How Crowley and Tiffany propose to address Wisconsin’s affordable housing gap

# The candidates' basic framing David Crowley frames affordable housing as a problem he knows personally and has worked on as Milwaukee County Executive. He pitches collaborative, local-first solutions: increasing construction capacity through workforce training, reducing early project costs through expanded predevelopment loans, and updating zoning so more moderately sized housing can be built where people already live and work.

Tom Tiffany frames the issue through a regulatory lens. His campaign page promises to "modernize housing assistance" with WHEDA while putting most emphasis on speeding local permitting by setting firm timelines and penalties for delays. His housing section focuses on cutting red tape and punishing slow local government reviews rather than detailed affordability programs.

# What Crowley proposes Crowley's approach is practical and programmatic. Key elements in his plan include:

• Workforce and apprenticeship expansion: Partner unions, employers and technical colleges to scale registered apprenticeships in carpentry, electrical, plumbing and HVAC to address the construction-worker shortage.

• Zoning flexibility: Provide incentive grants to communities that update outdated or exclusionary zoning rules, or use state legislation if necessary, to allow duplexes, fourplexes and small multiunit buildings in more neighborhoods.

• Community-led planning: Emphasize locally tailored solutions and include people affected by housing shortages in planning decisions rather than using a one-size-fits-all state mandate.

# What Tiffany proposes Tiffany's public housing platform is shorter on specific affordability tools and longer on process reform. His notable proposals are:

• Permit timelines and accountability: Require local governments to approve or deny residential permits within set timeframes, with consequences such as automatic approval, fee refunds, or third-party review if deadlines are missed.

• A 30-day deadline for actions on subdivisions (as described on his site) and other measures to force quicker approvals.

• A pledge to work with WHEDA to "modernize housing assistance" and expand opportunities for first-time homebuyers, though his campaign materials lack specifics on subsidies, targeted loan programs, or unit creation goals.

# Policy context and recent state actions Gov. Tony Evers signed. Those include adjustments to a state low-income housing tax credit for rural projects, a workforce home revolving loan through WHEDA to provide gap financing, and a commercial-to-housing conversion loan program aimed at repurposing vacant commercial spaces.

Despite these steps, the article notes Wisconsin still needs tens of thousands of units by 2030 in places where population and job growth require more housing.

# Bottom line for voters