Anderson says: “Democratize HACM!”

For the last two years, public housing tenants, organized by Common Ground of Greater Milwaukee, have demanded changes in their living conditions from the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM). When plagued with insects, rodents, or a lack of heat, tenants have largely been ignored by building management, Executive Director Willie Hines, and the HACM governing board. When not ignored, tenants have often been rewarded with threats of eviction!

In the last months of 2024, organized tenants started seeing results:

• The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has finally intervened with a scathing report of HACM management’s performance.
• Willie Hines has announced his retirement (with a nice pension of $132,000 a year).
• Mayor Cavalier Johnson also got around to appointing new members of the HACM board, who appear to be more responsive to tenants.

This is progress, but Milwaukee’s poor and working class deserve better.

As alderman, Josh Anderson will work with Common Ground and Tenants United to ensure that HACM puts tenants first.

Anderson thinks HACM should be restructured to put tenants in the driver’s seat. Governing board members should be elected by tenants, and be subject to recall if tenants are unhappy with a member’s performance.

“If tenants had control over HACM day-to-day operations, we never would have been in this mess,” Anderson said.

Josh Anderson Campaign

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.