Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development

We have become a leader in Wisconsin-and because of our work in Wisconsin we have become a leader nationally-in demonstrating how to develop "smart housing." That means: Housing that's genuinely more affordable Smaller homes on smaller lots "Green" housing, or "sustainable design" Housing close to jobs and cost-effective transportation Housing affordable to working families Homes for people to rent as well as homes for people to buy Smart neighborhoods as well as smart houses That means housing that's genuinely more affordable. The financial crisis of 2007-2011, which started with increasingly unaffordable housing and irresponsible subprime lending, reinforced our belief that housing affordability should be a matter of smart design and smart building and not just subsidizing development and financing costs. We not only survived the economic downturn, but we came out of it in a better position to be a leader. We had the right skills and the common sense behind our beliefs convinced people we had good ideas that would work. We have showed that smart housing means smaller homes on smaller lots, but that homes and neighborhoods have to be designed and built better than bigger homes on bigger lots. The homes are less expensive to buy or rent, but that doesn't mean they are seen as compromises or second choices. People who live in them and people who live around them like the houses and neighborhoods because they are good quality and make everybody's money go further. We still call the homes and neighborhoods we build, and help others build, "green housing" or "sustainable design. But we're working toward the day that building sensibly and responsibly doesn't have a special name-it's just the way housing is always built. It lets people spend less to heat and cool their homes, it keeps them healthier, and it's affordable to more people because it uses fewer resources. We're also building smart housing as close as possible to jobs and cost-effective transportation. The homes we build and help others build allow people to spend less time and money commuting, there's less pollution, and the government spends less on to get people from their homes to their jobs. We have convinced more and more employers that helping build smart housing is good business. Smart housing helps attract and retain employees and helps them make the money they earn go further. We are building, and helping others build, homes for people to rent as well as homes for people to buy. Most important, the differences between the two kinds of homes have become smaller and less important. The financial crisis of 2007-2011 made us understand that saying more people owned homes didn't necessarily mean they were really better off. We have become leaders in building smart neighborhoods as well as smart houses. That means neighborhoods where different kinds of people want to live-people with more or less money and people from different backgrounds. We do that by encouraging more diversity and more choices, whether neighborhoods are poor or affluent. That's the way we responded to the foreclosure crisis in 2007-2011. We are dedicated to building and rebuilding neighborhoods so that there will never be another foreclosure crisis. We develop smart housing ourselves because if we believe it works, we should prove that by building it ourselves. But we also work with other developers and communities to help them build smart housing because we could have more impact that way. We have never stopped believing in partnerships-that we could get more people into homes that help them live better lives if more of us were helping do that job.