After the Village of Sister Bay hosted its public input session on Saturday regarding affordable workforce housing, the Door County Housing Partnership is excited to start work on its plans to address the topic. Village administrator Julie Schmelzer said before the session that “we are at a point that if we don’t do something, we are going to lose the workers we need to make our community a place people want to visit or raise a family.  Without housing, we will lose our service workers, and they’ll eventually relocate to other areas with housing options.” Earlier this year, the Door County Housing Partnership and the village struck a deal to purchase approximately ten lots at a significant discount in hopes to building affordable housing on the sites.  Jim Honig, who serves as the Pastor of Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church in Ellison Bay and the President of the Door County Housing Partnership, is excited to address the housing need in his own backyard and to serve more local families.

The data collected by the United Way of Door County paints a picture of the need for affordable housing in the area. Fifty-three percent of Sister Bay’s households are in poverty or fall under the Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed (ALICE line), the highest percentage of all Door County communities.  The Door County Housing Partnership will close on two homes in the coming weeks, including the 49th Homebuild dedicated by Door County Habitat for Humanity last Thursday. The two organizations hope to partner together again next year.