Forever affordable.
That idea might seem elusive for many when it comes to housing, particularly for members of Milwaukee’s Black and Brown communities. Milwaukee is the second worst metro area in the nation for Black homeownership, and Latino homeownership is nearly 20 percent lower than that of whites.
But a growing number of community organizations, funders, donors and housing advocates — many with ties to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation — are committed to making that dream a reality through a new model that preserves housing and creates opportunities for more low-income residents to benefit from the wealth generation that can occur through homeownership.
“When you make between $30,000 to $50,000 a year, your options are limited,” said Lamont Davis, Milwaukee Community Land Trust executive director. “Our focus is on working with individuals and families who have been excluded from homeownership opportunities.”
Through the land trust model, the nonprofit purchases land and either rehabs or builds homes in neighborhoods where residents are at risk of displacement — Lindsay Heights and Amani on the north side, Harambee near downtown and Muskego Way and Clarke Square on the south side. A buyer purchases the house below market value and leases the land from the trust. Buyers can live in the home for as long as they want but agree to sell for a below-market price to the next eligible buyer. Meanwhile, they accumulate equity.
Davis said the average selling price will be between $70,000 and $90,000. The first home MCLT sold, for example, was to a buyer who makes $32,000 a year. With downpayment and closing cost assistance, the buyer reduced the original selling price from $80,000 to $63,000 and will pay a $600 monthly mortgage. He had rented a property 10 blocks away for the past 10 years.
Just as important as connecting low-income homebuyers to affordable homes is providing them with support needed to remain living in them. MCLT, like other housing agencies such as Acts Housing and Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, guides buyers through the process and the responsibilities involved with homeownership.
“We are the developer that doesn’t go away. It is our mission to steward them to success,” Davis said.
Holistic approach aligning with donors' priorities
The deeper involvement that those housing agencies provide sets individuals and families up for long-term success and is attractive to investors such as Foundation donors Eileen and Howard Dubner.
“In both kinds of environments, you are contributing to a knowledge base as well as providing a place for the individuals to live,” Howard said.
The Shorewood couple’s interest in housing stems from hands-on experiences with organizations such as Acts Housing and Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, both of which have received Foundation funding over the years. Howard once participated in building a Habitat home. More than four years ago, through their temple, Congregation Shalom in Fox Point, the couple took a bus tour of Acts Housing’s investments in Milwaukee and were greatly influenced by the impact it had on homeowners and the physical transformation it had on neighborhoods.
Davis knows how powerful homeownership can be from personal experience as well as through his MCLT role. He moved a lot while growing up, and his mother is a lifelong renter. As an adult, however, Davis has owned a home for 20 years.
“The benefits of people having a stake in the community through homeownership or investment in some manner will turn our neighborhoods around,” Davis said. “We need more people invested.”
To date, the Foundation has invested $110,000 in MCLT’s work, from general operating support to capital funds to renovate more tax-foreclosed homes.
“Those grants have been life changing as far as our ability to bring on more units into our portfolio,” said Davis, who noted MCLT aims to sell 33 homes by 2025.
Coordinating collective impact
The program is one of the strategies that the Community Development Alliance is undertaking as part of its citywide housing plan. The Foundation is a funder and founding member of the CDA, a 70-member cross-sector partnership, and supports its efforts to catalyze systemic transformation in housing affordability across Milwaukee. To date, the Foundation’s Housing Fund has raised more than $1 million through the Greater Together Campaign.
The Dubners contributed to the fund in 2022 by making a gift from a qualified charitable distribution from Howard’s IRA, enabling the Foundation to invest in such collective, systemic housing solutions as the MCLT. The couple started a Foundation donor advised fund in 2021, initially impressed by the Foundation’s research, analysis and knowledge of the community. Eileen has a true appreciation for in-depth evaluation as her father, the late Norman Gill, led the Citizens’ Governmental Research Bureau, a statewide nonpartisan, independent policy research organization now known as the Wisconsin Policy Forum, for nearly 40 years.
The Dubners are looking forward to further growing their knowledge base of nonprofits in need of investment and the impact their support can have on housing or other interest areas.
“We are both curious learners,” Eileen said. “Whether it is a site visit or reading about a program or meeting an actual recipient, the process (of philanthropy) is stimulating. Working with the Foundation is really key to the process.”