'Dramatic changes,' new leaders needed at Milwaukee Housing Authority, says Ald. José Pérez
Common Council President José Pérez says many of his questions about the Housing Authority have not been answered. Ald. José Pérez, the Common Council President, has called for "dramatic changes" at the Milwaukee Housing Authority, including the replacement of its top leadership. Peerez criticizes the Housing Authority for ongoing problems and a lack of transparency. He does not specifically name executive director Willie Hines, who has been criticized for his high salary and secrecy. The agency's annual meeting was cancelled due to short notice. Federal auditors had warned of $3 million in forced book balancing and "risk for serious fraud, waste and abuse" inside the housing Authority's rent assistance office. Pévez has also called for improved security and maintenance inside a large Housing Authority development in his south-side district.
ที่ตีพิมพ์ : 10 เดือนที่แล้ว โดย Genevieve Redsten, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ใน Business
'Dramatic changes,' new leaders needed at Milwaukee Housing Authority, says Ald. José Pérez
Common Council President José Pérez is calling for "dramatic changes" at the troubled Milwaukee Housing Authority, including the replacement of its top leadership.
In a statement Tuesday, Pérez slammed the Housing Authority for ongoing problems and a lack of transparency.
“With no plan put forth, continued harm done to some of our most vulnerable residents, and an agency that appears to lack checks and balances, I'm calling for dramatic changes at the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, including, but not limited to, new board appointments and senior level management."
Pérez's call for new leadership includes, but does not single out, executive director Willie Hines. Public housing residents and Common Ground, a nonprofit working with them, have called repeatedly for the resignation of Hines citing a lack of responsiveness, secrecy and Hines' high salary.
The agency's annual meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon was canceled on short notice.
More: Milwaukee Housing Authority leader Willie Hines criticized for secrecy, high pay
In September, the Journal Sentinel uncovered two separate reports from federal auditors, warning of $3 million in forced book balancing and "risk for serious fraud, waste and abuse" inside the Housing Authority's rent assistance office.
Those reports had gone out to Hines and Mayor Cavalier Johnson months earlier but came as a surprise to Pérez and other members of the Common Council, who didn't see the reports until the Journal Sentinel made them public.
In response, Pérez has sent several separate letters to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asking for more information about the plan to keep agency on track. Pérez said he's received no response.
On Tuesday, Pérez sent a fourth letter to an official in HUD's Quality Assurance Division, once again asking for more information.
Pérez has also been pushing for improved security and maintenance inside Becher Court — a large Housing Authority development in his south-side district — where residents have reported trespassing, crime and recurrent water leaks.
Mayor Johnson, who has stood behind Hines, has been reassured by Housing Authority executives that progress is being made, according to spokesperson Jeff Fleming.
"If there's progress being made, my residents at Becher Court aren't seeing it," Pérez told the Journal Sentinel.
The disagreement between the mayor's office and the the Common Council president will come to a head soon, when Johnson announces his nominees for the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
The seven-member board, which has the power to fire Hines, has three vacancies. For the past two meetings, its chairwoman Sherri Reed Daniels has been absent, and only three people have been present to vote on weighty agenda items. The official term for its vice chairwoman, Brooke VandeBerg, expired in November.
Candidates for the Housing Authority board must be nominated by the mayor and approved by the Common Council.
Johnson is "cautious about any candidate who begins with: 'We need to get rid of the executive director,'" according to his spokesperson Jeff Fleming.
Pérez, however, said he "won't entertain approving anyone to the board who isn't committed to complete reform of the agency."
By 'complete reform,' Pérez means: "The management and the leadership must change. All of it."
Pérez has been raising concerns about the Housing Authority's lack of transparency and its unusual relationship with the city for years.
The Housing Authority is largely independent from the city, but it works closely with some city entities. The city attorney's office is the Housing Authority's general counsel.
In 2018, Pérez sent a letter to the City Attorney asking whether — in the event the Common Council launched an investigation of the Housing Authority — it would still provide the Housing Authority with legal counsel.
"The answer to that question," Deputy City Attorney Mary Schanning wrote, "would depend on the nature of that investigation and under what authority it is being conducted."
Pérez said he still has many unanswered questions about HACM
In that same letter, Pérez also asked the City Attorney for more information about two nonprofits created by the Housing Authority: Friends of Housing and Travaux.
Friends of Housing, which was created by the Housing Authority in 1996, broke off as an independent nonprofit in 2003. The organization did property management for about 1,000 rental units owned by the Housing Authority. It also managed a smaller portfolio of rental properties owned by the city.
Friends of Housing is now defunct. The Housing Authority has shared very few details publicly about why, or when exactly, the organization shut down its operations.
In a 2018 letter responding to Pérez, the city attorney's office assured him that Friends of Housing was an independent entity. Pérez, however, said he still has questions about just how independent the organization was.
In 2014, Friends of Housing hired Hines as a consultant for a year, after he was forced to resign from the Housing Authority for a year due to federal conflict of interest rules.
Pérez led a push to terminate the city's contracts with Friends of Housing in 2020, after discovering the organization had been managing "nuisance" properties in his district, where drug abuse was rampant.
Pérez also inquired with the city attorney's office about Travaux, a nonprofit created by the Housing Authority to do real estate development work.
Travaux is a subsidiary of the Housing Authority, but it has a separate board of directors, and holds separate board meetings. Hines serves as its president, and the Housing Authority's associate director, Fernando Aniban, is its chief financial officer.
Travaux has served as the general contractor on a major public housing redevelopment project on Milwaukee's northwest side. During a cold snap in January, residents began raising concerns about construction work performed under its watch.
Residents of an affordable apartment building for veterans and seniors said the heat has been unreliable for years. Hines and other Travaux executives said residents caused those problems by tampering with their AC units.
In a virtual meeting of the Travaux board, however, a Travaux executive said they became aware of a "systemic problem" with the building's HVAC system problems "back in 2017, 2018" — before residents moved in.
The Journal Sentinel has requested more information about when Travaux first discovered HVAC problems, but has not received a response from the Housing Authority.
Pérez said he still has questions about the role Travaux plays, and whether the Housing Authority can truly be impartial when awarding construction contracts or investigating shoddy construction work.
Veteran Milwaukee politicians have been cautious to weigh in on leadership at the Housing Authority — particularly when those questions pertain to Hines.
Hines served as president of the Common Council from 2000 until 2014, when he left to take a job with the Housing Authority. During his time in office, he developed close relationships with other city officials.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore sidestepped questions about Hines last month, during Milwaukee Press Club panel interview.
"I'm not the hiring/firing agent for Willie Hines," Moore said. "I do think his leadership is important, and his relationships with managers inside ought to be examined."
Moore also pointed out thatthe mayor still has confidence in Hines.
The federal government provides the Housing Authority with the bulk of its funding. Moore, as Milwaukee's representative in Congress, is a breadwinner for the Housing Authority — helping it secure more earmarks.
During her press club appearance, Moore pitched more funding as a solution to many of the Housing Authority's woes. She said she helped secure more funding for security inside Milwaukee's public housing, amid an uptick in crime.
"It's a money problem," Moore said. "It's a money problem."
Tenant organizers: 'This is about bad management.'
Community organizers, however, say it's about more than money.
"This isn’t about money; this is about bad management. Leadership starts at the top—with personnel, culture, and customer service. Hines is failing on every count," local nonprofit Common Ground said in a statement.
Common Ground — a coalition of churches, nonprofit and other Milwaukee-area organizations — has been calling for reform of the Housing Authority since March 2023.
Public housing residents, organized by Common Ground, have called on Hines to do more about violence and hazardous conditions inside their homes.
In its statement, Common Ground pointed to a letter from 2014, in which a top federal official questioned Hines' qualifications for a job as the Housing Authority's second-in-command.
"We need a national search for a new, competent, visionary director," Common Ground said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Housing Authority leaders must go: Council President Perez