Biden Administration official promises action on troubled Housing Authority. Tenants have complained for a year.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Published May 17, 2024

A key member of President Joe Biden's administration promised Thursday to straighten out Milwaukee's troubled public housing agency.

More than 10,000 Milwaukee residents — many of whom are low income Black and Latino — rely on the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee for shelter. The agency operates about 5,200 rental units across the city and distributes about $40 million a year in federal rent subsidies.

In the past year, reports of heating outages, bed bug infestations and gun violence inside Housing Authority properties have made headlines and prompted calls for reform. Tenants and community organizers say the agency isn't doing enough to keep its residents safe or address their concerns. For more than a year, they've been calling on federal regulators to step in and force change.

Adrianne Todman, a top federal housing official who joined Vice President Kamala Harris on a visit to Milwaukee Thursday, said her agency "has taken all these concerns seriously, and there will be something done about it."

Todman is the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides the city's Housing Authority with most of its funding.

"I've been talking very closely with a person who's in charge of public housing at HUD, and I'm actually sitting down with him tomorrow to get an update on what's happening in Milwaukee," Todman said Thursday.

It's the first time a federal official has spoken publicly about the concerns which have been raised in protests, including outside the home of a Housing Authority Board member.

Her comments signal that the problems inside Milwaukee's public housing have the attention of the Biden Administration, as the President is trying to shore up support from Black voters in Wisconsin before the upcoming election.

Three times this year, tenants and members of Common Ground, an advocacy group elevating tenants' concerns, have tried to air their concerns during meetings of the Housing Authority board. Those efforts were stymied when meetings were moved to virtual calls on short notice.