Metcalfe Park Community Bridges promotes homeownership with Repair and Restore program

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — As accessible homeownership continues to be a concern in Milwaukee, one organization is bringing the community together to reform the neighborhood.

Metcalfe Park Community Bridges held a celebratory open house Thursday for one of the first homes in their Repair to Restore program.

The group purchases formerly city-owned, vacant properties, and transforms them into homes for families who lease-to-own.

"We have been working on buying back our community, for our community," said group member Brittney Taylor.

They work with the future owners when re-designing the house.

"I'm so overwhelmed with joy. This is amazing," said future homeowner Danielle Terrell.

She's a working mother of 13 kids and will be moving into one of the restored homes this summer.

"Their bus actually comes through here, their school bus, and my little kids are like, mom, I saw the house!" she said.

For her family, it's a shift to a safer situation after renting in different areas for years.

"Our house was shot at about four times, and it just spiked my anxiety, and I was like, I just can't do this anymore," Terrell explained. "This will be like, my first real home."

Right next door, a dilapidated house shows a stark contrast.

The organization said it's an investor-owned property that has been vacant since 2019.

"We're not doing something to the community, we're doing something with the community," Taylor said.

It's a path to homeownership in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood, by prioritizing community-owned housing that puts people first.

"This is neighborhood stabilization. This is generational wealth building. This is equitable development," said Lafayette Crump, Milwaukee's commissioner of city development.

The hope is that it will give families reliable stability, while growing the neighborhood.

"I just think that this is a part of the healing process," Terrell said. "From being in a neighborhood that was so riddled with violence, now they can have some peace."

Several other houses are being repaired through the program, along with a neighborhood garden and community healing space.