Jill Bradshaw of WayForward Resources presents Housing Stability 101. 

These are Rev. Miranda’s notes; I did not capture everything and all details may not be correct! 

Definitions of homelessness: 

Federal government: people in shelter, transitional housing, or a place not meant for habitation, like a park or car. 

McKinney-Vento Act definition: ALSO people who are doubled up, couch surfing, self-paying in hotels, at imminent risk of homelessness. 

Dane County school districts estimate 2000 kids in doubled-up or transitional housing. 

The difference in these definitions matters a lot for funding!

WF serves a lot of people who are in that second category, so they don’t get funding from HUD. But that does mean that with the funding they raise, they have a little more freedom to use as needed to help people stay housed. 

Homelessness has risen to its highest reported level on record in the US – 18% increase in 2024, with a 40% rise in family homelessness. 

770,000 homeless people in the Point in Time survey in January 2024.  Certainly a significant undercount. 

A recent estimate suggests that people becoming homeless for the first time is a big driver of that increase. 

Dane County: PIT 737 people in Jan 2024; has been going up since 2009 (20% increase). 

Why housing matters

• Eviction is a catalyst for economic distress, particularly for marginalized communities. 
• Impacts kids’ physical and mental health. Traumatic childhood experiences can have lifelong impacts. Toxic stress. 
• Adults: less access to stable employment, credit, etc. Harder to find housing again after being evicted. 

Mayors in Dane County – all agree: biggest issue is housing. 

Population of Dane County is growing – fastest growing county in WI. Estimates that we’ll hit 1 million in 2050. 

Housing growth is not keeping up. 

This leads to increased rents & housing prices. 30% increase in housing prices between 2020 and 2023 – biggest increase in the COUNTRY. 

Why is housing instability increasing? … 

Wisconsin overall: Household growth & housing unit growth are pretty close. 

But in Dane County: For every five new households, only four housing units added. 

The “Big Squeeze” … 

Gnneral rule of thumb: you don’t want to spend more than 30% of your income on housing (rent/mortgage).

There’s an area median income for every city/metro area

Housing for people who are at 30% or below of area median income… Over 13000 unit shortfall for people at that lowest level IN DANE COUNTY.  

Because of that shortage of affordable housing, everyone is trying to get into apartments/housing in the middle price ranges – but lower income folks have a hard time getting in, because they’re competing with people with more income, better credit, etc.

Dane County has a VERY low vacancy rate – 2%. Healthy is 5 – 8%. This means people have very few choices. 

In Dane County, 50%!!! of renters pay more than 30% of their income for rent. “Rent-burdened” or “cost-burdened” – means that people have less for food, health care, car repairs, everything else. 

In Madison metro area, you would have to work 3.6 full-time jobs at minimum wage to afford a 2-bedroom apartment. 

Housing and food are closely related because “rent eats first.”  We don’t want people to lose their housing. 

Lower income households are especially rent burdened.  HUGE group of people are spending over 50% of their income on housing. 

WayForward’s programs – two: 

1. Housing stability program. Been around a long time. Case managers work with participants – have to live in their service area. (Anyone can go to the food pantry! I didn’t know that.) Funded through donations – grants, foundation gifts, individual donors. 
2. Connections program – serves “Doubled-up” households. Newer, 2 – 3 years old.  Got a big federal grant (ARPA) through Dane County. Will run out in September. Hoping to keep it going, but continued grant funds in question. Case management and support with getting into stable housing. 

In 2024, WF served 729 households with housing stability funds; gave away over $500k.

(2019: 383 households.) 

WF is investing 344% more funds into housing than five years ago. 

Food pantry use has tripled; they think it’s very closely tied to the rent/housing situation in Dane County. 

Increase in demand has changed how they provide services. More wait time, because they’re at capacity. 

They have six full-time housing staff (!).  

As far as they can tell, 98% of the people they work with maintain housing for a year, without eviction. Very talented case managers. 

44 households have graduated from the Connections program – a year-long intensive program. 

Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix, a measure of stability:

General housing stability program: scores went up 7 points

Connections program: scores went up 15 points

There’s going to keep being a crunch – Dane County’s population keeps growing, and housing keeps not keeping up. 

What we can do? … 

• Understand the crisis, and talk about it with others. 
• Be a housing advocate! “Encourage more housing in your area, even as it brings change.” Speak up in local government and newspapers. 
• Get involved beyond your community – write to elected officials – see National Low Income Housing Coalition website. 

Support WayForward’s work – 

• Give financially
• Donate welcome baskets or Connections Amazon wish list
• Donate food or hold a food drive – that lets them buy less food & focus more resources on housing.