Survey Finds Alarming Number of Milwaukee Homes Need Major Repairs

Houses on W. Windlake Ave. File photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A growing alliance of neighborhood organizations, the Reclaiming Our Neighborhoods Coalition (RON), spent last summer pounding the pavement to survey more than 35,000 properties in 17 of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

Its findings raise alarm about the decaying condition of buildings and who is responsible.

“In some of our neighborhoods, we see close to 50% of the homes are in need of critical repairs,” said Near West Side Partners (NWSP) Executive Director Lindsey St. Arnold Bell to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee on April 15.

On average, 22.3% of the visually surveyed properties need at least one “major exterior repair.”

There is a clear trend regarding what ownership conditions make a home likely to need repair. “Houses owned by investors are in worse condition and nearly twice as likely to need multiple repairs, compared to our owner-occupied homes,” said St. Arnold Bell.

They’re also less likely to pay their tax bills.

“Investors also own about 47.7% of homes in RON neighborhoods, but they account for 58.6% of tax delinquent properties,” said St. Arnold Bell.

The surveyed areas form a ring around Downtown and include the Amani, Burnham Park, Clarke Square, Harambee, Merrill Park, Muskego Way, Sherman Park, Walker’s Point and Washington Park neighborhoods.

Lindsay Heights fared the worst, with 40.5% of surveyed residential properties in need for multiple major repairs. The VIA CDC survey area, the Burnham Park, Silver City and Layton Park neighborhoods, fared the best with only 6.7% of residential properties needing multiple major repairs.

According to RON’s estimates, repairing just the owner-occupied homes would cost $35 million, approximately $14,000 per property. Adding the investor-owned homes and mixed-use properties would push the cost to more than $100 million. Roof issues account for about one third of all estimated repair costs.

The data was collected by 127 paid surveyors. “What we are looking at when we go out and do the home assessments is an exterior, front-facing look at the properties, that looks primarily at the major things that could cause a person to be displaced from their home,” said Rooted & Rising Washington Park Deputy Director Adrian Spencer. Items the surveyors look for include roof and porch conditions, decaying paint suspected to include lead and failing siding. A smartphone application is used to log the data.

The group is now advocating for improved code enforcement on investor-owned properties and more resources for low and moderate income homeowners to make critical repairs.

Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa asked what the council and city could do to help.

St. Arnold Bell said policy solutions would ultimately involve both the city and state governments. “We welcome the opportunity to be in the room to talk through what options might exist there,” she said. The group is already forwarding certain issues to the Department of Neighborhood Services for enforcement.

“You can think of the RON coalition as a precursor to DNS,” said Spencer. She said the coalition tries to engage certain property owners and investors before submitting a referral.

Spencer said the coalition has begun reaching out to investors with letters after initially focusing on homeowners. “We have gotten a really big response from investors,” she said. “And what I will note from that is the investors that are local are the ones that are responsive.” Those that respond to letters, said Spencer, are smaller investors, not those who own more than 10 properties.

RON, said Spencer, plans to conduct person-to-person surveys in 2025 to connect individuals to resources to maintain their homes. It includes different surveys for owners or renters.

The RON partner organizations involved in conducting the surveys include NWSP, the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative, Dominican Center, Amani United Neighborhood Association, Milwaukee Christian Center, Riverworks Development Corporation, Rooted & Rising Washington Park, Sherman Park Community Association, Southside Organizing Center, VIA CDC and Walnut Way Conservation Corp. The coalition hopes to add two organizations in 2025. A small subset of organizations launched the initiative in 2024.

The coalition has relied on philanthropic support to conduct the surveys. Sponsors and program partners include Data You Can Use, LISC Milwaukee, Zilber Family Foundation, Northwestern Mutual, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council, JPMorgan Chase, Milwaukee Rental Housing Resource Center, Take Root Milwaukee, Community Development Alliance, Legal Action of Wisconsin and Regrid.

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