Amid public pressure, housing authority delays vote to put Florida company in charge of Section 8 vouchers

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Activists and public housing residents interrupted a meeting held Wednesday where the board overseeing the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) planned to put a Florida company in charge of the city's housing voucher program.

Common Ground called on the HACM board to delay its vote because it hadn't given enough public notice and there are still three vacancies on the seven-member board.

The dispute also highlights an ongoing clash between Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Common Council President Jose Perez over a months-long process to fill out the board.

Currently, nearly 7,000 Milwaukee households use the city's Section 8 vouchers, which help low-income families pay most of their rent costs at private apartments. 

After finding widespread fiscal mismanagement at HACM, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ordered HACM to turn over its Section 8 program to an outside vendor.

Wednesday, HACM's board was to consider handing over the $42 million program to a Tampa-based company, CVR. The company was recommended after a panel reviewed each of the six applicants seeking to take over Milwaukee's vouchers. Milwaukee County was one of the other applicants and the only public entity to apply.

Kevin Solomon, an associate organizer with Common Ground, said it was unacceptable for HACM board to vote three board seats still empty. At Wednesday's meeting, only three members were present, including one who joined by phone. Solomon questioned whether the board could even legally vote without a majority of the board present.

After audience interruptions early in the meeting, the board set aside the item before going into closed session. Afterward, Vice Chair Brooke VandeBerg said the board would not vote on the Section 8 vouchers Wednesday.

Solomon said the board should not take the vote until all seven seats are occupied.

"Oh, it's crucial. This current board has four members. One's term expired last November," Solomon said, referring to VandeBerg. "We have an expired member."

HACM Executive Director Willie Hines told reporters after the meeting he saw no issue with a four-person board voting on the Section 8 contract.

"I feel exceptionally comfortable in the decisions that have been made," Hines said when asked if HACM should wait until it has a full board. "And I feel exceptionally comfortable and confident in what- the board that made the recommendations."

Solomon said Common Ground also opposed the idea of putting an out-of-state private company in charge of the city's Section 8 vouchers.

"Milwaukee does not need more for-profit companies running our housing," Solomon said. "We do not need more for-profit companies, who do not care about our communities, dealing with the critical rent issues that poor people face in our town."

Both Solomon and Perez said they would rather see Milwaukee County get the contract.

"Having someone local, to me, would make sense," Perez said. "People who have a good reputation in the housing field."

Hines said Milwaukee County had an impressive track record, but its housing voucher program serves about a third of Milwaukee's. Beyond that, he noted CVR's experience with other major city's voucher programs.

The committee reviewing applications included HACM officials, as well as Mayor Johnson's policy director and an assistant city attorney. They listed CVR's history of overseeing Section 8 vouchers in cities like Chicago and San Francisco as a key separator. 

"They've done this transition for other housing authorities throughout the country previously," Hines said. "The county just had never done that before."

Wednesday's meeting was held in person, which was notable since its September meeting was the board's first in-person meeting since January.

Dispute over HACM board appointments resurfaces

In a statement, Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, said Johnson supported the recommendation made by the voucher review board. He noted Johnson appointed four nominees to the HACM board in June, including VandeBerg.

"The mayor nominated multiple members for the HACM board that were announced in June. The mayor was hopeful those nominations would have been acted on by the Common Council sooner than October," Fleming said. "The mayor feels the actions recommended by HUD, including this contract for Section 8, should move forward promptly."

Solomon said the mayor's timeline was disingenuous because Common Ground had been pushing for Johnson to fill the HACM board openings sooner.

"Shame on Mayor Johnson. That's not true," he said. "They nominated people in June after we pressured them in May because there had been vacancies for 17, 14 and nine months, respectively."

Johnson had called for the Common Council to hold confirmation hearings for the board nominees before its August recess. Perez bristled at the idea, saying the council would take its time to vet each of the nominees.

Perez said he originally planned to hold confirmation hearings on September 30 but delayed them after two of the nominees had schedule conflicts that day. Perez said the council's Steering and Rules Committee now plans to hold those hearings at its Oct. 21 and Nov. 11 meetings.

On that timeline, the full Common Council would vote to confirm or reject the nominees at its Nov. 26 meeting. Hines said such a wait would be unacceptable because HACM wants to transition to a new Section 8 vendor by January 1, and that process could take as long as 60 days.

Solomon responded by pointing to a 2023 HACM document related to its corrective action plan that stated it hoped to negotiate and award a contract by Jan. 31 of this year. Solomon said if HACM is already delayed in handing over the program, it should wait until a full board can take the vote.

"We could do better," he said. "And it's urgent, we ought to do it, but we could do better."