City of Tomah Develops Housing Assessment Report to Meet Housing Challenges

Friday, January 19th, 2024 -- 8:10 AM

Similar to many communities across Wisconsin, the City of Tomah is experiencing challenges in meeting the housing needs of its residents and workforce.

A combination of factors, including dramatic fluctuations in economic and market conditions, personal preference and demographic shifts, and the global pandemic, have created a unique, challenging, and difficult housing situation for many small to mid-size communities.

City staff and officials know that proactive steps are needed to address the existing housing situation and determined the first step was gathering an understanding of existing conditions through the development of a Housing Assessment Report.

The goal of the City’s Housing Assessment is to better understand existing gaps and needs, identify underserved markets, gather feedback from key stakeholders, and produce recommended next steps. As part of the process, two listening sessions were held with local employers, businesses, realtors, and builders on August 23, 2022.

These sessions yielded feedback on exiting housing challenges, costs, the impacts of housing on staffing, potential public-private collaboration opportunities, resident attraction, and strategies to retain residents.

The Housing Assessment will be utilized by City staff, the Long Range Planning Committee, Plan Commission, and City Council in proactively pursuing strategies to address the existing housing challenges in the coming years.

The Housing Assessment is available for review online at: https://www.tomahwi.gov/ For more information, contact Shane Rolff, City Zoning Administrator/Building Inspector at 608-374-7429 or [email protected].

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.