How tenants are pushing the Housing Authority to make improvements

How tenants are pushing the Housing Authority to make improvements

PrincessSafiya Byers - Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service 11/10/2023

Common Ground worked with Housing Authority residents to gain improvements from the Housing Authority. From left are Nicole Smith, Kevin Solomon, Patrick Murphy, Chris Logan and Joseph Pinto. (Photo by Princess Byers)

After years of complaining about unsafe living conditions, tenants of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, or HACM, are organizing and advocating for themselves.

Common Council President Jose Perez said at a public meeting in September that issues concerning HACM have been on his radar since 2013.

But only since March, after Common Ground publicly announced its concerns with the Housing Authority, did council members sit down to discuss solutions.

Common Ground, a 15-year-old nonpartisan coalition that addresses community issues, met  with tenants, collected stories and presented more than 1,000 cases of residents who say they have experienced assault; endured bedbugs and rats; had to deal with “lost” rent payments; abusive management; mold; and no heat.

Residents speak out

Joseph Pinto, who lives in HACM’s Southlawn apartments, said he and others had been making complaints for years with no actions or help until he met Common Ground organizers in the summer of 2020.

Pinto and other Southlawn residents shared concerns about reckless driving. Common Ground organizers then started collaborating with tenants to organize around security and traffic issues.

“We won speed bumps, traffic signs and pothole repairs,” Pinto said.

That was the spark that got the ball rolling.

‘I was complaining and complaining’

Mitchell Court residents heard about the work Common Ground had done with Southlawn residentsand reached out to organizers about maintenance problems.

“I was complaining and complaining,” said Chris Logan, a Mitchell Court resident. “And no one was hearing me. So when I heard about a meeting to address concerns, I didn’t know if I should trust it, but I went.”

After hearing from Southlawn and Mitchell Court residents, Common Ground organizers and residents started looking into other Housing Authority properties.

“Every meeting brings tears to my eyes,” said Nicole Smith, a Southlawn resident. “Once I started attending meetings and hearing what other people were dealing with, my issues felt insignificant.”

Residents said they continued to show up because they began to see changes as a result of their organizing with Common Ground.

One Lincoln Court tenant, Patrick Murphy, said he’d been dealing with a leaky ceiling and black mold in his unit for seven years. Once Common Ground got involved, the issue was addressed.

Common Ground is made up of over 40 congregations, schools, small businesses, neighborhood groups and other organizations.

When working with HACM residents, Common Ground took its usual approach of setting goals, creating strategies and demanding change from powerful interests.

Taking ‘our power back’

“Common Ground taught us how to organize and take our power back,” Logan said. “I never saw myself as a leader. Now I stand up and talk in front of people.”

Kevin Solomon, an associate organizer with Common Ground, said good organizing starts with listening, so that’s what he did.

“We went door-to-door for months in the snow, rain and heat talking to residents of HACM properties—getting to know folks and hearing their stories,” he said.

Once organizers built relationships and understood the issues, they worked with residents to convene group meetings, develop tenant-organizing teams, provide training and strategize how to win desired changes.     

Together with tenants, Common Ground started the Tenants United campaign to address systemic issues and give residents safe, comfortable places to live.

“Only when the people affected by a policy build enough capacity to make their case and have numbers (of people) behind them, will politicians seriously listen to them,” said Louise Cainker, a professor of social and cultural sciences at Marquette University.

What’s next?

The Common Council approved an ordinance change that would give the Department of Neighborhood Services, or DNS, clear authority to inspect properties and issue code violations to HACM — an oversight Common Ground identified in late 2022.

Starting Jan.1, the city will review the concerns of HACM tenants. The Common Councilfunded two full-time Department of Neighborhood Services inspectors focused on HACM, Milwaukee’s second-largest landlord.

HACM Secretary-Executive Director Willie Hines Jr. said in September that his agency will regularly report its progress in addressing complaints to the Common Council.

So far, Common Ground has uncovered rent and maintenance failures within the Housing Authority.

Common Ground leaders plan to unveil the next phase of their Tenants United campaign to reform HACM at a fall assembly on Sunday at Mount Mary University.

“The people can save the people,” Pinto said. “No one cares more about our lives than us, so we are the ones that have to make the change.”

For more information

Common Ground will hold its fall assembly from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12.