Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity

People partner with Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. With our help, Habitat homeowners achieve the strength, stability, and independence they need to build a better life for themselves and their families.

Strong and stable homes help build strong and stable communities. While our homes may provide stability and security for our partner families, our families' quality of life ultimately depends on the stability and security of their entire neighborhood. We work closely with other organizations serving the our target neighborhoods to address issues such as safety and to create strong residential networks.

Since 1984, we have seen firsthand how critical housing is to families and to communities. Based on a 2017 survey of all of our Habitat homeowners across the city, we know that Habitat homeownership is having a positive impact on children's academic achievement and family members' health and financial situations.

Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity's strategies are:

1) To provide low- to moderate-income families with access to safe, affordable housing opportunities by building new homes, rehabbing foreclosed homes, and repairing existing homes.

2) To work with residents, businesses, and organizations to achieve substantial improvements in our target neighborhoods' housing, social, and economic conditions. To achieve this, we work closely with other organizations serving these neighborhoods. We also provide Habitat homeowners and residents with opportunities to connect with one another through special projects to improve the neighborhood surrounding their homes.

For the past five years, we have been implementing our Neighborhood Revitalization strategy in Milwaukee's Washington Park neighborhood. There are now over 225 Habitat homeowners living in the neighborhood. The overall goal has been to work with residents, businesses, and organizations to achieve substantial improvements in the neighborhood's housing, social, and economic conditions. Notably, crime has decreased significantly since we started working there. From 2010-2017, crime has decreased by 46% in the areas where we have clustered our homes and 31% in the neighborhood overall. The Milwaukee Police Department says this decrease is due in part to our work.

This spring we are expanding our focus to the Midtown neighborhood, which is directly to the east of the Washington Park neighborhood – 20th to 30th Street and North to Lisbon Avenue. We chose this section of Midtown because there are a high number of vacant lots available, there are already 140 Habitat homeowners living there, and there is the potential to build a strong network of homeowners.

This expansion is part of an exciting three-year endeavor, called Midtown 100, during which we will build, rehab and repair 100 homes – the most homes we have built in such a short period of time. We will transform blocks of empty lots into the highest concentration of affordable single-family homes built in Milwaukee since WWII.

This year alone, we will increase the number of new homes we will build from eight in 2017 to at least 18. We will also rehab seven homes and repair six. Thus, we will serve at least 31 low- to moderate-income families.

Since 1984, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity has built and repaired over 1,050 homes with families throughout Milwaukee. This is made possible through the work of our 2,500 dedicated volunteers from local churches, civic groups, and businesses and our dedicated staff.

We are one of 14 from over 1,400 Habitat North American affiliates to receive the 2015-2017 "Affiliate of Distinction" award from Habitat for Humanity International. In 2016, we received a MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Award in recognition of our collaboration with law enforcement and efforts to decrease crime in the Washington Park neighborhood. In March 2018, our executive director, Brian Sonderman, will receive one of five Donald Driver Foundation Driven to Achieve awards in recognition of his community leadership.

Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity has focused its work in the Washington Park neighborhood from May 2013-May 2018. The following are some of our accomplishments in the neighborhood:

The homeownership rate and assessed home values are increasing. We increased the homeownership rate on the 2100 block of 38th Street from 40% in 2013 to 90% by end of 2016. We increased the assessed values of all homes by 9% on the blocks where we built and rehabbed homes.

The overall property tax assessment value in the neighborhood has stabilized over the past three years. This is in comparison to similar surrounding neighborhoods, which have seen double digit decreases in assessments, per an interview with the City's Tax Assessor office.

The City of Milwaukee's tax revenue is increasing. In 2016, Habitat homeowners contributed an estimated $649,600 to the City of Milwaukee through property taxes.

By rehabbing city-owned foreclosures, we are providing homes that not only generate tax revenue for the City, but also cease to pose a financial burden. Mayor Tom Barrett states that there are $2,951 in costs and lost revenue per foreclosed home per year. Furthermore, vacant homes allow spaces for crime, cause visual blight that reduces values, and negatively impact neighboring property owners' assessments.

Crime is decreasing. Milwaukee Habitat's work is having a positive impact on crime in Washington Park. There has been a 46% reduction in crime in the neighborhood since 2010 and on the blocks were we have located our housing projects. The Milwaukee Police Department says this decrease is in part due to our efforts.

According to Christopher Ladwig, former Assistant District Attorney, Milwaukee County District Attorney's office, “Habitat is a necessary piece of any neighborhood safety and development strategy, and its work in Washington Park demonstrates that Habitat not only builds homes for families but it also builds safe and thriving neighborhoods."

In 2017, we conducted a survey of all of our Habitat families living in neighborhoods throughout Milwaukee to gauge the impact that being a homeowner has had on their lives. We found that homeownership has a positive impact on children's academic achievement and family members' health and financial situation.

For example, the survey found that of Milwaukee Habitat homeowners who have grown children, 87% of those children have a high school diploma or better. This is significantly higher than the Milwaukee Public Schools graduation rate of 58%.

In 2017, 45 children and their families moved into Milwaukee Habitat homes. We expect this number to rise in 2018.