MENASHA (WLUK) — Lawmakers helped raise a wall on a Habitat for Humanity home in Menasha on Tuesday.
“Housing is an issue that, it doesn’t matter if you’re an R or a D, together we know that housing is an issue and we can find solutions if we work together,” said John Weyenberg, President and CEO of the Greater Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity.
According to a recent study cited by Habitat for Humanity, the Fox Valley will need 18,000 new homes in the next decade.
“That’s a tremendous number, and it’s going to take all sorts of resource to make that happen,” Weyenberg explained. “It’s going to take the public-private partnership, and working hand in hand with our corporate community, as well as our elected officials.”
Local lawmakers agree the housing shortage is a serious crisis, and houses are needed more than new rental space.
“We have people who cannot afford to upgrade to a different home, they’re staying in their starter homes,” said Democrat Representative Lee Snodgrass. “That leaves seniors without a place to go, that leaves new families without a place to go.”
Republican Representative Ron Tusler agreed.
“It’s great to get somebody in a home. Because a home, it helps you build a family,” he said. “You know, we’re all individualistic when we’re born, and we have to learn to grow together. And a home does that in a way that a rental property might not.”
Tusler added building more homes could solve another problem the community has been facing — childcare.
If we can’t help people find something that makes financial sense for them, then maybe working from home is what they’re going to choose. So by building a house, we’re not only helping that employer that’s employing somebody working from their home, we’re also solving that childcare issue too.
The raising of the wall was just the first step on a path towards constructing more affordable housing.
Snodgrass said a package of affordable housing bills will come out of Madison sometime next month.
