Chris Logan, Secretary of the Residents Organization says, that she received 5 violations by property management within one month at Mitchell Court.
Dozens of Mitchell Court tenants and Common Ground members met to denounce HACM Secretary-Executive Director Hines Jr.'s retaliation against 21 tenants from the 2600 block of W. National Ave. HACM development for coming out public with Common Ground and exposing the unacceptable living conditions at HACM developments.
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
April 3, 2023
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Monday, at least 74 Mitchell Court and Lincoln Court tenants including members of the Common Ground, a non-partisan advocacy group held a meeting with media to denounce a pattern of mass retaliation from Willie L. Hines Jr., the Secretary-Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM). The Mitchell Court tenants believe that 21 of them were targeted and cited with multiple bogus violations including a false accusation for violating security at HACM, which has nothing to do with alleged apartment violations handed out by Mitchell Court and Lincoln Court property management in a HACM letter head with Hines Jr.'s name on it, which all smoking violations and other apartment violation documents were unsigned.
On March 26, 2023, Common Ground (CG) held a membership assembly with over 1,000 in attendance including HACM tenants who came out public denouncing HACM unacceptable housing living conditions.
CG says that Hines Jr. instead of helping tenants at HACM, he retaliated against them for exposing the unacceptable living conditions at multiple HACM developments.
Tenants at Mitchell Court were written up for "unsanitary conditions" and smoking. Many residents had never received a violation without a first warning and were confused, angry or scared. One female tenant at Mitchell Court received a citation for smoking, but she has never smoked in her life and doesn't burn incense or candles, according to Chris Logan, the Resident Organization Secretary who has been very vocal against the unacceptable living conditions at Mitchell Court.
Logan says that the citations for "unsanitary conditions" were not backed-up with any specifics. CG's inspection of the tenants apartment found that all, but two of the violations were completely unfounded, according to CG.
The apartments at Mitchell Court have two fire alarms, if residents would smoke, the alarms would be set off, in the cases where tenants were given smoking violations, no setting off alarm history was cited in the violations nor did HACM has provided any evidence that tenants had set off apartment alarms when smoking was detected.
Rev.Will Davis, Pastor of Invisible Reality Ministries stated, "We asked Director Hines to help residents, and he responded by retaliating against them. This latest wave of retaliation from Hines is part of a disturbing pattern."
The manager shared by Mitchell Court and Lincoln Court, is abusive and retaliatory towards residents. Many units were entered without the resident's consent and, in some cases, even when the residents said you cannot come in right now, says CG in a press release.
Davis confirmed on Monday that, "Common Ground will stand against this type of retaliation. We will not let any of the residents standing up for better living conditions get evicted by Willie Hines."
CG or the tenants from both Mitchell Court and Lincoln Court did not explained why they were also cited for violating security in their own apartments. Most of the tenants recently learned that they were also cited for violating security of the HACM with no explanation.
CG says that HACM tenants have a right to organize and is specifically recognized by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Hines Jr. has said, that HACM will not tolerate retaliation from HACM property management and administrators.
HACM Communications Coordinator Amy Hall told CBS 58 News on Monday, that 45 tenants did not pass the annual inspections by property management. The unsanitary conditions and smoking violations were given to residents one month after the mid February 2023 inspections. Tenants are still in the alloted time period to remedy the problems, according to Hall. The Mitchell Court property management had scheduled a follow-up inspection for Monday, but was cancelled to a later date due to the press conference held by CG and Mitchell Court residents claiming retaliation for complaining about the unacceptable housing living conditions at the Mitchell Court apartments located in the Southside of Milwaukee.
The HACM Board of Commissioners will hold a meeting and public hearing on April 12, 2023 at Milwaukee City Hall room 301-A from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., 200 E. Wells St. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Update: The HACM on Thursday, April 6, 2023, gave a 48 hour notice to the tenants at Mitchell Court confirming that the City of Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services will be doing random apartment unit inspections on April 13, 2023 to assure the apartments are being maintained in a decent, safe and sanitary condition by tenants. Sources confirmed, that the Common Ground group including tenants at the Southside Mitchell Court apartments with the assistance of Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa were able to get the City to inspect the units located at the 2600 block W. National Ave. in Milwaukee.
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