Housing Advocates Get Close Up Look At New Affordable Homes
Community Development Alliance bus tour highlights efforts across the city to increase homeownership.
Community Development Alliance tour outside a Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity home. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Call it the parade of affordable homes and opportunity.
Housing advocates in Milwaukee were given a whirlwind tour May 16 of several homeownership initiatives backed by the Community Development Alliance (CDA).
Participants were treated to a first-hand look at CDA’s “all of the above” strategy to create more than 32,000 Black and Brown homeowners and eliminate a stark racial disparity in Milwaukee homeownership.
“Prices are skyrocketing. Rents have doubled in the city of Milwaukee over the last four years… this should not be happening in a city the size of Milwaukee, particularly a community that’s not even growing the way other communities are,” said CDA Chief Alliance Executive Teig Whaley-Smith before the more than 100 participants split off into two buses.
Buses stopped at a duplex built by Emem Group at 2532 W. Garfield Ave., a two-story single family home built by Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity at 2655 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave., a Lange Urban Sustainable Housing (LUSH) house at 5766 N. 42nd St., the recently-completed Garden Homes redevelopment and single-family homes built for early childhood educators by Milwaukee Christian Center and Rooted & Rising Washington Park.
The Emem Group project is primarily backed by low-income housing tax credits, which require the homes to be leased initially at below-market rates. But developer Michael Emem hopes to eventually sell the homes to their occupants. It’s one of 20 duplexes Emem is developing in the area. The firm, which just opened the first homes, is developing the homes for $270,000 per unit. They rent to households making less than 50% of the area median income for less than $1,200 per month.
“We’re seeing a huge demand for this product,” said Emem. “There’s a huge need for quality affordable housing.”
At the Habitat house, CEO Brian Sonderman explained that even with volunteer labor and in-kind donations, the agency still has seen costs grow by 60% in recent years. “The houses cost roughly $100,000 more than we can affordably sell the house for,” he said. “And so that’s where all of the partners of Habitat and the community come together to help provide that subsidy.” The agency intends to build 34 homes in 2025. A new tax incremental financing district would fuel its work in the Harambee neighborhood.
The future buyers, Sylvia and Kenneth Tillman, were on hand to discuss their journey to becoming first-time homeowners. “Sometimes renting, you kind of feel like somebody owning you, and you just like you’re stuck, but owning a home, it feels free,” said Kenneth. The Tillmans must help build the home and complete financial counseling in order to be able to purchase the house. Habitat provides a low-interest mortgage.
After a brief stop at the Garden Homes neighborhood, the nation’s first municipally developed housing complex that was recently redeveloped with low-income housing tax credits, the bus continued on to an entirely new housing type.
Milwaukee’s second LUSH home was on full display. The new building style, which is designed to go up quickly and affordably, has evolved since Urban Milwaukee profiled the work of R.J. Lange last August to more easily comply with building code requirements and to include a loft to create more living space.
Lange was able to announce that an accepted offer on the second home has already been received. LUSH, an offshoot of longtime Thurston Woods company Lange Bros. Woodwork Co., partnered with La Finca Development.
“Our goal is to finish filling Thurston Woods vacant lots within the next year or two,” said Lange of what is expected to be at least five more houses. He said the company is dialing in its designs based on feedback and banks and inspectors are gaining familiarity. The latest house is under contract to sell for approximately $270,000.
La Finca started as an acquisition and renovation company serving Latino families, but has expanded to ground-up development and an array of buyer support services. The company links buyers with homebuying counseling and helps them through the entire process. “Brown and Black families have a very difficult time going through the process of getting approved by banks,” said La Finca co-owner Antonio Diaz of how his firm helps connect the dots.
The home tour ended closer to CDA’s W. Lisbon Avenue offices with tours of homes built for early childhood educators developed by Milwaukee Christian Center on the south side and Rooted & Rising on the north side. The strategy, which pairs developers with early childhood educators, includes developing clusters of affordable homes around childcare centers.
Participants ran the gamut from those involved in housing advocacy to those developing and funding it. Northwestern Mutual, which has backed several projects and funded some of the staging for the tour, had several representatives participate including foundation president Steve Radke, senior director of strategic philanthropy Audra Brennan and chief sustainability and impact officer Grady Crosby.
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