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A developer plans to buy the vacant former Town & Country lot on Janesville's downtown riverfront, and turn the grassy parcel into a 100-unit apartment complex with storefront commercial space.

Efforts by a local task force have included overnight car parking for homeless people and more outreach by police and agencies. But none of those measures helped Mike Terry.

A nonprofit groupÃÛèÖÊÓƵ proposal to build affordable small homes in part of a city park has yet to be formally submitted to the city of Janesville. Neighbors who live near the park are already taking a stand against the plan.

Janesville city officials say one of the biggest emerging trends in homelessness is a critical shortfall in affordable, local rental units that are now available. The problem led one local man to live in a tent in a friend's backyard.

Three apartment developments are being discussed or already underway at a time when Janesville housing and economic development officials are trying to respond to a housing crunch and shortage of available apartments.

A new statewide housing report shows that even the fastest-growing communities in Wisconsin can’t keep up with the demand for new housing. As it turns out, Janesville and Beloit likely are the most strained cities in Wisconsin.

Janesville soon could be looking at two separate, emerging plans aimed at helping house the homeless: a privately-funded, "tiny home" village being considered in the city's Fourth Ward; and another proposal: a cluster of four small, 500-square-foot houses the city of Janesville and local nonprofit are considering though a partnership.