Program promotes homeownership for low-income Milwaukee renters

The Metcalfe Park Homeownership Initiative is a lease-purchase program in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood on the north side of Milwaukee. Thirty single-family homes were built 15 years ago on tax-foreclosed lots. Now the homes, which are valued at about $125,000 each, are being sold to tenants for anywhere between $40,000 and $80,000.

They're available at those rates because of a provision in the federal low-income housing tax credit that allows tenants to buy their homes at a discount 15 years after development. It's known as the eventual tenant ownership model. Developers who receive the tax credit agree to those terms.

Three of the 30 homes at Metcalfe Park were sold last year. Now advocates are promoting the benefits of homeownership to other eligible tenants.

These residents have formed a development group to create affordable housing opportunities

Alice Pugh, a career educator, shared on social media her interest in an informational meeting on the Homes MKE initiative, which renovates vacant, foreclosed City of Milwaukee properties and then sells them to residents at affordable prices.

Adrienne Hunter reached out to Pugh about their husbands’ shared interest in the initiative. And then the two decided to work together to send a proposal to the Department of City Development to be one of the developers to participate in this project.