Affordable Housing Finance
February 1, 2010
Supportive housing arrives in Milwaukee
From Affordable Housing Finance :
MILWAUKEE–Prairie Apartments signals a new way of providing housing in the city.
The 24-unit development is one of the first permanent supportive-housing projects in Milwaukee.
Developed by Heartland Housing, Inc., of Chicago and The Guest House of Milwaukee, the project was completed in 2009, with 10 apartments reserved for individuals receiving support from the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division and five units for individuals coming out of homelessness. The remaining nine units are conventional affordable apartments for residents earning no more than 40 percent of the area median income.
While Milwaukee has had some housing linked with services, the programs were usually off-site. There were few, if any, projects that would be considered permanent supportive housing. That is permanent, independent housing with a full range of on-site programs for formerly homeless or other special-needs residents.
Prairie Apartments is helping change all that. It, along with United House Apartments by Cardinal Capital Management, Inc., and United Christian Church, which opened in 2008, is leading the way for supportive housing in Milwaukee.
The development of Prairie Apartments comes at a time when political support for this type of housing is rising. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigative report exposed the troubling conditions for the mentally ill in the area and led to calls for change about two years ago.
Local city and county officials established the Special Needs Housing Action Team. One of the group’s recommendations was to establish a Supportive Housing Commission to encourage supportive- housing projects.
“Prairie Apartments has illustrated to the whole community how supportive housing can work and be successful,” says Leo Ries, executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC)- Milwaukee, who served on the Special Needs Housing Action Team.