Not.
You may have seen the recent article in the Isthmus about the Realtors take on inclusionary zoning, and here’s another one in the Sunday Wisconsin State Journal. Do these recent press statements look like a group that is working in good faith to make the ordinance work, and not towards repeal?
Despite public comments to the contrary, most everyone now agrees that IZ isn’t working well, if at all. The City Council and mayor have called for a process to fix it, which we fully support and are fully participating in.
But given the free market realities of the housing market and the fundamental flaws in the program, it’s time the city considers other approaches to Madison’s housing issues. Alternatives like down-payment assistance and incentives for the rehabilitation of existing, substandard housing, will do more to address Madison’s housing affordability than IZ — revised or not — will ever do.
Me thinks not.
Funny thing is, I’ll support a down-payment assistance program, and I even told Phil and some of his colleagues that when I met with them. I even offered the Affordable Housing Trust Fund as a potential source of funds and offered to work on it after the IZ fixes were done.
Problem is, given the budget ramifications of such a program, I doubt it will ever make it through the council. If we helped 300 families and individuals per year at $10,000 a piece that would be $3,000,000 a year. And I think it is unlikely that $10,000 a year would be enough to help many folks, it would likely have to be more in many cases.
Remember, we fight over $500,000 for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund every year at budget time. Finally, the $3M idea was floated by a bunch of repeal-type alders as an alternative to IZ and needless to say, they passed. I guess the sticker shock made IZ look good!
