Milwaukee elected officials and leaders on Wednesday, April 19 formally kicked off the Homes MKE initiative.

“This program aims to renovate up to 150 vacant, distressed houses in the city’s inventory of tax-foreclosed residential properties and add them back to the tax role and return them to productive use,” said Lafayette Crump, Milwaukee’s commissioner of city development.

Mary Jackson lives in the Milwaukee’s Lindsay Heights neighborhood. She said, when she walks outside, she sees a lot of boarded-up houses.

“I’m tired of looking at the houses that have been burnt down or nobody living in there,” said Jackson.

While taking on a fixer-upper is no small task, city leaders are stepping up to help and try to transform some of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods.

“I knew many of these properties were quality properties, they had great bones,” said Ald. Bob Bauman.

Homes MKE initiative is underway with the help of funds from the American Rescue Plan. Fifty of the 150 homes set to be renovated are either in or near Lindsay Heights.

“Too many people have not had the opportunity to own a home,” said Ald. Michael Murphy.

The city wants to change that.

“This is all about partnerships,” Murphy said. “These homes are now going to serve as places for people to generate real wealth. As we all know, the reality is for most Americans, their largest asset is a home. And for all too long in our city, too many people have been left out of that equation.”

“They might find out that their housing cost is lower than what they are paying in rent, and we now have first time homebuyers rather than a renter in the same neighborhood,” Bauman said.