What’s the Milwaukee County Executive doing up north? Preparing to run for governor.

David Crowley visited Altoona to check out a micro-apartment model for affordable housing, an issue he says will be a priority when he announces his candidacy for governor.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is no stranger to the hot topic of affordable housing, heading an administration that has produced $45 million in residences in the city of Milwaukee and its suburbs. He said his recent trip to examine a housing model in the Chippewa Valley helps him highlight not only ongoing progress but the need for partners, financing, and legislation that will be needed, especially if he becomes Wisconsin’s next governor.

Crowley declared his intention to run shortly after Gov. Tony Evers announced he would not run for a third term in 2026. A formal announcement is expected “in a few weeks,” he said in his visit to Altoona.

At the invitation of Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire), Crowley toured Solis Circle, a former assisted living facility that was converted to micro-apartments in 2019, with monthly rents starting at $390.

“Being here at Solis Circle has given me the opportunity to see the groups on the ground who are doing incredible work,” Crowley said, “from our local community leaders, private developers, and JONAH faith-based leaders. It’s extremely important to continue to build a table that allows everybody to really focus on the end goal, and that is creating affordable housing as well as wrapping around different services.”

While crediting Evers for affordable housing efforts that have created more than 17,000 units throughout his two terms, Crowley said he would like to do even more.

“I want to make sure that we can get faster permits so we can focus on different housing models,” Crowley said, “because every city, village and town throughout the state of Wisconsin is facing an affordability crisis when it comes down to housing. And so I’m looking forward to bringing that to this particular campaign once I enter the race because we need more affordability, but we also need housing that is attainable.”

Affordable housing is one of the rare examples of bipartisan cooperation in the Legislature, with Republicans and Democrats working to modify existing programs that offer financial incentives to build new units or renovate existing spaces — in both rural and urban areas — in order to meet a forecasted need of 227,000 new units by 2030.

One of the few outliers on the issue is Vice President JD Vance, who used time in last year’s campaign debate to blame undocumented immigrants. In fact, mass deportations would exacerbate the housing crisis by making an already-severe construction worker shortage even worse.