Acts Housing Launches Campaign To Outbid More Predatory Landlords, Help Homebuyers

Acts Housing CEO Michael Gosman and Mayor Cavalier Johnson with mayoral proclamation. Photo taken June 2, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

Leading local housing nonprofit Acts Housing is launching the public phase of a $26.4 million fundraising campaign.

Acts is raising funding with its Opening Doors Campaign to build up the resources it needs to greatly expand  its lending, and better compete with predatory landlords to preserve housing for owner-occupants.

A fund of that size would allow Acts to go from writing two or three dozen loans a year to more than 200, said Michael Gosman, president and CEO of Acts Housing, at an event Monday morning.

The campaign privately launched in 2022, and has so far raised $22.3 million. Most of the donations have come from individual donors. It is launching the campaign publicly, now, to raise the remaining $4.1 million.

The organization was founded in 1995 and is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. To date, the organization has helped more than 4,000 families buy a home and rehabbed nearly 1,000 foreclosed homes. Most of the homeowners who have worked with Acts still live in their original home, and nearly all (90%) remain owner occupants, according to Acts.

That is the legacy of the “incredible legends” that founded and built Acts Housing, including pastor Dennis Lewis, John Worm, Blia Cha and Eloisa Gómez, Gosman said.

“They came together to with the goal of stabilizing a few Milwaukee neighborhoods around the churches that they cared so much about and to improve the lives of families,” Gosman said. “And in so doing, they laid the foundation for over 4000 future homeowners that continues to grow every single year.”

Acts provides a wide array of housing services, but all of it is geared toward first-time home buyers and owner occupants. Those services include mortgage lending, homebuyer counseling, financial coaching and a nonprofit real estate brokerage. One of the non-profit’s major programs involves purchasing and rehabbing foreclosed homes, which it sells to first-time homeowners .

Tiffany Miller, co-owner of Fruition MKE, went through the Acts program when she bought her home. She was living in the house as a tenant when the city foreclosed on the property. She was given an opportunity to buy the home and connect with Acts.

“It made [homeownership] within reach,” Miller said, “and made it accessible. Less scary to have somebody backing you through the process. There was education, there was support.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson issued a mayoral proclamation recognizing Monday, June 2, 2025 as “Empowerment through Homeownership Day” in Milwaukee. For 30 years, Acts has helped Milwaukee families “achieve the dream of homeownership,” building equity and intergenerational-wealth, the mayor said.

“They’re not just building houses, they’re building stronger neighborhoods, they’re revitalizing lots, and they’re helping families to lay down roots in their neighborhoods,” Johnson said.

The City, as well as Milwaukee County, have provided funding for the Acts acquisition fund. The program was launched in 2022 with a $1 million donation from the Zilber Family Foundation to purchase homes that might otherwise end up in the hands of predatory landlords. The city provided $1.25 million and the county provided $2.5 million for the fund. The mayor announced Acts has used purchased 125 homes in the city of Milwaukee.

Update: Story was updated to note that the campaign was launched in 2022.