HACM Board And Secretary Willie Hines Should Be Replaced, City's Housing Authority Tenants And Common Ground Org Say

Common Ground Org and organized tenants from multiple developments at the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) want the HACM Board and Hines, its executive director replaced immediately.

Hispanic News Network U.S.A. 

November 12, 2023

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Tuesday, Jennifer O'Hear, the Common Ground lead organizer in a press release says, "Hines and the HACM Board must go" and calls for new leadership after a damaging report was released on April 10, 2023 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and later published in an article by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and also reported by Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNUSA), the only Latino news source in Milwaukee that continues to follow HACM's continuing saga of providing substandard services and housing to its tenants attributed to "a staggering level of incompetence at HACM".

Hines executive staff should also be replaced, the Common Ground Org says.

According to O'Hear, Willie Hines, Secretary-Executive Director of HACM annual salary is $240,000 and has been at the HACM helm 24 years of his 25 years with HACM, a non-profit organization created by the City of Milwaukee to provide affordable Section 8 housing for low income residents in Milwaukee. Hines was appointed Secretary-Executive Director of HACM in March of 2022.

The HUD report cited:

• "intentional misreporting"

• "complete breakdown of internal controls"

• "staff not sufficiently trained"

• "no oversight"

• "at risk for serious fraud, waste, and abuse"

• "inconsistencies"

• "[f]ailure to monitor and document"

• "serious concern"

• "grossly inaccurate"

• "violation of the Privacy Act"

• "lack of understanding"

• "increases operational risk"

• "cumbersome and inefficient"

• "misleading and untrue"

• "not in compliance"

• "violated its own policy"

• "troubling errors and discrepancies"

Full reports at following links:

HUD Report (PDF) of HACM: https://tinyurl.com/ub4a2m6k

Letter to Hines from HUD (PDF): https://tinyurl.com/27d8cds4

On October 11, 2024, the Milwaukee Common Council anonymously approved a City ordinance for the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) to have authority to inspect all of the HACM buildings and development for any City code violations and to charge fees and fine HACM for repeated violations and inspections. The DNS under the approved ordinance will allow for the Common Council to get annual reports by the DNS inspection results.

According to the DNS, it won't be able to inspect the HACM developments until the beginning of 2024, after additional City building inspectors are hired and trained to handle the overload of inspections in the City.

On Sunday, November 12, 2023, Common Ground will hold a Gall Assembly at Mount Mary University, Bergestrom Hall, Alumnae Dining Room, 2927 N. 92 Street from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.