Sup. Eckblad Pushes County Affordable Housing Directory

Riverwest Workforce Apartments and Food Accelerator. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Sup. Jack Eckblad is pushing forward the creation of a countywide online marketplace of affordable and subsidized housing.

The county would partner with CityWise, a local startup, to create an online marketplace of affordable and market rate units, using fees charged only to property managers listing buildings with 20 units or more to pay for the service.

It will allow renters to search through listings based on price, amenities, availability, whether the unit is subsidized and what kind of subsidy it uses. It will also show renters any active code violations next to the listing and require landlords to agree to accept housing vouchers to list on the site. Landlords in active litigation with tenants won’t be able to list on the marketplace.

“If you have a tenant in [the county’s Right to Counsel program], you won’t be able to list on this marketplace,” Eckblad said. 

The idea is to create a one-stop-shop for Milwaukee renters looking for affordable or even market rate rental listings.

“So, there is a huge incentive, from a renter’s perspective” to use the directory, Eckblad told Urban Milwaukee in an interview. “And that is the incentive for landlords.”

The new service would come at no cost the taxpayer; instead, the county will lend its branding to the platform. The county branding makes the service easier to market and more easily identifiable as a local marketplace for renters.

It’s the same system used by the creators of Rent College Pads: partnering with a university to bring all the student renters and landlords together onto the same platform. That’s no coincidence. The founders of CityWise are also the founders of Rent College Pads. The branding is the “secret sauce” that makes it work, Dominic Anzalone, CEO of CityWise, told county supervisors on the board’s Committee on Health, Equity, Human Needs and Strategic Planning.

CityWise has already partnered with eight municipalities around the state, launching directories in seven so far, said Jeremy Schmidt, CityWise COO. That includes the Cities of Kenosha and Oak Creek. The company launched an affordable housing marketplace with Kenosha in 2024.

Because the service is free to use for landlords listing affordable housing, or buildings with fewer than 20 units, it’s expected that it will generate listings renters couldn’t previously find, Schmidt said. Rental units listed at affordable rates and mom and pop landlords — what Eckblad called “naturally occurring affordable housing” — will be able to list their units alongside larger corporate landlords on the same marketplace.

Milwaukee has a notoriously difficult rental market right now, and “an unfortunate rash of really irresponsible landlords,” Eckblad said. The county already works on housing issues and invests public funds in affordable housing projects. The new online marketplace would not be a “silver bullet” but rather “one arrow” in the county’s quiver as it continues to take on housing insecurity.

The county-branded marketplace will eventually include information for persons experiencing street homelessness, including a map of shelters and warming rooms.

“If you have access to a smartphone or a public library, or someone advocating for you has access to a smartphone or a public library, you can use this website to pinpoint resources in a few clicks,” Eckblad said.

Milwaukee County Housing Services Director James Mathy said his division will continue to be the “boots on the ground” connecting people in street homelessness with emergency housing and other human services, especially for people who may not be able to understand the new website or have access to it. Mathy did express support for the website and said the housing division will provide public access to it at their offices at 600 W. Walnut St.

The proposal received a unanimous approval from the board Committee on Health, Equity, Human Needs and Strategic Planning Friday. There is no county expense, so the contract technically doesn’t require board approval, but Eckblad is submitting the project to the legislative process anyways.

It heads to the full board having already picked up co-sponsorship from Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson and Supervisors Caroline Gómez-Tom, Shawn Rolland and Kathleen Vincent.