Milwaukee Neighborhood Services Oversight Of City's Housing Authority Resolution Approved By Common Council

The City of Milwaukee Common Council anonymously approved a resolution for the City's Neighborhood Services to have the oversight to inspect all Housing Authority buildings and developments for any repeated City code building violations.

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

October 11, 2023

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Common Council anonymously approved a City ordinance for the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) to have authority to inspect all of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) buildings and development for any City code violations and to charge fees and fine HACM for repeated violations and inspections. The DNS under the approved ordinance will allow for the Common Council to get annual reports by the DNS inspection results.

The DNS will also evaluate how many additional building inspectors it will need in the oversight of HACM.

Willie Hines, the Executive Director and Secretary of HACM who earns $240,000 in annual salary supported the oversight ordinance.

HACM tenants from multiple Milwaukee Southside HACM developments raised concerns and sought the support of Common Ground, a non-profit organization to help organize tenants after HACM had ignored tenants complaints of apartments havibg infestation of bed bugs, rodents and severe inside deterioration of apartments that weren't being repaired by HACM.

HACM tenants also alleged that HACM was negligent to do timely repairs on work orders and in many occasions failed to do any repairs.

Currently, HACM doesn't have a system to report all the major repairs needed to be done for each property or for tenants to followup on their complaints.

Several HUD audits found millions of dollars were mismanaged including thousands of dollars spent on HACM credit cards by managers of multiple developments unaccounted and lacked any record keeping of the expenditures, according to HUD audits.

At the end of last year, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Hines received a 47-page report (audit) indicating that HACM allegedly was "at risk of serious fraud, waste and abuse," according to the HUD report. (47-page report by HUD at link: https://tinyurl.com/5czw2pft)

A second HUD report in April found that HACM's bank statements and internal booking records showed more than $3M in discrepancies, HACM staff could not produce receipts for $49,876.16 in expenditures by HACM credit cards. HUD also found that HACM kept poor record keeping that made it difficult for HUD to determine key financial balances for the Section 8 Program.