"It's not improving;" Residents frustrated about lack of transparency from top housing authority officials

TMJ4

Jenna Rae

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Public housing residents have a new ask or rather an invitation to the board members of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM).

"Since you don't want us to come to your meetings, we invite you to ours. Come talk to residents, come listen to the neighbors, come see the mold, the rat problems, the broken appliances," resident Stacy Ream said.

Ream's been a resident of public housing for more than a decade. She now lives at College Court.

Since September, Jenna Rae has investigated the conditions of people living in public housing and a lack of transparency from HACM's leaders, as they've consistently denied requests for interviews.

In February, dozens of HACM residents met at Milwaukee's city hall to attend HACM's monthly board meeting. It was a meeting scheduled to be in person that changed to a phone call just days before. The meeting left no option for public comment.

In March, that same monthly meeting was canceled because of the unavailability of commissioners and a lack of agenda items. The board's president, Willie Hines, was at Joe Biden's event that day when he visited the Cream City.

Now, it's April, and residents have asked again to speak to board members at this month's meeting. With no response from board members, the meeting was moved to a teleconference again.

"It's not improving for me, not the residents, and Chairwoman Daniels knows this," Ream said.

"All these roaches, the bed bugs, the rats, and you are comfortable with that? We are not comfortable with living that way and neither should you be," resident Vivian Jones said.

Jones also lives at a HACM property and has been voicing concerns for nearly the last year.

Jones, Ream, and about a dozen other residents are now calling on Sherri Reed Daniels, the chairwoman of HACM's Board of Commissioners, who's under Willie Hines' leadership.

"You live right in the midst of it, do something about it," Jones added.