MILWAUKEE — The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) must create a recovery plan to remove its years-long “Troubled Designation” given by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
A scathing report of Milwaukee’s Housing Authority was released to the public hours into a Dec. 11 meeting — the agency’s first in which all of four newly appointed commissioners were present. It says “HACM management is not providing high-quality public housing, accurate financial reporting or compliance with HUD program regulations.”
The report identified a “root cause” of insufficient management as the lack of a full board of commissioners — HACM has not had a full seven-member board since 2019. It has also failed to meet the requirement of having two board members that are residents of HACM public housing.
“We are incredibly hopeful with changes in leadership,” Jennifer O’Hear, Lead Organizer and Executive Director of the advocacy group Common Ground told WTMJ. “We think that this letter coming forth at this time will give everyone a leg up because it’s a map to a lot of the things they need to fix.”
HUD sent the report to HACM board members at the time and Mayor Cavalier Johnson nearly two months ago, before controversial HACM Executive Director Willie Hines announced his retirement late last week.
Residents at the Housing Authority’s 5,200 rental units have complained of mold, cockroaches, bed bugs and intruders at HACM properties. Those concerns were echoed in the report, which says HACM has not ensured “safe, decent, and sanitary housing” and fails to follow its maintenance program.
“HUD’s report shows a reckless disregard for tenants by Mayor Johnson and Willie Hines,” Kevin Solomon, Associate Organizer with Common Ground said in a press release. “This verifies everything that Common Ground and tenants have been saying. The problems we’ve raised for two years persist and have worsened.”
The “Troubled” designation isn’t a new one. A HUD review from December 2022 found that HACM board members have been provided with financial and operational reports that “contain misleading financial information that misrepresents both the financial position and utilization of HUD programs being administered by HACM.”
HUD says financial inaccuracies have continued since then, including over $2.5 million in misreported cash and other audit discrepancies.
Four new Housing Authority board members were confirmed by the Milwaukee Common Council last month: consultant Karen Gotzler, human resources consultant and former HACM resident Charlotte Hayslett, Westlawn Gardens resident Jackie Burrell and Alderwoman Sharlen P. Moore.
Although the HUD report was not referenced in detail by commissioners, a commitment to change was repeated throughout Wednesday’s meeting.
“The time has come that we have to tighten up our processes…this ends here,” Commissioner Moore said.
The board appointed Commissioner Hayslett as chair and Commissioner Gotzler as vice chair. It deferred a vote on the 2025 budget to its Jan. 8 meeting and did not discuss its ongoing search for a new leader to succeed Willie Hines. Public comment was not held on Wednesday due to a procedural error, but commissioners discussed a plan to hold public hearings in addition to regularly scheduled board meetings to allow for consistent feedback from public housing residents.
