MILWAUKEE — Building homes and helping families build healthier lives go hand and hand with TMJ4's @TheTable guest Monday night.
"When you think about housing, housing is healthy, right? And that is what we deliver. So, making sure that we build homes 120 homes for primarily BIPOC, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, homeowners, first-time homeowners, is definitely a priority for us and a priority for the county," said Milwaukee County Health and Human Services Director Shakita LaGrant-McClain.
Building 120 homes in the King Park neighborhood is no easy task but the process is already underway.
"We're going to start the project this year. We already have the majority of our lots approved by the city," Director LaGrant-Mclain said @TheTable. "So, we're really looking to get that construction underway, late spring, early summer."
Federal pandemic money from the state will help build homes that will sell for $110,000.
This week, Milwaukee County is also holding virtual community conversations to address the opioid crisis. The county will be getting $56 million from an opioid settlement over the next 18 years.
"We've seen 644 people overdose in 2021. We want to prevent that. That's the highest we have seen in two decades," said LaGrant-McClain.
The community is invited to two virtual conversations set for Tuesday and Thursday of this week to talk about how that money should be spent.
"We want to hear from them, get their feedback, and let them tell us how do we prevent, how do we treat, how do we make sure that this does not happen," LaGrant-McClain said.
For more information, head to the county's website.
Watch the full conversation in the video at the top of this article.
Charles Benson and Shannon Sims interview key people in our community during TMJ4's @TheTable segment every weeknight at 10 p.m.
