‘Creative’ financing used for 74 affordable homes in Milwaukee

In Milwaukee, subsidies called tax incremental districts — or TIDs — have helped fund the Milwaukee Bucks’ Deer District development, Northwestern Mutual’s downtown campus and The Hop streetcar system.

Alder Russell Stamper II, who represents some of Milwaukee’s poorest census tracts, thought the tool could have an impact outside downtown.

“My district needs the most development, my district needs the most investment,” he said as he described his thought process to WPR. “Why can’t we draw up a TID for a neighborhood?”

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Ken Notes: We should create legislation that would allow a city to invest in roads, infrastructure and land acquisition then make the area available to developers to build lower cost workforce housing. The investment could be recouped at the sale of the home and keeping some of the property taxes for a set number of years like a TID.