Housing Authority Has Waitlist Three Times Larger Than Its Affordable Housing Supply
Individuals who qualify should still apply, as some lists operate as lotteries.
Westlawn Gardens is one of the properties through which the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee offers affordable housing. File photo by Kelly Meyerhofer/NNS.
Thousands of Milwaukeeans are struggling to access affordable housing options.
Amy Hall, the communications coordinator and public information officer for the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, said her agency provides subsidized housing for thousands. But that doesn’t put a big enough dent in the demand.
Hall said there are just shy of 5,000 units of public housing in the city, but 15,000 people are on a waitlist for it.
There also are thousands of people on a waitlist for project-based housing, which is a government-funded program that provides rental housing to low-income households in privately owned and managed rental units.
And the city has about 6,000 housing-choice vouchers for subsidized Section 8 housing provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but 8,000 residents are on the waitlist. Section 8 distributes rental payments to private landlords on behalf of low-income residents.
An August 2021 report by the Community Development Alliance, an affiliation of community development funders and practitioners, said Milwaukeeans face a series of barriers when it comes to gaining affordable housing.
Chief among them is that residents simply can’t afford non-subsidized housing.
“The most significant root cause impacting housing affordability is low wages — 53.4% of households who rent homes in the City of Milwaukee are rent burdened, spending 30% or more of their income on rent and a significant majority of cost-burdened renters are families making $7.25 – $15 per hour,” the report said.
Evictions create another barrier.
“At the core of many of these root causes are a legacy of racially discriminatory policies and actions that have created household wealth gaps and other disparities,” the report said.
Hall said all the Housing Authority’s waitlists are open and, despite the demand, she still encouraged residents to apply.
“The housing choice vouchers program is a lottery system, so if someone applied today, they would have just as much a chance of receiving that aid as someone who applied last year,” she said.
Neither project-based housing nor more traditional public housing is on a lottery system, but it is important for anyone who has applied to keep their contact information up to date.
“If we can’t get ahold of you, we will give your spot to the next person in line,” she said.
She said the Housing Authority will be partnering with affordablehousing.com soon and is hopeful that the website will be a helpful tool for Milwaukeeans in need. Affordablehousing.com is a resource that lists affordable apartments, condos, houses and townhouses.
Besides that, Hall said, all one can do is wait for a spot to open up.
For more information
To apply for Housing Authority waitlists, you can go here.
Other resources for people looking for housing help
- Community Advocates rent helpline: 414-270-4646
- Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee: 414-727-5300
- Mediate Milwaukee: 414-939-8800
- Legal Action of Wisconsin: 414-278-7722
- Social Development Commission: 414-906-2700
- Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union: 414-410-9714
- Rental Housing Resource Center: 414- 895-7368
- Impact 211: 211
Big waiting list points to dire need for subsidized housing in Milwaukee. Here’s what you need to know. was originally published by the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.
With the existence of Section 8, I wonder why the city is still in the business of providing and maintaining so many housing units. I admit that I don’t know the financials of this department. With the upcoming financial bomb to the city budget, I wonder if they should dispose of this inventory and strictly manage the subsidy program.
“Hall said there are just shy of 5,000 units of public housing in the city, but 15,000 people are on a waitlist for it.”
15,000 is only two times LARGER than 5,000.
15,000 is three times AS LARGE as 5,000.
These are different statements using the same numbers.
The headline on this story is wrong. It’s simple grammar and easy arithmetic but people make this mistake often, especially, it seems, journalists.
Craig, how could the City “dispose of” their housing projects? Sell them to the nearest slumlord? Bulldoze them and sell the land (creating more homelessness)?
I really doubt a private sector entity would accept these properties and agree to maintain them below cost. If the City didn’t maintain them, another government agency or authority would be created to do so.
TransitRider…. I think there would be a market for these properties to be sold to investors who don’t fill the lawns with boulders.. There seems to be a lot of construction of affordable apartments these days. I would rather my tax dollars be spent on libraries and other quality of life items when they scramble to budget for the pension hit that’s upon us. I think the Housing Authority is a relic of an older time.