Wisconsin
Faith-based affordable housing catches on in Wisconsin and elsewhere
St. John’s Lutheran Church sits three blocks from the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, in the heart of the up-and-coming East Washington corridor, where development is booming.
Many of the developments cater to a well-heeled clientele, such as the Moxy Madison, a boutique Marriott hotel where weekend rates start at $341 a night. Or Archipelago Village, which will feature both an 11-story office tower and a
But St. John’s sees a different side of Madison through its community outreach programs, including a men’s homeless shelter; a drop-in center for people battling mental illness, some of them unhoused; and an emergency fund run by the congregation.
St. John’s Lutheran Church
“We kept hearing that housing is a crisis,” said Pastor Peter Beeson, who arrived at St. John’s nearly six years ago and promptly launched a discernment process around the church’s future mission. “People were spending 50, 60, 70% of their income on rent, which left no surplus funds for savings or emergencies… [Their struggles] kept coming back to how much they were spending for housing.”
The congregation wanted to encourage a different kind of development in the East Washington neighborhood. Over time, they reached a bittersweet decision about their church: If they razed it, they could help confront the housing crisis, which seemed to them particularly acute in Madison.
“We began looking at what we could do with our building and real estate,” Beeson said. “We were perfectly zoned to be able to do a 10-story high rise with apartments on the upper level and a mixed-use space on the ground floor.”
The church didn’t want to just add to the stock of market-rate apartments going up in East Washington. So eventually, they settled on a plan for 130 units, 110 of them income and rent-restricted. Of those 130 units, 20% will be limited to households that earn below 30% of the county’s median income. A portion of those will go to homeless people.
The first floor will offer space to community groups and be the new home of the church congregation.
“If it weren’t for the church’s vision and leadership, they never could have invested the time and energy to advance this effort,” said Mark Binkowski, a real estate developer based in Madison who is working with the church on the project. “The church’s commitment to its mission is evident in the fact that St. John’s is donating its land.”
Even with the church’s contribution of $5 million of land value, the congregation faced escalating construction prices, a higher interest rate environment and total costs comparable to market-rate projects. Binkowski said the most challenging part of the project has been making the financing work. That’s where Baker Tilly comes in; the London-based consulting and accounting firm has an office in Madison and took St. John’s on as a client.
“The church is the primary developer,” said Ethan Tabakin, an affordable housing manager in Baker Tilly’s real estate advisory group. “The building itself will be sold to a related party, single-purpose entity. So the church will remain a controlling entity of that single-purpose entity, but for tax purposes, [low-income housing tax credit] purposes, and to admit the investor into this entity, in order to get the tax equity, they need to create that single-purpose entity. But the church will remain in control.”
According to Tabakin, St. John’s applied for and received federal tax credits and state housing tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. WHEDA will provide the credits to St. Johns, which will then sell the credits to an investor. The investor will inject roughly $17 million of federal and state LIHTC equity into the deal.
The project also includes debt. The mortgage on the property will be collateralized with tax-exempt bonds. The project has authority to use over $26.3 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by WHEDA, which will be privately placed.
Then there are contributions from the city of Madison and Dane County, both of which have affordable housing funds. Madison will provide $4.85 million in funding and Dane County will chip in $3.78 million. In exchange for those funds, the church made certain commitments, such as the units set aside for formerly unhoused people or the use of flexible tenant selection criteria.
Finally, the church has also kicked off a fundraising drive, aiming to raise $3 million for the project. As of Tuesday, it had raised $788,545.
The total construction cost recently went up to $53 million, according to Beeson.
“The public financing process, it’s so complicated,” he said. “I think the more we as a society can simplify and streamline the process, the better… My challenge or encouragement to the financial world would be to continue to look for opportunities to make it simpler for churches to do creative things with their properties. To continue looking at financing mechanisms that make it simpler, because that way, there’ll be more opportunity to use these properties for good.”
St. John’s Lutheran Church
Don Bernards, partner and affordable housing team lead at Baker Tilly, said they’re seeing efforts like the St. John’s project pop up around the country. He mentioned a similar project in Las Vegas, where Baker Tilly is working with a developer to convert a deteriorating church that the congregation can’t keep up into affordable housing financed in part by tax credits.
“The faith-based housing development initiative is a trend that we see that has been really exacerbated by the COVID pandemic,” he said. “Fewer congregations are growing, there’s a deterioration of religious affiliation… and physical deterioration of buildings. A building should maybe last 30 years, give or take. And many of these worship spaces are 40, 50, 60 years old, and have not had capital improvements. So now they’ve got a lot of aged buildings that need a lot of capital improvements.”
Both Bernards and Tabakin said the need for affordable housing is acute everywhere — in urban and rural areas; throughout Wisconsin, across the Midwest and nationwide. But in rural areas, there are fewer economies of scale and lower population centers, so it costs more and requires more tax credits per unit to build affordable housing, and takes longer for those buildings to lease up.
Bernards said the LIHTC program is one of the most effective financial tools to build affordable housing units today. And Tabakin noted that “WHEDA every single year is oversubscribed with their competitive credits.”
Market-rate deals tend to be more highly leveraged and to use a lot of debt, necessitating higher rents to finance the project. But with LIHTC deals, the calculation is flipped: developers want to minimize the debt because the federal tax credit requires them to limit how much they can charge in rent.
“So it’s almost the inverse proportion that is coming into the deal in the form of equity compared to a market-rate deal,” Tabakin said.
Beeson, who now has a master’s degree in real estate development, said he and the congregation have learned a great deal from the project. His advice to other churches is to start by taking time to explore the congregation’s vision: “Know the why,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of engaging with the community early and often, inviting neighbors into the conversation and sharing information with key stakeholders to ease the necessary approvals.
“It’s a wild ride,” Beeson said. “There are some days when you feel like you’re on top of the world and everything is lined up, and there are other days when you look at the budget and don’t know how you’re going to go forward. But the main thing is just to keep plugging away and know that it’s a journey.
“St. John’s has had to have a lot of stamina to get this project done,” he added.
MADISON, Wis. (Gray) – Wisconsin is working to assess damage from last week’s severe weather that brought extensive flooding, wind damage and 25 reported tornadoes across the state.
“We have pretty widespread damage, really in most areas of the state,” Greg Engel, a Wisconsin Emergency Management administrator, said.
As Wisconsin begins its path to recovery, Gov. Tony Evers is urging Wisconsin’s congressional delegation to start conversations with the Trump administration to “convey the importance of FEMA assistance.”
In a Friday letter to Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, Evers wrote, “It would be unfortunate if Wisconsin’s anticipated requests for emergency assistance are once again declined.”
The historic storms come after August’s thousand-year floods in Wisconsin, which particularly impacted Milwaukee. While FEMA approved homeowner relief funds, it denied Evers’ request for more than $26 million to support public assistance and hazard mitigation for six impacted counties.
Now, Wisconsin is still working to tally up the extent of the destruction from April’s storms. Some communities likely won’t complete their damage assessments until early next week, Engel explained.
Marathon County Emergency Management said they’ve already assessed nearly 150 damaged residences, and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said recovery will be expensive.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that all those communities together will be millions of dollars worth of damage,” Nelson said.
After the end of these severe weather events, Evers will have 30 days to submit an application to FEMA for federal assistance. Engel said they’re working to collect as much information as they can for their report and will continue to provide resources for recovering communities.
A White House official said they “continue to monitor forecasted weather and flooding that is affecting Wisconsin.”
If you are an impacted homeowner, Rock County is encouraging homeowners to contact their insurance early, start a claim, ask what they are required to do or not do, ask about temporary housing or emergency coverage and not throw out major items until approved.
Click here to download the WSAW news app or WSAW First Alert weather app.
Click here to submit a news tip or story idea.
Copyright 2026 WMTV. All rights reserved.
Wisconsin Lutheran High School basketball star Zavier Zens has officially committed to play for the University of Illinois next season.
Zavier Zens Makes It Official with the Illini
Zens, a tenacious 6-foot-7, 215-pound senior forward, initially committed to play collegiately for Northern Iowa but reopened his recruitment as the result of a head coaching change, ultimately narrowing his final choices to Illinois, Utah State, and Wisconsin.
On April 17, the highly touted three-star recruit signed a Big Ten Conference Athletics Scholarship Agreement to compete for Illinois, ending the greatly anticipated recruitment journey.
A Chance to Maximize His Development Was the Key
“What I was looking for was the best chance to develop and become the best player I can become,” said Zens, in an interview with Zac Bellman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Illinois, they arguably have the best team in the country coming in next year, and the chance to get to go up against them every day, along with the good development program and their record of developing guys, was really big to me. Obviously, the fit and culture was right as well.”
Illinois tied for second in the Big Ten Conference under the guidance of head coach Brad Underwood, advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four for the first time in 21 years (2005), and finished with a 28-9 overall record.
“Zavier first and foremost is a winner,” said Underwood, in an official release posted on fightingillini.com. “He is an extremely high IQ player who has been well coached and brings a championship pedigree to the table, winning three straight state titles. He fits our recruiting mold as a 6-foot-7 versatile wing who can score at all three levels and process the game.”
Zens Helped Wisconsin Lutheran to a WIAA Three-Peat
Zens averaged 23.4 points per game (including a 61.8% field-goal percentage) with 5.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists this season in leading the Vikings to a third consecutive WIAA state championship and statement-making 30-0 overall record.
Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball contributed 20 points with four 3-point baskets, six rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots, and one steal as top-seeded Wisconsin Lutheran defeated third-seeded Madison Memorial 57-37 in the WIAA Division 1 state championship game at the University of Wisconsin’s Kohl Center on March 21.
The 2026 Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year finished his memorable four-year high school career with a 109-7 overall record (including an 88-2 mark during the three-year championship run) and as the third-leading scorer in program history (1,611 points).
Zens Continues the Trend of Mr. Wisconsin Playing Out-of-State
In an interesting twist, Zens (a cousin of NBA rookie sensation Kon Knueppel who competes for the Charlotte Hornets) joins an elite group of seven recent Wisconsin Mr. Basketball recipients who opted to play out of state.
Wisconsin, under current head coach Greg Gard, has advanced to the NCAA Tournament eight times, with the fifth-seeded Badgers most recently falling to No. 12-seeded High Point 83-82 in this year’s opening round on March 19.
The impressive list of Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association honorees includes:
2025: Xzavion Mitchell, Oshkosh North (Iowa State)
2023: (co-winner) Milan Momcilovic, Pewaukee (Iowa State)
2023: (co-winner) John Kinzinger, De Pere (Illinois State)
2022: Seth Trimble, Menomonee Falls (North Carolina)
2021: Brandin Podziemski, St. John’s (Illinois, Santa Clara)
— Jeff Hagenau | jeffreyhagenau@gmail.com
Follow
WISCONSIN (WBAY) – Wisconsin residents contributed more than $36 million in marijuana taxes to Illinois last year and nearly $6 million to Michigan in 2024, according to new numbers released by the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The revenue comes from counties bordering Wisconsin that legally sell marijuana, while bills to legalize both medical and recreational marijuana remain stalled in the Wisconsin Legislature.
Wisconsin will have a new governor, new speaker in the Assembly and a new majority leader in the state Senate next January.
All three people holding those leadership positions decided not to seek re-election.
State lawmakers will have a fresh debate regarding marijuana for the first time in a while, and the latest numbers from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau are likely to be a big part of it.
Illinois dispensaries generate millions from Wisconsin buyers
On the Wisconsin border, from Michigan to Illinois, marijuana sales have become big business.
“The economic value to restoring this plant back to our economy is huge. We can’t even put a dollar amount on it,” said Jay Selthofner, founder of the Wisconsin Cannabis Activist Network.
According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo, Wisconsin residents contributed $36.1 million last year to the overall marijuana tax collected by Illinois.
That’s based on data from 36 dispensaries located in five of the six counties bordering Wisconsin. Jo Daviess, Lake, McHenry, Winnebago and Boone counties have dispensaries, while Stephenson County does not.
Among the five counties with dispensaries, a total of $319.4 million in sales was generated. The report concludes $132.4 million, or 41.5%, of these sales were made to out-of-state residents.
“It’s concerning that yeah, revenue is leaving the state both tax wise and tourism dollars without being a state that is looked at as recreational marijuana, we’re losing some tourism there,” Selthofner said.
Michigan collects nearly $6 million in taxes from Wisconsin residents
On the other side of the state, Michigan is making money off Wisconsin residents.
The most recent data from 2024 shows the state with 854 retailers and microbusinesses licensed to sell cannabis. Of those licensees, 22 were located in counties bordering Wisconsin: Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson and Menominee.
The report states, “Assuming that each retailer/microbusiness makes an equal amount of sales,” those businesses in the Upper Peninsula brought in $85.4 million. Using the same estimate as Illinois, 41.5% of sales came from Wisconsin residents, translating into $5.8 million in tax revenue collected.
Minnesota is also mentioned in the report. The state began legalized cannabis sales in September 2025, but so far there is no data on taxes paid by Wisconsin residents.
Gubernatorial candidates weigh in on legalization
If Wisconsin makes changes, it’s likely to be next year after the November election.
Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany said he is open to medical marijuana and supporting veterans.
“I think in particular we should look out for our veterans. I’ve heard from so many veterans that suffer from PTSD and I’m very open to that as well as medicinal. I think we just work our way through it and get to a good spot in regards to marijuana,” Tiffany said.
Among the Democrats running for governor, at least seven have come out supporting efforts to legalize marijuana, aligning with the state party platform.
“A lot of people look at it as the wild west right now here in Wisconsin, it’s not. It’s the wild Wisconsin and what Wisconsin is going to do is it’s going to show the rest of the country how innovative a state can really be on cannabis,” Selthofner said.
Twenty-four states, along with the District of Columbia, legalize recreational marijuana, and 40 total legalize medical marijuana. The most recent additions are Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri.
Copyright 2026 WBAY. All rights reserved.
-
Detroit, MI20 minutes agoThings to do in Metro Detroit, April 24 and beyond
-
San Francisco, CA32 minutes agoCA to open 3 new state parks and expand others, including in Bay Area: Here’s where
-
Dallas, TX38 minutes agoWild vs. Stars Game 3: Key takeaways as Dallas takes series lead on Wyatt Johnston’s 2OT winner
-
Miami, FL44 minutes agoMiami-Dade deputies detain elderly father who they say shot and killed his son after a domestic dispute
-
Boston, MA50 minutes agoBoston has one of the best public markets in the country, says USA TODAY
-
Denver, CO56 minutes agoRed flag fatigue? Colorado sees near-record number of critical fire days
-
Seattle, WA1 hour agoFOLLOWUP: West Seattle pickleball players band together to save court access
-
San Diego, CA1 hour agoPadres sign Giolito to 1-year deal with option for '27