Common Ground, Residents Blast Housing Authority at Board Meeting

By Jeramey Jannene - Sep 11th, 2024 05:53 pm

Urban Milwaukee

“We hear you and we are responding.”

That was the message from Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) board vice chair Brooke VandeBerg, who was serving as acting chair as dozens of HACM residents and Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin representatives packed the first in-person HACM board meeting since January.

Speaker after speaker told VandeBerg that the agency was falling short and more was needed.

“We shouldn’t have to live with rats and roaches and bugs,” said Lapham Park complex resident Vivian Jones.

“When we raise concerns, you merely move the managers around,” said Roye ‘Chris’ Logan, a Mitchell Park resident. “HACM’s biggest problem is bad management from the top down.”

More than 20 speakers were given two minutes each, ostensibly to address a five-year plan mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HACM, as Urban Milwaukee previously reported, is already under a corrective action plan from HUD.