From the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM)

For many years, it has been the policy of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program to place Housing Assistance Payments on hold if a participating household has failed to comply with their annual income re-certification obligations and the re-certification becomes more than three months past due. This policy exists to protect public funds by ensuring payments are not made on behalf of households and units that are no longer eligible for assistance.

In January of 2025, HACM retained the services of CVR Associates, Inc. (CVR) to manage its HCV Program. CVR is a national consulting firm with extensive HCV experience. They identified significant file deficiencies which must be corrected and have delayed the processing of annual re-certifications. It is vitally important to make these corrections in order to ensure data integrity going forward. However, as a result, payments have been held up for approximately 500 assisted households.

To ensure that owners are not unduly penalized, HACM has temporarily changed its policy so that payments are not placed on hold unless the income recertification is more than six months past due. Each account is being handled individually to ensure data accuracy and payments will be made on a rolling basis with all payments expected to be completed by October 31, 2025.

Additional resources have been deployed to assist with the necessary file processing. We encourage you to work with your affected tenants to ensure they remain compliant with program requirements. Non-compliant households could be subject to program termination in the coming months. We should also remind landlords that if they are missing HAP payments, they can contact our call center at (414) 286-5650 for assistance. If you believe you are missing any payments or have any other questions or concerns, please contact us at (414) 286-5650.

The HACM and CVR teams extend our sincere appreciation to landlords for their patience and understanding as we work through these challenges.

We value your partnership and ongoing collaboration in supporting families who rely on the Housing Choice Voucher Program.