Oct 05
Office of Governor Tony EversFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 5, 2020Contact: GovPress@wisconsin.gov or 608-219-7443 Gov. Evers Announces nearly $50 million in COVID-19 Support for Wisconsinites  $47 million includes support for child care, healthcare navigators, food security, and energy and rental assistance MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers announced today an additional $47 million investment in COVID-19 support for child care, healthcare navigators, and energy and rental assistance to Wisconsinites across the state. The effort is funded through the Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) and will be infused into existing CRF-funded programs and used for new programs as the pandemic continues to affect Wisconsinites.   “As we continue to fight this pandemic across our state, we need to make sure folks have the support they need from housing and food security, to making sure they have access to quality, affordable healthcare,” said Gov. Evers. “The investment announced today will provide critically important assistance for Wisconsinites as we continue to encourage folks to stay home as much as possible.”  $10 million will be directed towards the COVID-19 Out-of-School Support Grant Program aimed at assisting Wisconsin organizations who are providing care to school-aged kids during the pandemic. Administered by the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA), the program provides eligible organizations grant awards to cover pandemic-related impacts such as lost revenue, increased staffing costs, cleaning and sanitization, and additional costs to ensure high-quality programming otherwise impacted by COVID-19.  “Our out-of-school support providers are a critical part of the team of entities ensuring Wisconsin kids are getting what they need, whether their traditional school setting is in-person or virtual this year,” Gov. Evers continued. “What’s best for our kids it what’s best for our state, and these organizations are stepping up in a big way to make sure our kids have a safe place to go during this unprecedented pandemic.”  With winter on the horizon and as temperatures drop, making sure Wisconsinites have access to safe, warm housing is critical. $10 million will be invested in the successful Wisconsin Rental Assistance Program (WRAP), in addition to the $25 million previously announced. To date, WRAP has helped nearly 10,000 households across the state as of October 5th. Additionally, $10 million will go toward the Food Security Initiative in recognition of the role the program has played in combatting hunger. This investment is on top of the $15 million previously allocated to this program. 

To ensure Wisconsinites not only have access to housing but can pay their utility bills as we head into the winter months, $15 million of the funds will be invested in Wisconsin’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a program that is currently federally-funded and helps Wisconsinites with their heating costs. Interested individuals can visit homeenergyplus.wi.gov/ or call 1-866-HEATWIS for application and program details. An additional $1 million investment will be directed towards the Keep Wisconsin Warm/Cool Fund (KWW/CF), a non-profit that provides a statewide safety net to individuals facing energy-related emergencies. Interested individuals can visit kwwf.org/apply to learn more about the KWW/CF application and process.  

Finally, ensuring everyone has access to quality, affordable healthcare continues to be a top priority, especially as COVID-19 surges across our state. Given the increasing number of Wisconsinites facing unemployment and the loss of employer-sponsored health insurance during the pandemic, $1 million will be invested in the statewide health insurance navigator organization to help residents purchase health insurance on the federal marketplace or to enroll in BadgerCare. For many Wisconsinites, this may be their first time selecting a plan on the exchange, which can be a complicated process. This funding will help increase consumer education and access to healthcare navigators who can walk individuals through the process of selecting and purchasing an individual or family plan or in enrolling for BadgerCare if they are eligible. Wisconsinites can learn more about their health insurance options at WisCovered.com.   ###Gold Horizontal LineOffice of the Governor ♦ 115 East Capitol, Madison, WI 53702Press Office: (608) 219-7443 ♦ Email: GovPress@wisconsin.govhttps://evers.wi.gov ♦ 
Oct 05

Canceling rent will initially cause landlords to fail.  This will have a cascading impact on municipal budgets and local economies as contractors and vendors aren’t paid or given work.  Banks will suffer, but they’ll probably get bailed out again. 

Ultimately it will be the tenants who pay the greatest price as rents will increase dramatically due both to attempts by owners to cover the added debt they accumulated and the reduction in available rental housing.  
At the lower end of the housing market expect to see abandonment that leads to buildings being razed. At the mid market expect that well financed Wall Street corporations will buy up much of the housing stock. 2021 will make 2008 look like a small trial run.

Don’t expect to see much new residential rental construction.  Why would smart people invest in something the government can take away, without compensation, with the stroke of a pen.

Or of course, the Feds could do what is right and create a nationwide housing voucher that would protect both tenants and housing, as well as preventing the further collapse of the economy.   

Demand a fix

The National Apartment Association has an “Easy Button” to help you connect with your Congresspeople and Senators.


The National Multifamily Housing Council has a similar tool to reach out to your elected officials.

But don’t stop there.  

Even though most of the funding, if it comes,  will be Federal, reach out to your local officials as well.  Not only may they find state and local funding, many of these folks have the ear of the national political party bosses.  (It the national parties had leadership, the problems of not being able to pay rent would have been solved decades ago. – Just sayin’)


Why ‘Cancel-Rent’ Hasn’t Worked in The City That Tried It | Time

https://time.com/5889749/cancel-rent-ithaca/

While largely sympathetic to renters, who make up 73% of Ithaca’s residents, several members of the council worried about the well-being of small landlords as well. What happens to the landlords who still have mortgages to pay? What happens to contractors who are employed by those landlords? What happens to the city’s budget, which relies on those landlords paying their property taxes? “I don’t understand why we would want to take the pain and economic hardship of one group of our citizens and put it on another group of our citizens,” Ithaca Alderman George McGonigal said at the meeting. “We may create a bunch of problems for everybody in the community, including ourselves.”

Myrick saw the flaws, too. He too worried about Ithaca’s smaller landlords, in addition to the city’s already meager budget. “If you just cancel rent, there will be some landlords that lose money, there’ll be some landlords that lose so much money they can’t make their mortgage or tax payments, which could lead to defaults, and tax foreclosures would lead to less revenue for the city, which would mean we could support fewer social services,” he says. “This kind of thing can trigger [an economic] depression.”

Ultimately, after 30-plus minutes of contentious debate on June 3, the rent cancellation measure passed, on a 6 to 4 vote. The Ithaca Tenants Union, which coordinated with a couple city council members and Myrick to conceptualize the order, celebrated. “When your business is in providing people housing, that’s a certain responsibility you take on if it goes under to not put people on the street,” says Ary Stewart, a 24-year-old member of the renters coalition. If this results in landlords falling behind on their own debts, Stewart says they should “take it up with the bank.”

Oct 04


https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/content/uploads/2020/08/Evictions-Data-Update-August.pdf

  • Providing shelter and services to a family experiencing homelessness can cost local governments $10,000,[1] which is more than the $9,120 average annual cost of one housing voucher to the federal government[2] 
  1. Evans, William, James Sullivan, and Melanie Wallskog. “The Impact of Homelessness Prevention on Homelessness.” Science, 333:6300 694–6999, 2016. https://science.sciencemag.org/ content/353/6300/694.full.
  2. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Snapshot of Housing Choice Vouchers, 2016,” June 2018, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/elist/2018-june_08.html
Oct 04
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