Unique Housing Project Planned for Uptown Neighborhood

2436 N. 50th St. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

A novel housing project is being planned in the Uptown neighborhood, one that would marry affordable rental units and emergency crisis housing.

KG Development, a real estate firm led by Anthony Kazee and Jamie Gray, is planning to redevelop a former Jewish Home at 2436 N. 50th St. into 41 units of affordable housing, 20 of which will be dedicated to providing emergency housing for people experiencing crisis or trauma. The other 21 units will be rented at affordable rates, with eight of them receiving housing vouchers, subsidizing the cost of the rental, from the  Milwaukee County Housing Division.

“This will be the first project of its kind in the State of Wisconsin to merge crisis beds with permanent housing,” Housing Division Administrator James Mathy wrote in a report. 

The developers successfully applied for funding support from the county, and the Housing Division plans to award the project $1 million in federal funding set aside in 2022.

Nearly two years ago, the county board approved a proposal setting aside $1,971,200 in federal funds for community crisis beds that allow the county’s Department of Health and Human Services to respond to non-police crisis calls. The funding for the N. 50th Street project would come from this pool and the rest would be made available for award to other crisis housing projects.

The funding from the county will cover some of the construction costs for the $8.5 million project. KG Development plans to redevelop a 1929 building currently owned by Genesis Investment Group LLC, registered to Joseph Eldredge, a Marquette University Adjunct Professor and a partner at the commercial real estate firm Colliers.

The two-story building is a licensed residential care facility and halfway house. The address is listed online in connection with GRO Family Services, an agency providing “recovery-oriented” services to families dealing with alcohol and drug addictions.

Update: This story has been updated to reflect that the housing vouchers come from the county’s Housing Division, not the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee.