Sun Prairie staffer details how a small TID fund and council outreach seeded a multi‑program affordable housing effort

Becky Binns, invited from Sun Prairie, told Middleton’s workforce and housing committee that Sun Prairie’s affordable housing work began in earnest after a 2017 change in mayoral priorities and a comprehensive‑plan update in 2019 that elevated housing goals. "We created the affordable housing fund with about $160,000 to just do a few things, kind of get our feet wet," Binns said.

Binns said the city followed a staged approach: adopt a high‑level affordable housing fund policy, secure a TID/TIF extension to create a predictable multi‑year revenue stream, then return to council later with detailed program funding requests. "Before we fully got to those programs, I wanted to have them at least agree to the different buckets," she said, describing how early council engagement and workshops helped avoid getting bogged down in technical details.

Why it matters: Middleton’s committee sought concrete examples of program design and political strategy from Sun Prairie. Binns emphasized three strategic buckets—supply (zoning, comprehensive plan), stability (supportive…