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This bill awaits the Governor's action. Deadline: 2026-06-26 14:05:00 (UTC).
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Wisconsin Workforce Housing and Neighborhood Stability Act
Summary
This bill creates a Wisconsin program to fund mixed-income housing, preserve older rental units, and back anti-displacement efforts in expensive urban areas. It prioritizes projects near jobs or transit that use matching funds and include measurable protections against involuntary displacement.
Full text
Judicial Review
No judicial review
No Supreme Court cases are currently attached to this law.
No cases filed.
Sponsor
Marcus DonovanDemocratic Party
Cosponsors
- Jordan CarterDemocratic Party
- David ActonRepublican Party
Archived proceedingsWisconsin Chamber
Debate in progress
Wisconsin Workforce Housing and Neighborhood Stability Act
Floor statements
10
Speakers
6
Chair bulletins
3
Floor statements
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Voting is now open for 72 hours.
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Floor debate is open for 72 hours.
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This bill has been enacted via no action (pocket pass) at the Governor review deadline.
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Result: passed.
Aye: 89 seats
Nay: 10 seats
Present: 1 seats
Total seats: 100
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Mr. Presiding Officer, I rise in support of this bill. Governor Patterson, Ms. Castillo, and the other speakers are right to keep bringing this back to basics: workforce stability and neighborhood stability are inseparable. When a nurse, a school employee, a mechanic, or a transit worker can no longer afford to live anywhere near the community they serve, that is not just a housing problem. It is a warning that the local economy is becoming less functional and less fair.
What I especially appreciate here is that this bill does not treat success as a ribbon-cutting photo and a unit count on paper. It invests in mixed-income housing, yes, but it also preserves older rental homes and requires measurable protections against involuntary displacement in the places where pressure is greatest. That matters, because too often “revitalization” has meant longtime residents bearing the cost of someone else’s growth.
This is also a prudent design. Prioritizing projects near jobs and transit, and encouraging matching funds, helps Wisconsin stretch public dollars further while supporting communities that are sustainable in the real, everyday sense of the word. People should not have to choose between an affordable home and a punishing commute. This bill is practical, targeted, and worthy of the chamber’s support.
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Mr. Presiding Officer, I rise in support of this bill because Governor Patterson and the previous speakers have the core point exactly right: workforce stability and neighborhood stability are tied together. If the people who keep a city or metro area functioning cannot afford to live near the jobs, schools, and transit they rely on, then the state is not just facing a housing problem. It is making its economy less reliable and its communities more fragile.
What I especially appreciate here is that this bill is not built on wishful thinking. It funds mixed-income housing, it helps preserve older rental units that are often the last rung of affordability, and it gives priority to projects that bring matching funds and real anti-displacement protections. That matters. In expensive urban areas, new investment without protections can too easily become a signal to current residents that they are about to be priced out of the very neighborhood they carried through harder years.
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Mr. Presiding Officer, I rise in support of this bill. I think Governor Patterson and Ms. Castillo have the right frame here: this is a basics issue. If people who teach the kids, staff the hospitals, drive the buses, and keep businesses open cannot afford to live anywhere near work, then the housing market is not just tight, it is failing the people a state depends on every day.
What I like about this proposal is that it is targeted and practical. It does not just chase new ribbon-cuttings; it also preserves older rental housing, which is often the last foothold for working families and seniors on fixed incomes. And by prioritizing projects near jobs or transit, with matching funds and measurable anti-displacement protections, the bill asks communities to show real value for public support.
Now, no one should pretend a single bill solves affordability on its own. But if the choice is between doing nothing while neighborhoods hollow out, or making a disciplined investment in mixed-income housing and stability, I do not think that is a hard call. This is the kind of careful intervention states ought to make, and I urge a yes vote.
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Mr. Presiding Officer, Governor Patterson is right that this chamber should get back to basics on housing. In high-cost areas, the people who keep a city running are too often the people being pushed out of it. A bill that supports mixed-income development, preserves older rental stock, and asks for real anti-displacement protections is not ideological excess; it is a practical response to a practical problem.
What I like here is that the bill is structured around discipline. It prioritizes projects near jobs and transit, it rewards matching funds, and it requires measurable protections instead of vague promises. That matters. If Wisconsin is going to spend public dollars, it should do so in a way that stretches each dollar further, protects existing neighborhoods, and ties investment to clear outcomes.
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Mr. Presiding Officer, this is the kind of housing bill that ought to bring this chamber back to basics. In too many places, working people are doing everything right—holding a job, raising a family, trying to stay in the community they helped build—and they still get priced out. This proposal does not promise to solve every housing problem in Wisconsin, but it does something responsible: it targets mixed-income development, preserves older rentals that are often the last affordable options left, and puts the focus near jobs and transit where people can actually build stable lives.
I also want to speak to an argument that always comes up in these debates, even when it has not yet been fully aired today: that any state role in housing automatically means waste or social engineering. I do not buy that. This bill is structured around matching funds and measurable anti-displacement protections, which means communities and developers have to bring real commitments to the table. That is not ideological excess; that is accountability.
What I appreciate most is that this measure understands neighborhood stability as part of economic stability. If a nurse, bus driver, teacher, or line cook cannot afford to remain near work, the strain does not just fall on that household—it falls on employers, schools, and the wider community. Wisconsin deserves growth that does not treat long-time residents as collateral damage. For that reason, I support the bill.
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