The Kenosha County Housing Task Force has been meeting for nearly a year to tackle the housing shortage in the county.

The facilitator of the initiative, UW Extension Community Development Educator Savannah Meyers, gave an update Saturday at a meeting of the Kenosha County Council of Governments.

Meyers said the task force has formed three work groups: One on promotions and communication, another on planning, zoning and design standards, and the third on financial tools.

Meyers tells WGTD there’s no end in sight to the panel’s work. “It’s not just a one and done kind of thing,” she said. “We want to continue to push and work on this issue. We’re going to keep on going as the group evolves We’re going to keep evolving with it.”

One of the more immediate concerns is planning for an October 29th workshop on how zoning can impact housing stock and economic growth. It’ll be held in the Village of Somers auditorium.

The task force has determined that the number of households in Kenosha County has grown faster than the number of housing units by nearly 3,000 between 2006 and 2023. That gap is narrowing. Hundreds of new apartments and homes have been built in the county or are planned.

The Kenosha County Housing Task Force is a joint effort of Kenosha County and the Kenosha Area Business alliance.

Read more at WGTD.org.