City Housing Authority Reopens Wait List

The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee’s Arlington Court development. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Want to live in affordable, public housing?

The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) reopened its wait list Wednesday morning.

Qualifying households must make no more than 80% of the Milwaukee County median income, which ranges from $57,200 for an individual to $107,850 for an eight-person household.

Federally-subsidized rents are to be set at 30% of a household’s income.

Updating the wait list is expected to boost the cash-strapped agency’s finances. During a Feb. 12 board meeting, HACM’s Chief Financial Officer Brad Leak said having a more current wait list would likely improve responsiveness and reduce downtime when a unit turns over. The net result would be improved occupancy and cash flow for the beleaguered agency.

The list was previously open from December 2021 to August 2024. Individuals currently on the wait list were required to opt-in to remain on the list.

Applicants are selected based on the date and time of their application. Upon selection, applicants are invited to submit a full application.

The waitlist applies to HACM’s 12 public housing properties, which include a mix of its classic high-rise developments, including Arlington Court, College Court, and Locust Court, neighborhood-like complexes such as Hillside Terrace and two scattered site properties.

The majority of the units, according to HACM, have one-bedroom floor plans and the availability of larger units is limited.

Different lists govern HACM’s mixed-income communities, project-based vouchers and general Section 8 voucher programs. Various age and income limits apply to specific properties.

The project-based voucher and mixed-income waiting lists remain open, on a development-by-development basis.

The agency’s voucher waiting list, which provides financial assistance to live in private housing, remains closed. As part of a federal corrective action plan, HACM was required to outsource management of that program. Its existing oversight was found to be “at risk for serious fraud, waste and abuse” and a Florida company was selected from a request-for-proposals process to administer the program. The vouchers, which totaled $42 million in 2023, cover approximately 7,800 housing units, of which 1,700 are HACM-owned.

Applications are only being accepted online.