County Partners On Housing For Former Offenders

Chantell Jewell speaks at new Project RETURN housing facility. Photo taken March 21, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

A new housing facility is opening in Downtown to help people transition from incarceration back to the community.

Project RETURN, a nonprofit organization focused on community reintegration and preventing recidivism, built out a 12-unit, supportive housing facility at the St. Anthony Apartments building at 1004 N. 10th St. The organization is partnering with Milwaukee County to transition men from the Community Reintegration Center (CRC) to the apartments there for up to six months while they get on their feet.

County Executive David Crowley and CRC superintendent Chantell Jewell visited the apartments Friday to tour the new facility and promote the program, which is receiving funding support from the CRC. Annually, approximately 2,500 men and women transition from the CRC back to their community and 42% of them struggle to fund stable housing, Crowley said.

“In Milwaukee County, we believe in the housing first approach in addressing housing instability,” Crowley said. “This is because we have found that the most vulnerable in our community can only solve one life changing problem at a time, and if you don’t have a roof over your head or somewhere warm to sleep at night, it is tough.”

The new apartments, which come furnished, will provide six months of free housing as well as supportive services to help them find employment, receive substance abuse treatment and counseling, mental health services, even obtain a driver’s license. Individuals currently incarcerated at the CRC can become eligible for the housing by participating in specific programming at the facility, Jewell said.

“The rehabilitation coupled with second chances is so critical for these returning citizens,” Jewell said.

Project RETURN has been operating for more than four decades, said Wendel Hruska, executive director of the non-profit. The apartments on 10th street are the first housing facility the group has run. In the past it has only been able to connect individuals with housing that it does not in fact control, or manage.

“Housing has been a major barrier for those we serve,” Hruska said. “It’s only been getting worse and worse.”

The goal of the housing program is to provide the stability formerly incarcerated individuals need to successfully reintegrate. The program, Hruska hopes, will serve as a model of a service that should be expanded across Milwaukee, the state and the nation.

“This is not a feel good, soft approach to crime,” Jewell said. “This is all wrapped in public safety. When people are able to thrive and succeed in our communities, we do, in fact, create healthier and safer communities, and I think that’s the end goal that we can all agree on.”

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