Common Ground Gets National Attention

Urban Milwaukee

Murphy’s Law by Bruce Murphy

The front-page story by the Washington Post is an embarrassment for Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Willie Hines Jr., the executive director of the city Housing Authority and former Common Council president. It portrays a battle by the mostly elderly residents of College Court Apartments on 33rd and Highland to get the patio at the complex reopened. They believed it had been shut down as a punishment after 21 tenants signed an email to Hines complaining about conditions at the public housing complex.

“Instead of a response,” the story reported, “the residents had awoken a few days later to find a padlock on the gate to the building’s patio, limiting access to the only outdoor space where tenants could gather in the evenings to grill or visit with friends. Building management later said the lock was needed to keep out trespassers. To the tenants, it felt like an act of retribution for speaking up.”

The tenants are among some 11,000 Milwaukee residents — more than 90% of them low income Black and Latino — who rely on the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) for shelter. The agency operates 5,106 rental units and distributes $40 million a year in federal rent subsidies.

Over the past year the nonprofit advocacy group, Common Ground, has been working with these tenants, charging that they endure flooding, rats, heating outages, bed bug infestations and mold at some of these housing complexes.