Tom Schumacher, Envision Board
The supply of affordable housing has not kept pace with the needs of homeowners and renters. Zoning and permitting are factors that limit and delay new construction. Two recent signals point to future improvements in the supply of affordable housing.
(more…)Tom Schumacher, Board member
Wisconsin, like every other state in the US, became more diverse between 2010 and 2020. In our state, diversity rose from 7.2% to 37% by the latest census measure. Throughout the nation, the non-Hispanic white population’s share of the population decreased while the number of Hispanic and Asian people grew. Hawaii is the most diverse state, and the least diverse county in the nation is along the Mexican border in Texas where 98% of the population is Hispanic.
The diversity measure used by the Census Bureau is based on the probability that two randomly chosen people from a given geographic area belong to different racial and ethnic groups, which ignores concentrations of ethnic populations within states. Individual counties in Wisconsin generally increased in diversity by 5% to 10%, with diversity in our home Brown County up by 9.4%.
Source: US Census Bureau as reported by USAFacts
Tom Schumacher, Envision Board Member
Historically, asylum seekers were made up of those seeking safety from criminal or political violence or to escape from abject poverty in their home countries.
COVID disruptions and military conflicts are creating new waves of refugees from the middle class. They arrive with education, skills and funds to navigate the logistics of seeking asylum as they flee unstable conditions at home.
(more…)