MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Tenants of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) are calling for its director, Willie Hines Jr., to be removed.
For several months now, TMJ4 has documented and detailed the concerns of dozens of HACM residents who said they've been living in deplorable conditions while getting little-to-no response from HACM's board members or Hines.
Hines has had the top job at HACM for two years now, but has been with HACM for decades.
He's consistently refused TMJ4's interview opportunities and now residents want him gone.
"Do what needs to be done and that is to remove Director Hines from his position," Pastor Will Davis said.
The pleas and calls for Hines to be removed echoed throughout city hall Wednesday.
"He's hurting people, and he's damaging lives, and he doesn't care. I just pray that God would make him care and he'd open his heart," resident Patrick Murphy said.
For the last year, public housing tenants have been begging for change.
In September, they showed up to common council meetings explaining to aldermen the conditions they were experiencing.
We followed up in October where residents showed us nothing had changed since that September meeting.
In November, we talked with residents who had safety concerns that they said were going unaddressed.
In December, we tried to talk to Director Hines, who once again refused to answer our questions on camera.
In January, we followed up again, after the federal government stepped in requiring HACM to outsource it's largest program, Section 8 Housing.
"We live in mold, we live in pests, we live with conditions you wouldn't want your family in, but you expect us to live that way," resident Betty Newton said Wednesday.
On Wednesday, more than 50 public housing residents gathered in city hall with hopes to speak at HACM's monthly board meeting.
"I looked forward to today to meeting Director Hines face-to-face, to seeing this board face-to-face, and you decide to cancel it and do a zoom," Newton said.
Common Ground, a non-profit organization that's been working with HACM residents, showed us emails from February 7th where leaders asked HACM to be added to the February meeting agenda. A meeting that was supposed to take place on February 14th.
A board member emailed back the next day saying the request would be forwarded.
"How can you say you respond to residents, because you do not. You can't see the residents that are standing behind me, that wanted to show you how they feel, and what they live with," Newton explained.
A spokesperson for HACM said the meeting was moved virtually on February 9th, just two days after Common Ground asked to speak at the board meeting.
"It makes me feel like they don't want to be holding Hines accountable and they don't want to hear from residents. They're hiding," Jennifer O'Hare with Common Ground added.
In an email sent to us Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for HACM said:
"The meeting was never changed to virtual. It was never posted as anything other than a virtual call-in. All documents referenced during the meeting were posted with the Agenda as usual on the Friday before the meeting and available on Legistar for the public. The meeting was available in the manner listed in the posting to members of the public, and in fact, members of the public did attend the meeting. The agenda did not include a public comment period, so there was no reasonable expectation for public comment."
We asked HACM's spokesperson if they had a response to residents calling for Hines' removal:
"HACM and Mr. Hines remain deeply committed to addressing resident concerns. The best path forward is to continue resolving those concerns through agreements established with HUD to improve and strengthen HACM’s operations. We will continue to rely on HUD’s deep expertise."
We also went to the Mayor's office after Wednesday's press conference in city hall. The secretary called Mayor Johnson's spokesperson who then told the secretary "tell them I'm in a meeting."
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