County Awarded Federal Funding For Affordable Housing

Homes on N. 56th St. File photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County’s Housing Division was awarded $1.8 million in federal funding for affordable housing programs.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a new grant program called Housing Mobility Services. Officials from the county and HUD gathered at an affordable housing development in Brown Deer to announce the $25 million in grant awards that went to seven housing agencies across the nation.

The program provides funding for housing agencies to expand housing mobility programs that help families using Section 8 housing vouchers move to neighborhoods with high-performing schools, jobs, low crime rates and other amenities. The grants were made for agencies that have “expressed an ability to house families through the voucher program, but also help families move to areas of higher opportunity,” said Robert J. Monocchio, HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.

The funds can be used to help defray the cost of moving and to assist families in finding housing in new areas. These programs are aimed at supporting families with children.

“That’s the priority of this program: kids,” Monocchio said.

Monocchio and others noted that housing stability and neighborhood income are correlated to academic success and health. Segregation and housing discrimination denied Black families in Milwaukee and other cities around the country the opportunity to move to predominantly white neighborhoods with better access to jobs and high-performing schools.

“That tragic pattern persists today, including for those with housing choice vouchers,” said Kori Schneider-Peragine, the Senior Administrator of Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council. The housing council reached out to the county’s housing division and suggested it go after mobility funding, Schneider-Peragine said, and county officials “enthusiastically hopped on board.”

“Many of you have probably heard me say it before, but I will make sure to say it again,” said County Executive David Crowley. “And that is, housing is a matter of public health.”

Crowley’s administration has placed an emphasis on housing in its strategic plan to make Milwaukee County the healthiest county in the state. “Our shared vision for Milwaukee County includes expanding equitable access to safe, quality and affordable housing.”

Crowley’s administration disbursed millions in rental assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic and, working with the county board, set aside $15 million in federal stimulus funding for affordable housing projects in suburban communities.

James Mathy, Housing Division Administrator, said the funding the county has provided to the suburban projects is supporting the creation of approximately 325 units of affordable housing. The new funding from HUD will help the county “continue all of our progress working on fair housing issues, segregation issues and issues of equity around housing,” Mathy said.

The county’s housing division is unique for being embedded within the Department of Health and Human Services, Mathy said. This enables the division to provide wraparound services for families in the voucher program to help them with addiction, employment or mental health.

The press conference announcing the new grant was held at Bradley Crossing, an affordable housing development by Jewish Family Services (JFS). “Here is an example of affordable housing done very, very well,” Mathy said.

JFS is a longstanding social services agency in Milwaukee that got into affordable housing development in the early 2000s after realizing that housing was at the root of many of the problems their clients faced, said Dan Fleischman, president of JFS Housing. The organization used federal Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME) funds disbursed by the county, to support the Bradley Crossing Development.

The county also provided $2 million for another JFS project using funding from its federal allocation through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The project will create 56 affordable housing units for persons with disabilities who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.