County Exec, Governor Celebrate New Affordable Housing Development

County Executive David Crowley, Gov. Tony Evers and Dan Flieschman (center) at ribbon cutting for Woodale Crossing. Photo taken July 25, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

Dignitaries from across Milwaukee County, and the state, descended on Brown Deer Thursday to cut the ribbon on a new affordable, supportive housing building.

The 56-unit Woodale Crossing building will provide affordable housing, counseling and supportive services for residents. The project will provide housing to individuals with disabilities or and or mental illness, and 25%, or 14 units, will be set aside for seniors with disabilities that are experiencing homelessness.

The new housing, 4110 W. Woodale Ave., was developed by Jewish Family Services (JFS), a nonprofit social services agency that has extensive experience developing and managing supportive housing. The project was developed, in part, with funding from Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin.

“Woodale Crossing was designed to support residents in living independently while having access to services that help them thrive,” said Daniel Fleischman, Interim President and CEO of JFS.

The county provided $3 million in federal funding for the project’s development, as well as housing vouchers and rental assistance funding for tenants. The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Agency (WHEDA) provided $1.25 million in federal housing tax credits.

Governor Tony Evers and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley were on hand on Thursday to cut the ribbon and celebrate the project’s completion.

Evers said the project’s like Woodale Crossing are connecting the dots between housing, jobs, education and health.

“We know that housing, for example, not only affects our economy and our workforce, but access to quality, safe, affordable housing impacts our ability to live our best and most independent and fullest lives,” Evers said.

For Crowley, the project is another example of his administration driving federal funds into affordable housing, particularly in suburban communities. Funding for the Woodale Crossing project was allocated alongside support for affordable housing development in Brown Deer, Whitefish Bay and South Milwaukee. The administration’s goal with these projects is to increase housing mobility and choice for low-income families in the county.

“Woodale Crossing is the exact kind of thoughtful, inclusive development that my administration wants to pursue all throughout our region,” Crowley said.

Woodale Crossing, in particular, will help seniors age in place, the county executive said, with supportive services, easy access to transportation, nearby shopping, groceries and public parks.

Shakita LaGrant-McClain, director of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, called it an “affordable housing community unlike any other one.” In particular, she celebrated the services that will allow persons with disabilities to live independently, while still receiving the services they need.

“With this project, you are helping build a community and creating a pathway to independence, and you are doing that with dignity and respect and a sense of belonging,” she said. 

Crowley called Woodale Crossing “a prime example of what happens when you get the public, the private and nonprofit sectors to really come together and really address the needs of this community.”

The development is also an example of what could have been.

In June, the Milwaukee County Board killed a similarly sized affordable housing project for seniors proposed by the Crowley administration. The county was working with JFS to redevelop the McGovern Park Senior Center, with plans to build a new, modern senior center with 30 to 55 units of affordable senior housing on the floors above. All of it would have been built at no cost to the county taxpayer. As it stands now, there is also no plan to save the aging McGovern Senior Center, and a new report suggests the dilapidated building is no longer worth investing in.

A majority of supervisors voted to block the project because it involved building senior housing on parkland. The project would have been developed on the southeast corner of the park, where the senior center and a large parking lot currently sit.

Photos