Plan to Revitalize Sherman Park Neighborhood 'Not Good Enough'

MILWAUKEE, WI -- A state-funded home rehab program for Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood brought scores of people to City Hall thinking they would be eligible to buy $1 homes in the neighborhood.

Instead, they learned the hard way that the program was open to developers only.

An agreement between the State and Milwaukee to demolish 100 blighted homes and rehabilitate 100 more mainly in the city's troubled Sherman Park neighborhood has drawn the ire of a State Sen. who represents the area, who says the funding is not going to people in need.

The Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Milwaukee that provides $2 million in funding to demolish approximately 100 blighted homes and rehabilitate another 100 properties, with most of the work being done in the Sherman Park neighborhood.

But State Sen. Lena Taylor says the funding does not go far enough to solve the problems that troubled areas, such as the Sherman Park neighborhood, face.

“The incidents last August in Sherman Park were about terrible police-community relations that exacerbate Milwaukee’s racial disparities," she wrote in a prepared statement. "Rather than a reinvestment model that engages the community in solutions to our own problems, this plan prioritizes developers from outside the community. This plan won’t solve our problems. You can’t just treat the symptoms, you have to treat the cancer.”

Department of Financial Institution officials say a major focus of the funding package is to provide targeted training and jobs for unskilled or unemployed workers who reside in the affected areas, and is part of a state-funded $4.5 million economic and workforce development package for Milwaukee that Governor Scott Walker announced in August.

>> image via google street map