New Resource Center Opens Doors to Mitigate Affordable Housing Struggles

Affordable housing has been a significant concern in the Chippewa Valley for more than a decade, and the issue has only been heightened by the rise of luxury apartments, increasing rent, and a vacancy rate that shrinks every day. (At just 3%, the City of Eau Claire’s rental vacancy rate currently sits at half the healthy rate set by the state). A 2017 Wisconsin Poverty Report charting the Eau Claire area’s poverty rate as second-worst in the state (behind only Milwaukee) and with 42% of Eau Claire households paying more than 50% of their income on rent according to United Way’s ALICE Report, mediation is needed now more than ever.

A branch of the local nonprofit organization JONAH (Joining Our Neighbors Advancing Hope), the Affordable Housing Task Force, has been working in the Valley for years to address the root causes of destabilization in our community. Now, after looking into tenant-landlord communication resources in other Wisconsin cities such as Madison, they’ve created the Eau Claire Tenant-Landlord Resource Center (ECTLRC) – the first resource of its kind available in the Valley.

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