The city of Madison is setting a goal of building 15,000 more homes within the next five years to keep up with local population growth, and 25% of those homes are planned to be affordable units, WMTV15 reports. Affordable housing is income-dependent and generally considered to be 30% or less of a resident’s monthly paycheck.
Jaymes Langrehr, the public information officer for the Department of Planning, Community and Economic Development, said the city cannot control rent by state law but can incentivize affordable housing through loans from an affordable housing fund. In some cases, he said, “the city will buy up land in its land banking policy and … offer the land up to developers at lower rates to make affordable housing more feasible.”
The news comes as Madison currently faces a housing shortage and has one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the U.S. The city is projecting a worsening of that shortage with an anticipated 115,000 or more new residents by 2050.Â
Langrehr said roughly 3,000 new units were created last year. These can be viewed on the city’s Housing Tracker. The city plans to continue that growth and may also adjust its zoning to facilitate additional creative solutions.
