By John W. Miller
WEDC Secretary and CEO
As I talk with business owners, workers, and community leaders across Wisconsin, I hear a consistent message: One of their biggest obstacles to growth isn’t inflation or economic uncertainty or other global forces. Instead, it’s the lack of affordable housing and childcare in their communities.
Their concerns are understandable. Businesses can’t grow without workers, and workers can’t take a job in a community if there’s no place for them to live—or if there’s no one to care for their children.
At first glance, the magnitude of the challenges seems daunting. A 2023 study by Forward Analytics, for example, projects that Wisconsin will need an estimated 200,000 additional housing units by 2030 to accommodate population growth.
The need for accessible childcare is even more acute. A 2024 survey of Wisconsin childcare providers found more than 48,000 children on waitlists; about half of the providers surveyed said they could take in more kids if only they had more staff.
At WEDC, we’re committed to building an Economy for All where everyone has the opportunity to prosper. WEDC achieves this goal by making smart investments in our communities.
In recent years, those investments have come to include support for housing and childcare. So far in this fiscal year, I’m pleased to note that WEDC has already invested nearly $11 million in 20 community development projects that increase housing stock and almost $3 million for three efforts to increase childcare availability.
These projects, which span the entire state, include:
- $2 million to convert the former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Waukesha County campus into an estimated 450 to 700 residential units
- $2.5 million to help a Brown County business add a family childcare facility and wellness center for employees
- $250,000 for a project in De Soto in Vernon and Crawford counties to turn a long-vacant historic downtown building into a shop and apartments
- $250,000 to support a childcare incubator in Oshkosh in Winnebago County, where multiple providers can reduce expenses by operating under the same roof
- Nearly $150,000 to expand a much-needed childcare facility in Coleman in Marinette County
- $97,000 to renovate a vacant building in downtown Montello in Marquette County to provide shopping space and an apartment
What’s most notable about these projects is that they’re all the result of business and community leaders finding innovative answers to local needs. In many cases, WEDC just helps to fill in the last piece of the funding puzzle.
For example, when the owner of a Coleman childcare center wanted to expand, she had already assembled a mix of her own funds and loans to cover most of the remodeling costs. But thanks to WEDC’s investment, she’ll be able to increase her staff and double the number of kids she serves with infant, pre-kindergarten, and before and after school programs.
Along those same lines, a local developer was looking to add to Montello’s retail and housing stock by restoring a long-vacant building that had been badly damaged by a fire. WEDC’s grant helped close the funding gap and allowed the project to move forward—boosting the downtown’s curb appeal and serving as a catalyst for other developments.
It’s exactly these kinds of innovative solutions that will move our communities forward and, in doing so, will move our state’s economy forward.
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