Expanding Safe and Affordable Housing

Safe and affordable housing matters to our health. Housing costs have outpaced income, particularly for low-wage workers, requiring families to spend more than half of their income on housing. They not only struggle to find safe, secure homes, but also face trade-offs to meet basic needs. Across and within counties, stark differences exist in opportunities to live in safe, affordable homes, especially for people with lower incomes and people who experience racism.
These differences have been laid bare during the COVID-19 crisis and emerge from long-standing, deep- rooted and unfair systems. Policies and practices such as redlining, restrictive zoning rules, and predatory bank lending practices have reinforced residential segregation and barriers to opportunity. According to data on residential segregation of Black and White residents, Wisconsin is the second-most segregated state in the country. Milwaukee is considered “hyper-segregated,” with the majority of Black people living in the urban core while suburban areas are populated primarily by White people. Segregation has been accompanied by disinvestment in Black communities, further lowering housing values, weakening schools, and reducing access to healthy foods and health care. Racial residential segregation has led to people of color with lower income and wealth through lack of good jobs and unfair lending practices such as redlining, which have been significant obstacles to home ownership and wealth accumulation.