The Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee celebrated victory after a two-year organizing campaign resulted in the local council passing an ordinance to create a Housing Trust Fund (HTF) for subsidizing affordable housing. The November resolution budgeted $2.5 million issued in a bond that will provide initial financing. Milwaukee is ranked the seventh poorest city in the U.S., and the fourth in child poverty; the homeless population numbers about 2,000 on any given night. "Our hope is to have some shovels hitting the ground by the fall," Heather Dummer Combs, director of the HTF campaign for the Interfaith Conference, told Sojourners.
The National Housing Trust Fund movement was launched in 2000 by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. More than 390 cities, counties, and states have developed housing trust funds to provide affordable housing for low-income citizens.
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