Mayor's Office

I am pleased to announce that the Housing Forward Request for Proposals (RFP) was released last Friday by the City’s Community Development Division. With over $6.8 million in City funds available exclusively to local nonprofit organizations and housing cooperatives, the City will solicit proposals from applicants that seek to address barriers to affordable housing access in Madison. The City hopes to partner with local agencies to find creative solutions to our affordable housing problem by supporting these organizations with funds to support their programming and financial capacity. With over $1 million available for down payment assistance and other programs targeted to homeownership, it is also my hope that the RFP will further our goal of increasing the homeownership rate among people of color.

This RFP also represents the first time that money from the City’s Affordable Housing Fund will be used to support proposals not seeking federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Opening up our Affordable Housing Funds to a new field of applicants will give agencies an opportunity to be creative in how they create new housing units, such as through the expansion of housing cooperatives or community land trusts. I hope that by combining local and federal funds together, we can maximize the opportunities available for local nonprofits to be successful in achieving their mission of serving Madison’s lowest-income residents.

Creating affordable housing and enabling community-based organizations to carry out their missions is important to my administration, and I am excited to see what proposals the City receives to continue moving the City forward!