hubs.
Support and encourage housing cooperatives as an affordable solution for people of all ages and all walks of life. Support and encourage land trusts as an affordable ownership solution.
Support land banking for affordable housing.
Encourage the creation of more tiny house villages.
Support tenants and prevent evictions. Ensure that people facing eviction have legal representation.
Prioritize stabilizing families in danger of eviction.
Use data to target services and resources to those most vulnerable and at risk for housing displacement.
We delivered...
Expanded the use of the Affordable Housing Fund to a wider range of projects, including preserving affordable housing, promoting homeownership, cooperatives, land trusts and more, especially in areas at risk for displacement.
Launched a project to improve energy and water efficiency in naturally occurring affordable housing to ensure housing is safe and comfortable. Targeted down-payment assistance programs with the goal of helping 250 households of color become homeowners. Increased funding for home repair programs.
Amended the zoning code to make it easier to build ‘missing middle’ housing and to to allow higher density mixed use outside downtown. Launched the Backyard Homes Project and new financing to help people build backyard cottages to add small scale housing opportunities to every neighborhood. Created a transit overlay zone to allow more housing near high frequency transit. After nearly a decade of the housing market not keeping up with demand, we have finally seen a shift. We permitted more new housing units in 2021 and 2022 as we had in the previous four years combined.
More than doubled the Affordable Housing Fund. Since 2019, the fund has supported hundreds of units of housing and leveraged millions of dollars in private funding.
Shifted the focus of the Affordable Housing Fund to prioritize transit access, affordability for those making 30% of area median income, and to guarantee longer-term affordability. Adopted transit oriented development program to allow more housing and remove parking minimums near high-frequency transit.
Changed zoning code to make it easier to establish cooperative housing . Dedicated $1.68 million to cooperative housing projects and homeownership opportunities, including a land trust model for permanently affordable housing.
Adopted an official land-banking policy that prioritized affordable housing. Boosted the land banking fund by $3.6 million in 2022 to seize opportunities to combat gentrification and prioritized its use for anti-displacement projects.
Supported the creation of Madison’s second tiny house village, and provided funding for both tiny house villages to install solar panels. Created the state’s first urban campground with tiny pallet homes for the houseless, which has been successful in getting people housing.
Increased enforcement against landlords that retaliate against tenants. Increased funding to eviction defense and prevention programs by almost $2 million.
Provided over $30 million in rental assistance to thousands of tenants with federal funding during the pandemic.
Increased funding and staffing for programs to help seniors and fixed income homeowners stay in their homes.
Pursue incentives to reward good behavior by landlords and management companies.
Met with landlords during the pandemic to promote eviction prevention and the use of federal funds to support renters. More work to do to recognize good actors.
Additionally, when the pandemic struck, the City took unprecedented steps in cooperation with Dane County and other local partners to shelter and support the homeless population.
Worked closely with County Executive Parisi on an extraordinary series of emergency programs providing safe spaces and enhanced services. Transformed Madison’s approach to homeless shelters, providing more beds and more space in temporary shelters to combat COVID, and partnered with the County to put vulnerable individuals in hotels.
And secured $11 million to construct Madison’s first purpose-built, full service shelter for men experiencing homelessness. In addition, the city purchased property to create a successful new temporary family shelter and is investing $5 million to assist the Salvation Army with a new family shelter in Madison.
There’s more work to do!
We can't stop here. Madison needs to build more of all types of housing - big buildings and small, market rate and affordable, for families and singles, and in every neighborhood. As your Mayor, I am working hard to create the policies and programs that will make this possible. My goal is to make sure that everyone in Madison has the housing they need to thrive.
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We need to expand our incentives for building affordable and sustainable housing.
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We need to take advantage of unprecedented federal funding to scale up programs to improve the quality of existing housing.
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We need to expand options for affordable home ownership. This helps build wealth and stability for individuals, and relieves some pressure on the rental market by helping renters who want to buy an affordable home in Madison.
To accomplish these projects and more, we need to re-elect Mayor Satya and build a better Madison - together.