Ask an Expert: Teig Whaley-Smith on creating affordable housing for early childhood educators

The Economic Mobility Catalog’s Strategy Guide on Creating affordable housing shares best practices for helping communities finance and build more affordable housing. One innovative approach in Milwaukee, WI is the Community Development Alliance’s (CDA) Early Childhood Education Homes program that focuses on building new, affordable single family homes exclusively for early childhood educators. Since 2024, the program has built 42 houses.

Teig Whaley-Smith is the Chief Alliance Executive of the CDA, and former chief operating officer of Milwaukee County. His role at CDA includes overseeing the Early Childhood Education Homes program and CDA’s other housing, racial, and economic justice initiatives.  

In this edited Q&A, Teig shares his insights on how the Early Childhood Education Homes program operates, including financial tools and engagement with educators, as well as best practices to help bring the workforce housing model to other communities.

What is the Early Childhood Education Homes program and why did CDA focus on early childhood educators?

The Early Childhood Education Homes program is an innovative workforce housing initiative that creates newly constructed, affordable homes exclusively for early childhood educators. CDA and its partners are building homes on vacant Milwaukee lots and making them available to qualifying educators at affordable prices despite construction costs that are significantly higher. At its core, the program recognizes that housing stability is workforce stability.

We focused on early childhood educators because they are essential to Milwaukee’s economy and quality of life. Parents cannot work without reliable childcare, yet many educators earn modest wages and have been disproportionately affected by rising housing costs. We saw an opportunity to address two critical challenges at once: expanding homeownership opportunities and strengthening the early childhood workforce. 

What are some of the strategies you’ve used to finance the construction of affordable homes?

The reality is that the private market no longer produces many entry-level homes that are affordable to working families. One reason for this is how expensive building new homes has become. From the beginning, we knew to make this model work, we needed to assemble a layered financing approach that combines public, philanthropic, and community investment. 

The primary public investment was an Innovation Grant from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, which was secured in partnership with LISC Milwaukee. Leveraging funds for the construction included securing philanthropic support, utilizing city-owned vacant lots at deeply discounted prices, working with multiple nonprofit and private-sector development partners to increase efficiency and lower costs, and using grants and subsidies to close the gap between actual construction costs and affordable sale prices. 

The goal is to make high-quality homeownership accessible without compromising quality.  One of the key innovations was a Coordinated Backbone TIF district, which utilizes tax incremental financing to fund homeownership.  

The Early Childhood Education Homes program includes a deed restriction for homeowners that limits the resale price. How does the program balance the “forever affordable” deed restriction with the goal of allowing homeowners to build wealth?

We believe affordable housing and wealth creation are not mutually exclusive. Adding the deed restriction is designed to preserve affordability for future generations while still creating meaningful wealth-building opportunities for homeowners. Homeowners benefit from the stability of ownership, principal paydown through their mortgage, and the accumulation of equity over time. At the same time, the resale restriction helps ensure that public and philanthropic investments remain tied to the property and continue serving future educators. 

This approach creates a permanent community asset while helping families move from renting to owning and build long-term financial security. Specifically, the deed restriction requires homeowner occupancy and that the home be sold at an affordable price to future homeowners.  The initial homes are sold at $105,000, so a homeowner after 10 years can build almost $50,000 of equity, yet the home remains affordable for future generations at about $125,000.  

CDA’s work engages many different sectors. Who are your most important partners and how have you built relationships with them?

The success of this initiative depends on collaboration. Our key partners include early childhood education providers, housing developers, community development organizations, homeownership counseling agencies, public-sector partners, and philanthropic and corporate funders. We have built these relationships through a collective impact approach by starting with shared data, aligning around common goals, maintaining transparency, and solving problems together rather than working in silos. The strength of the program comes from partners seeing their own mission reflected in a shared vision for community impact.

What are some ways you've engaged early educators to build awareness of the program?

We knew that traditional housing outreach would not be enough because this program serves a specific workforce. Our philosophy is to meet educators where they already are and remove as many barriers to homeownership as possible. We partner directly with major early childhood education centers and employers to raise awareness about this program. That means going to professional development sessions or even holiday parties to get the word out. 

The next step of our community engagement is working through trusted community organizations, providing access to HUD-certified homebuyer counseling and education, and conducting outreach through employer networks, information sessions, and community partners. Enlisting these partners helps create a transparent and accessible application process, and helps the early educators feel supported from applying for a home until they step through the front door. 

After early sluggish sales, bringing in a contracted broker to provide that expertise and client-focused services for the early educators helped speed up sales to the point where now homes are sold within a month or two of construction completion.  

As you look to expand this model, which elements of the current program do you consider the most essential for replication?

The most important lesson is that this is not just a housing program—it is a workforce strategy. For communities looking to adopt this model, start by clearly defining a workforce population with a demonstrated housing need. Then, forge strong employer partnerships to reach your future homeowners. 

Key to this model is the permanent affordability strategy through deed restrictions, which ensures these homes remain an asset for workforce stability across future generations. I’ll also highlight the value of connecting buyers with robust homebuyer education and support services, because more than just helping early educators buy a home, we want them to understand how owning a home can build wealth and help them feel confident purchasing their next home.   

And none of this is possible without getting the funding to actually build the homes, and the best approach for that is a blended capital stack that combines public, private, and philanthropic resources. Invest in high-quality home construction, so these houses retain their value. These principles can be adapted to other communities and workforce sectors.

What metrics is CDA using to evaluate the program’s success?

We evaluate both housing outcomes and workforce outcomes. Key metrics include the number of homes completed and sold, the number of early childhood educators who become first-time homeowners, affordability levels achieved relative to market conditions, homeowner retention and housing stability, educator recruitment and retention among participating providers, neighborhood impact through the productive use of formerly vacant lots (and the related tax base), and the long-term preservation of affordability. Ultimately, success means helping more educators remain in the profession, supporting wealth-building through homeownership, and strengthening neighborhoods through sustained investment.