Council, Residents Seek Solutions For Housing Authority Woes

Convent Hill, a Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee property. File photo by Mariiana Tzotcheva.

“I shouldn’t have to pay full rent just to live in despair,” said Debra McQueen, a resident of College Court apartments at 3334 W. Highland Blvd., which are run by the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM).

McQueen’s sentiment was one repeated over and over during a Monday afternoon Common Council meeting to discuss how to improve conditions at the thousands of apartments HACM controls.

Residents aligned with Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin’s campaign to improve conditions, detailed issues with mold, flooding, rats, bugs and HACM’s alleged failure to properly repair or treat the issues.

“I am just going to simply say: when does basic decency kick in?” asked Alderman Mark Borkowski to a packed City Hall meeting room. “This is absolutely terrible and it should have never happened.”

“I am trying to get my head around ‘how did this happen?’,” said Ald. Robert Bauman, noting that conditions previously were much better.

Council members are also trying to get their heads around how the city can regulate its housing authority. The mayor and council appoint and confirm the board members, but beyond that, they have little authority to direct the agency.

“The housing authority is really governed by the federal government. They control the purse strings,” said Ald. Michael Murphy of how the agency is funded and monitored for compliance.

“It’s insanely frustrating that my colleagues and I have no authority to fix this,” said Bauman.

But they’re going to try something.

A proposed ordinance change would give the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) clear authority to inspect properties and issue code violations. It would end a practice, called “ambiguous” by Council President José G. Pérez, where DNS simply forwards complaints to HACM instead of starting the inspection and enforcement process.

But the less-than-clear structure of HACM — is it or isn’t it part of city government? — could imperil the council’s mayoral-endorsed strategy.

“DNS orders are not self-executing,” said Bauman. “Things don’t automatically get fixed when DNS issues an order.” And the city’s ultimate move, property tax foreclosure or litigation, might not work if it is, in effect, going after itself.

DNS Commissioner Erica Roberts said she is already working with the municipal court system and City Attorney’s office to identify how the process would work.

But DNS doesn’t know exactly what it’s walking into. Roberts said that, using an estimate of 4,000 apartments directly managed by HACM, DNS thought it might need to inspect 2,000 units per year and could perform the inspections with existing staff. Then DNS officials met with HACM officials three hours before the meeting and learned the agency is getting 1,600 to 2,000 work orders per month.

The work orders might not all yield inspections, warned Roberts, but it still could require additional staffing. Council members said they want a better estimate so they would know if not adding staffing would add delays on other enforcement issues.

“I think it is incumbent on us that the funding is appropriated in the 2024 budget so we don’t have one community pushing off on another,” said Murphy.

Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic asked if Roberts was prepared to issue citations to HACM.

“We would be prepared to follow our traditional enforcement path, which is not normally citations per se,” said Roberts. Reinspection fees would be assessed for noncompliance with escalation of the issue by going to municipal court for adjudication.

She expressed optimism that the strategy could improve the situation, but said her department still needs far more information. “I have good hopes that this will be a very productive and positive outcome,” said Roberts.

HACM Responds

HACM executive secretary Willie Hines, Jr. said his agency is supportive of the strategy.

“We are committed to providing quality affordable housing for our residents,” he said. “HACM acknowledges we have had serious issues in practices and procedures in serving our residents.”

He said a new online service, Rentcafe, is being rolled out building-by-building to allow residents to better monitor the status of their requests. It would replace a current status system that involves carbon copy notes being left in apartments. Hines said residents have several ways to report issues even without Rentcafe, including stopping in the building office.

In a series of reports, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) warned of concerns with HACM’s financial and other administrative processes and the potential for “serious fraud, waste and abuse.”

But Hines, who grew up in HACM housing and has had roles with the agency since the 1990s, said reports indicate the condition of properties themselves is improving. “We’re above average performers the further we get away from COVID,” he told the committee.

But according to an internal meeting recording first obtained by Genevieve Redsten, Hines also said that “the wheel has really fallen off” HACM in a comment to its housing voucher staff in January shortly after the report noting the risks came in.

“HACM has systematically mismanaged their buildings for years, just like their finances, and COVID is no excuse,” said Alexander Hardy, a Common Ground board member and a deacon at the Community Baptist Church, in detailing Common Ground’s campaign. “At best, HACM did not know about the issues despite having managers at each property and is now doing shoddy repair work… at worst, they knew and neglected residents.” The group kicked off its campaign publicly in March.

The council members present at Monday’s Steering & Rules Committee meeting indicated they were siding with the residents.

“I see a disconnect between the housing authority’s pronouncements and what the customers are telling us,” said Bauman. “I’ll be blunt about it. HUD is not voters; these people are voters.”

Pérez said he was prepared to do what it took to help residents. “For many years, I’ve been asking questions, which initiated with Friends of Housing, with the housing authority and their management,” said the council president. “I’ve been at this a very long time trying to ensure that our citizens that reside at the housing authority get the best service and are treated well.”

The committee unanimously endorsed the proposal. The full council is slated to consider it on Oct. 10.

Related Legislation: File 230571