Super Majority of Council Takes Issue With Mayor's Handling of Housing Authority

Urban Milwaukee

By Jeramey Jannene

June 27, 2024

Add the Milwaukee Common Council to the growing chorus of people concerned about the conditions and operations of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM).

“The situation at [HACM] is no longer tenable,” wrote 10 of the 15 council members in an open letter to Mayor Cavalier Johnson released Wednesday.

The letter comes more than a year after Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin launched a broad-based campaign targeting the “failing” conditions of the agency’s buildings and operations. Concerns have been raised about the poor conditions of properties, billing and record-keeping failures and retaliatory conduct by property managers.

The situation has proven difficult for the city to solve.

The city-affiliated agency’s board is appointed by Johnson and confirmed by the council, but its operations are managed by a board-appointed director and funding comes primarily from the federal government.

The city took initial steps last year to send city inspectors into its properties for the first time and provide supplemental funding to make repairs, but now council members want more.

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“Our 12,000 fellow citizens who reside in HACM properties deserve to live in a clean and safe environment in which they are treated with dignity and respect by HACM management, the Board, and staff. We believe the time has come for all those connected to this agency to offer recommendations, appropriate to their areas of expertise, to place HACM on a better course,” wrote the council members, headlined by President José G. Pérez and Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic.

The letter was triggered by Johnson’s nomination of two new members and one reappointment to the seven-member board. Only four members are currently on the board, with one having a long-expired term.

Johnson said he is also working to bring in a “nationally recognized public housing consultant.”