Barrett announces campaign for affordable housing

MILWAUKEE, WI (CBS 58) – Mayor Tom Barrett has announced a new housing campaign. It’s aimed at bringing more affordable housing to Milwaukee.

Organizations like ACTS Housing say the Mayor’s new plan for affordable housing could help turn more people into homeowners.

Thanks to ACTS Housing Sofia Garcia has been able to purchase her home for $3,500.  She and her husband worked with counselors who not only walked them through the home buying process but also the remodel

It is part of a program. ACTS Housing has worked in conjunction with the city for more than 20 years. On Monday, Mayor Barrett announced his 10,000 household campaign. The goal is to increase affordable housing in downtown and throughout the city. This also includes helping people find existing homes and keep them.

Counselors and realtors say the mayor’s plan will help more people like Garcia achieve that American dream.

Local leaders agree but they also want to see that effort outside of downtown.

“We have to have a strategy that’s going to connect the growth of downtown not only to the surrounding areas but to neighborhoods throughout the city,” says Council President Ashanti Hamilton.

“We’ve got a lot of market rate housing going downtown, but we don’t want downtown to be exclusively people with higher incomes. We want to make sure there is affordable housing near where their jobs are,” says Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

The mayor said the foreclosed properties they have sold have returned more than $100,000,000 to the city tax base since the foreclosure crisis began.