MILWAUKEE — For months now, Milwaukee public housing tenants have complained about rodents, bed bugs, break-ins, and busted ceilings and floors.
TMJ4's Jenna Rae has been following up with tenants to see if the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) has held up their end of the bargain. Throughout her investigation, residents claim, things have gotten even worse.
Thursday, Rae went to talk to HACM's Executive Director, Willie Hines Jr., before a committee meeting.
"Do you have a couple minutes to answer a couple questions, Mr. Hines," Rae asked.
"If you send me a statement we'll definitely respond," HACM Executive Director, Willie Hines Jr., said.
"No, I've been asking for an interview with you for months," Rae responded.
This isn't how we wanted to talk to Hines.
For months, we've asked Hines for an on-camera interview to answer questions after public housing neighbors contacted Rae looking for help.
It started in September.
"There's holes big enough for a cat to come through," Debra McQueen explained.
McQueen's lived at College Court, a HACM property, for years. In late September, her and hundreds of other HACM renters packed into a common council chamber to air grievances about deplorable conditions.
"The rats are so bad you can't even go out on your front porch," another resident, Vivan Jones, said.
Those pleas fell on deaf ears, followed by empty promises.
In that same meeting, Hines promised to take care of these issues.
"We have staff down the hall. If the residents have any specific concern in any of their units right now, we are prepared to address them and will fully report back to this body," Hines said in the September meeting.
Two weeks after that contentious meeting, we checked in with McQueen again.
"I have water running from the inside of the wall down, which is deteriorating my walls from the bottom up," McQueen explained as she showed us her apartment.
That was October 9th and nothing had been done.
"What you've seen today isn't an exception, this is common," Common Ground spokesperson, Kevin Solomon, said.
Common Ground is a non-profit that's been working with HACM residents to try to resolve issues.
Also on October 9th, we asked for an interview with Hines. We were told to send over questions but kept pushing for an on-camera interview.
Hines' spokesperson said he wasn't available and said in part:
"When residents submit work orders, we will repair and address all items."
McQueen isn't the only one living in these conditions.
"I shouldn't have to live under no threats, I shouldn't have to live under no intimidation," HACM resident, Frederick Grace, said.
Neighbors we talked to say they're fearing for their lives.
"Someone came behind me at gunpoint and took my person," another resident, Tiara Murphy, said.
Other residents echoed that they don't feel safe.
On November 14th, we asked for another interview, this time with Hines and HACM's Safety Director, Marlon Davis. We never received a response.
We asked again for an interview on December 7th, then again on December 11th, even giving a two-week window willing to work around Hines' schedule.
Still, no interview.
"I think he should have been responsive way before now. I have not been able to get in touch with him," McQueen explained.
This week, we checked in with McQueen, now more than three months after she testified in front of the Milwaukee Common Council and Hines.
"You can literally see that there's water running down inside the walls," McQueen said.
"Nothing has been fixed," Rae asked McQueen.
"Nothing has been fixed. Nothing has been fixed," McQueen responded.
"I think every single city leader should be deeply concerned," Solomon with Common Ground said.
And some city leaders are concerned.
"You've showed me pictures and those conditions are atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. And nobody should be expected to live under those conditions," Alderman Robert Bauman said.
McQueen and hundreds more in public housing live in Bauman's district.
He said he fields neighbors' concerns regularly. Bauman said there's not much more the common council can do to try and hold Hines or HACM accountable.
"We've done everything that we're about to do, that we have the power to do, we've essentially done. Appropriated money to speed up repairs, we've changed the law so that building inspection has the authority to go in and cite HACM properties," Bauman explained.
Residents said those efforts still weren't enough, and the one person they want to hear from won't talk to them or TMJ4 News.
So we tried to talk to Hines again before a committee meeting on Thursday.
Hines and his spokesperson escorted Rae out of that meeting. A meeting where they discussed thousands of work orders from residents, just from the month of November.
We tried again to talk to Hines once the meeting ended.
A lack of transparency for a public official whose $240,000 a year salary, which is more than the mayor of Milwaukee and the governor of Wisconsin, is paid for by you.
"I feel neglected. I feel like you don't care, I feel like I'm not important to you," McQueen said when asked about Hines' lack of response.
"I think it shows following through on your word doesn't matter. I think it shows that Willie Hines is not effective at his job," Solomon said.
"You've got a job to do and these public issues, involving public money, and these are tenants of the public entity, and the questions should be answered," Bauman echoed.
Friday morning, we were told inspectors had been to McQueen's unit to address her concerns. We're following up to see what changes are being made.
As for Hines, our offer still stands for an interview.
If you're a HACM resident and are having issues, email jenna.rae@tmj4.com.
Friday evening, HACM provided TMJ4 with the following statement:
"The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) followed up with each of the residents who spoke at the September 25, 2023 Milwaukee Common Council's Steering & Rules Committee to promptly address their concerns. We have resolved a number of work orders will continue to do so. When HACM identifies issues during inspections or when residents make us aware of problems in their units, we take action to fix those items. Our process remains the same, we continue to encourage residents to contact their property management office with any concerns, and HACM will address those matters."
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