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Affordable housing for rent

Movin' Out offers affordable and accessible rental housing to qualified low-income people with permanent disabilities as verified by SSI.  Movin' Out rental units are reserved for low-income households that include at least one household member with permanent disabilities.  Movin' Out requires verification of income and disability.  Movin' Out tailors its property management to accommodate tenants who receive long term support services and in-home care-giving support.

Contact Mary Myers for more info.
From Madison call 251 4446 x9

2830 N. 39th St, Milwaukee: Available in March or April 2012 This 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom bungalow-style home was built in 1919 and has over 1,200 square feet of living space. It is a nice older home with some delightful vintage features including built-in bookshelves with leaded glass fronts in the dining room, full picture window in living room, and original woodwork in living and dining rooms.

Exterior vinyl siding and windows were replaced prior to 2006. Other improvements include refinished hardwood floors, new kitchen cabinetry, rebuilt front steps, and ceramic-tiled floors in kitchen and bath. The home has a full basement, garage, and nice yards in front and back. Washer and dryer included. Rent is $900 per month plus utilities. Section 8 vouchers are accepted. Tenants must have a household income of not more than 50% of the county median income (for example, $32,950 for a three-person household in Milwaukee County).

Berkshire Greendale: New affordable and barrier-free one and two-bedroom units reserved for people with disabilities. Next door to South Ridge Mall. Applications available now. Move in as soon as March. Call Movin' Out for more info: 877/861-6747 x7. 2.

Madison: Newly re-modeled for accessibility. Movin' Out offers for rent a comfortable home suitable for up to three individuals who rely on round the clock support. This ranch-style home has three bedrooms and a bathroom with tile roll-in shower on the ground floor. The lower level has a roomy, code-compliant care-giver suite with enough room for a family to share. Call Movin' Out for more info: 608/251-4446 x7.

Harbor house 811 project

HUD announced it awarded competitive Section 811 funds to Movin' Out to purchase 11 condominiums at Harbor House in Madison, rehab them for accessibility, and rent them to low income tenants with disabilities.

The project includes City of Madison HOME funds. The Section 811 funding includes a capital advance to buy and fix up the apartments and an ongoing rent subsidy for tenants. The seven 1-bedroom and four 2-bedroom units are integrated into a 240-unit condo community just off Watts Road and close to lots of retail and bus service. Tenants will move in Fall of 2012. > view HUD document

Elven Sted lays out welcome mat

Movin' Out hosted an open house on November 6 to mark the completion of its new Elven Sted project in central Stoughton.

Nearly 200 Stoughton neighbors, community leaders, and developers in the area for the WHEDA conference joined Elven Sted tenants and Movin' Out in celebrating the new homes available on the banks of the Yahara River. Read what the Capital Times has to say.

Even in bad economy home ownership still offers sustainability and belonging

The economic slump and its outsized impact on home sales and mortgage lending have led some opinion leaders to question the value of home ownership, especially for first time home buyers with low to moderate income. Movin' Out home owners have another story to tell: a story that reinforces the idea that home ownership still offers sustainability and belonging. Here is one Movin' Out homeowner’s story:

“When our son was diagnosed with autism seven years ago, the plan we'd had for our lives was derailed. In the years since then we have devoted every spare penny and all our time to helping him realize his full potential. With very little savings and only one moderate income we gave up on our dream of owning a home and having a back yard in which our son could play. We struggled to find room for all of his therapy equipment in the rentals we could afford.

Then we were referred to Movin' Out. Through the wonderful support and guidance of a Movin' Out Housing Counselor and the well-organized process Movin' Out has established, we made our way through the steps of finding a home in which to raise our boy. We have lived in and loved our home for over a year and feel grateful every day for the opportunity. The folks at Movin' Out worked a small miracle in piecing together multiple funding sources for us. They helped us prepare for the responsibility we were taking on in buying a house. They offered encouragement, practical and emotional support, and celebrated with us when the keys were in our hand.

It was a really amazing thing to find and work with an organization whose mission is to bring about such a profound change in the lives of people with disabilities and their families. The gifts of roots, comfort, and building a place in our community are beyond description. We would never have known these if not for Movin' Out.”

Movin' Out Family, 2010

2010 Annual Report

In 2010, Movin' Out helped people with disabilities throughout Wisconsin to establish affordable, community integrated homes of their own. View 2010 Report

National Realtors Honor Movin' Out

At an event in Washington DC, Movin' Out received national recognition when one of seven HOPE Awards was presented by the National Association of Realtors to Movin' Out. “The Home Ownership Participation for Everyone (HOPE) Award recognizes and supports those organizations that continue to plant the seeds of hope, in families, communities and the nation, when the barriers to homeownership grow and overshadow the American Dream.”

Hope Award sponsors produced a brief video about Movin' Out and two Movin' Out home owners.

Volunteer Opportunities

Help Movin' Out meet its mission of insuring safe, affordable, community-integrated housing for people with disabilities. Check out these volunteer opportunities and contact us about your interest.

New Guide is available as a supplement to the webinar series

A new guide is available as a supplement to the webinar series. Download new guide (1.1mb pdf).

Learn about legal requirements, making decisions about hiring and working with contractors, architects and designers, what the permit process entails, what a contract should include, what you should be looking for before you start a project, who to involve, what questions to ask.
This series of seminars address what you should know before authorizing a home or accessibility modification, what to avoid and how to have a positive outcome. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services sponsors the interactive series of Movin’ Out webinars for social workers and case managers responsible for approving home and/or accessibility modifications. The series takes a comprehensive look at the process from beginning to end to assure that a modification is appropriate, beneficial, and of high quality.

To view the taped webinars, go to http://dhs.wisconsin.gov/webcast/, click on webcast catalogue and find the webinar by date and name.

Click on the links below to see the power point presentations of each session.

Session 1: View 10/6/2009 session presentation (9.17mb powerpoint)

Session 2: View 10/20/2009 session presentation (741kb powerpoint)
- Accessibility Features Report
- Architects in Wisconsin
- ICC book: Accessible and Usable Buildings
- Wisconsin Independent Living Centers
- Find an architect

Session 3: View 10/27/2009 session presentation (557kb powerpoint)

Session 4: View 11/3/2009 session presentation (553kb powerpoint)
- NARI of Madison, Inc.
- Better Business Bureau
- Wisconsin Department of Trade and Consumer Protection
- Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Home Improvement Practices

Session 5: View 11/10/2009 session presentation (193kb powerpoint)

Session 6: View 11/17/2009 session presentation (9.17kb powerpoint)

Movin' Out at info@movin-out.org or 608/251-4446 x7.

Volunteers make Movin' Out homes and yards more beautiful

Three teams of volunteers from the Blackhawk Church Love Madison project painted balconies, spruced up yards and planted flowers for Movin' Out tenants. 

Members of Firefighters Local 311 cleaned up trees, yards and exteriors at four Movin' Out properties.

Thank you, volunteers!  Interested in mobilizing your volunteer group? Contact Mary Myers, mm@movin-out.org.

Rural Development Home Ownership Mortgage Funds

Mortgage funds for low income home buyers are available directly from Wisconsin USDA Rural Development offices. The Rural Development Direct loan has a very favorable interest rate and a long term. This loan is available in rural areas. Contact Rural Development to confirm if home is in a rural area and to pre-qualify for the loan: 866/474-3600 or www.rurdev.usda.gov/wi.
View pdf to learn more

Movin' Out earns FHA approval

The federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved Movin' Out’s home-ownership programs for use in conjunction with FHA-insured financing. HUD authorized Movin' Out to provide funds for closing costs and rehabilitation assistance to home buyers and home owners using FHA financing. Movin' Out is the only Wisconsin agency approved as a statewide program. Only three other Wisconsin non-profit agencies have earned the HUD approval and they each serve a specific metro area. Lenders and their underwriters can find detailed guidelines for linking Movin' Out secondary financing with a FHA mortgage: View HUD letter

Fair Housing for People with Disabilities

Right here, starting at this web site, people with disabilities and their allies can learn more about fair housing laws that apply to them and disability-related protections such as the ADA. The world wide web contains vast information on these topics. Movin’ Out social work intern Ben Schifski has chosen some of the most helpful links that apply to housing and people with disabilities. Visit our new Links page to find safe web sites with lots of information.

Deep Subsidies for Purchasing in Madison and Dane County Now Available

With the funding support of our partners, Dane County and the City of Madison, Movin' Out can leverage significantly more down payment assistance for qualified households than in previous years. With the price of housing on the rise in Madison and Dane County, a deeper subsidy is often needed to achieve affordable home ownership. See some scenarios (28 kb pdf) and contact Movin' Out for more information.

Sue's Story

Sue Helgesen’s dream of home ownership was realized in 2005. She has given Movin' Out permission to share her success story of purchasing her own two-bedroom condo. While each Movin' Out story is one of a kind, Sue hopes her experience will encourage others to pursue their dream too. Since 1997, Movin' Out has helped more than 700 people with disabilities purchase homes and/or obtain resources to make them more livable, accessible and/or improve safety. Sue contacted Movin' Out and there, a housing counselor helped her transform her dream into a housing plan. The first step: save money for a down payment. Sue saved. When she had as much as her SSI and Medicaid benefits would allow her to have in assets, she had to find a way to keep saving without putting her income in jeopardy.

Movin Out helped her get in touch with an attorney who helped Sue and her family set up a trust for Sue’s savings that maintained her eligibility for SSI and Medicaid. Sue saved for three years before taking the next step in her plan which was to talk with her Movin’ Out counselor, Michelle, and a mortgage lender about all the details of qualifying for a mortgage and finding a place she could afford to stay in over the long term.

Sue’s income qualified her for three down payment assistance programs but even with these three different loans, the numbers weren’t working until Sue worked with the city of Madison to exchange her Section 8 rent voucher for a Section 8 voucher that would help offset her monthly mortgage payments. She found a condo on the east side of Madison. The layout was perfect. The neighborhood was friendly and safe. It was on a bus line and close to shopping. And Sue could afford to buy it. Michelle helped Sue write up an offer to purchase. The seller accepted the offer. At the closing, Sue signed her name on “a hundred papers and handed over her stack of down payment checks.” She was a home owner. She left with the keys to her new condo.

Sue says the first step toward your dream of home ownership is to get information and learn what it means to own your own home. Owning her own home works for Sue but might not be the right answer for everybody. One good place to begin is by contacting Movin’ Out. Call (608) 251-4446 or call toll free (877) 861-6746.

Developing New Housing

Coachyard Square is an example of Movin' Out’s participation in the development of new housing that includes affordable home ownership options for people with disabilities. Movin' Out partnered with Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development to create a 23-unit mixed income condo development.

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