City Selling 90 Lots To Advance Affordable Housing Effort

A potentially transformative housing effort for a neighborhood just west of downtown Milwaukee is gaining steam.

The Community Development Alliance (CDA) is working to build 120 houses on vacant lots in the King Park neighborhood. The nonprofit has identified key funding sources, selected development partners and is now moving to acquire the land. The goal is to sell the 1,000-square-foot houses to minority families for approximately $110,000 each, helping to build generational wealth and indirectly improving neighborhood conditions for existing residents.

The City of Milwaukee is happy to help.

“One of the assets the City of Milwaukee and the Redevelopment Authority has is vacant lots,” said Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee assistant director Dave Misky at the authority’s meeting Thursday.

For $1 per lot, the city will provide the CDA with 90 lots located in an area approximately bounded by W. Garfield Ave., W. Highland Ave., Interstate 43 and N. 27th.

“Housing we believe is the primary social determinant of health,” said CDA CEO Teig Whaley-Smith. The CDA released its comprehensive, shared plan in 2021 for improving housing for Milwaukee. It identified strategies to create 32,000 new Black and Latino homeowners, with the CDA and its partners now moving to put some of those plans into action. “We can’t do 20 different things at once.”

The organization is backing a handful of initiatives, including an acquisition fund managed by ACTS Housing. The King Park housing effort is being done in partnership with Milwaukee County. The goal is to eventually build 100 houses per year across the city, but the initial effort will use multiple funding streams to attempt to improve the area around King Park. Whaley-Smith said identifying sites involved literally getting in a car and driving the neighborhood to see what would work.

The $24 million effort will create affordable housing for families making $50,000 per year, and in many cases provide better housing at a price cheaper than the families are paying in monthly rent. Approximately half of the funding would come from the new homeowners, with the CDA relying on outside sources to generate the rest. “We need to bring in about $90,000 in subsidy for each home,” said Whaley-Smnith.

As Urban Milwaukee reported earlier this month, Milwaukee County is contributing $6.5 million via a grant from the state’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation. The county will also match a $1.5 million state ARPA grant to renovate the King Park Community Center, 1531 W. Vliet St. Low-income housing tax credits are expected to cover the development of 40 of the houses.

The CDA selected Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity to build 80 of the houses. Those houses would be sold, through Habitat’s program, directly to future owners. Whaley-Smith said the success of Habitat is already visible in the neighborhood, as it long-ago developed homes there. “Thirty years later, those homes still have 95% homeowners and have retained their value of about $100,000.” Habitat, said Whaley-Smith, would bring its own resource network to help fill the financing gap.

Emem Group would develop 40 houses backed by the low-income housing tax credit program. The program requires the houses to be rented at below-market rates for a period of 15 years, after which they could be sold to the tenant.

Area Alderman Russell W. Stamper, II was effusive in his praise for Whaley-Smith. “He did his homework,” said the alderman. “This project is going to be the biggest one so far in my eight years as an alderman.”

The RACM board unanimously endorsed the land sale and provided its conduit bonding authority to the CDA. The CDA would be authorized to issue up to $6 million in tax-free bonds through the authority. The strategy does not place risk on the city, but does allow the authority access to a legal structure that reduces borrowing costs. “We don’t know if it will be utilized by CDA or its partners at this point,” said Misky.

The Common Council must still approve the sale of the majority of the lots. Only 14 are directly owned by RACM.

Lots

• 2513 W. Brown St.
• 1728 N. 19th St.
• 1740-1742 N. 19th St.
• 1744 N. 19th St.
• 1902 N. 19th St.
• 1826 W. Vine St.
• 1903 W. Vine St.
• 1907-1909 W. Vine St.
• 2119 N. 25th St.
• 2123 N. 25th St.
• 2219 N. 25th St.
• 2527-2529 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2531-2533 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2532 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2615 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2625 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2635 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2218-2220 N. 25th St.
• 2417 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2450-2452 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2450 W. Lloyd St.
• 1959-1961 N. 25th St.
• 1929 N. 26th St.
• 1931-1933 N. 26th St.
• 1950-1952 N. 26th St.
• 1960 N. 26th St.
• 2401 W. Brown St.
• 2474-2476 W. Brown St.
• 2477 W. Brown St.
• 2479-2481 W. Brown St.
• 2482-2484 W. Brown St.
• 2619-2621 W. Vine St.
• 1611 N. 18th St.
• 1720-1722 N. 19th St.
• 1611 N. 19th St.
• 1337 W. Galena St.
• 1548 N. 14th St.
• 2405 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2415 W. Garfield Ave.
• 2615 W. Vine St.
• 1612-1614 N. 19th St.
• 1330-1332 W. Cherry St.
• 2126 N. 24th Pl.
• 1426-1428 N. 22nd St.
• 1512 N. 14th St.
• 1616-1618 N. 15th St.
• 1629 N. 17th St.
• 1633 N. 17th St.
• 1845 N. 25th St.
• 1937 N. 24th Pl.
• 1430 N. 23rd St.
• 1625 N. 17th St.
• 1629 N. 26th St.
• 1320-1322 W. Kneeland St.
• 1325 W. Cherry St.
• 1327 W. Cherry St.
• 1327 W. Galena St.
• 1333 W. Galena St.
• 1437 N. 13th St.
• 1441 N. 13th St.
• 1304 W. Kneeland St.
• 1310 W. Kneeland St.
• 1312 W. Kneeland St.
• 1316 W. Kneeland St.
• 1323-1325 W. Galena St.
• 1423-1425 N. 13th St.
• 1426 N. 21st St.
• 1723 N. 16th St.
• 2232-2234 W. Vine St.
• 2478 W. Vine St.
• 1909 W. Monroe St.
• 1913 W. Monroe St.
• 2456-2464 W. Vliet St.
• 2466 W. Galena St.
• 1217-1219 S. 35th St.
• 2830-2832 W. Burnham St.
• 1607 N. 18th St.
• 1808 W. Galena St.
• 1812 W. Galena St.
• 1830 W. Galena St.
• 1834 W. Galena St.
• 1615 N. 18th St.
• 1419-1421 N. 25th St.
• 1430 N. 22nd St.
• 1430 W. Brown St.
• 1436 W. Brown St.
• 1817 N. 17th St.
• 1821-1823 N. 17th St.
• 2010 N. 15th St.
• 2450 W. Vliet St.