Milwaukee leaders pitch $150M for affordable housing as part of stimulus spending plan

Milwaukee aldermen on Tuesday proposed using about a third of the nearly $400 million the city is due to receive in federal COVID-19 aid on affordable housing, as Mayor Tom Barrett’s administration plans to release its own spending plan later this week.

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Bauman introduced a plan to spend $150 million on increasing affordable housing in the city, largely by renovating the approximately 700 one- and two-family city-owned homes. Bauman’s resolution, which the city’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee discussed Tuesday, aims to create 1,000 new affordable units in the city by spending $105 million on rehab projects.

Bauman tabled a vote on his resolution, however, after representatives from Barrett’s administration said during the meeting that they planned to release an outline for spending $394 million in federal COVID-19 stimulus money on Friday, before the Milwaukee Common Council takes it up in late July.

Steven Mahan, director of the Community Development Grants Administration, said the Mayor’s plan would use stimulus money Milwaukee is due to receive from aid passed by Congress, as well as money from other federal sources. The plan would contain a variety of possible priorities for the money, including affordable housing.

“It covers the bases of pretty much everything,” Mahan said. “It also addresses that elephant in the room, which is our tax foreclosed properties.”

Milwaukee is free to spend its influx in coronavirus aid on a range of expenses — except tax cuts and unfunded pension liabilities. The city has conducted surveys and held public hearings while city officials have discussed how to spend the money.

Bauman’s proposal would put $105 million into renovating foreclosed properties on the city’s raze list, and would dedicate $35 million to the city’s Housing Trust Fund, which helps support affordable housing projects from private developers. The plan would also put $9 million toward other housing programs run by the Department of City Development, and $1 million in loans for homeowners to correct building inspection violations.

Other speakers at Tuesday’s meeting suggested the city should put even more into its Housing Trust Fund. Michael Rosen, a former professor at Milwaukee Area Technical College, and Peter Rickman, president of the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization, each said Milwaukee should put $100 million into the fund because of its potential to attract more private investment for affordable housing.

Rosen said many Milwaukee residents aren’t earning enough to afford housing in the city — with 60% of Milwaukee’s renters earning less than $35,000 a year.

“Frankly, the rental housing market is broken in Milwaukee,” he said.

Bauman said his plan represented a framework for how the city could spend a portion of the stimulus money on affordable housing, and not a comprehensive proposal.

“I wanted to put a marker down so our citizens are aware that we’re talking seriously about this,” he said.

Likewise, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic said affordable housing should be a major priority for the city as it decides how to spend an unprecedented influx of federal cash.

“It allows us to right many of the wrongs that we’ve seen in our city prior to the pandemic,” she said. “It could allow us to pave a real path to the middle class for people that need it.” Follow @natebeck9