City to offer $30K homeowner subsidies
The city of Milwaukee is offering owner-occupants home lots for $1 in the Josey Heights and Walnut Circle neighborhoods.
In addition, the first 10, and the first to take up the offer are eligible for $30,000 to help pay for construction.
“Homeownership is an important part of keeping neighborhoods strong in Milwaukee,” Mayor Tom Barrett said in a statement. “And with these new incentives, building a home is even more attractive at both Josey Heights and Walnut Circle.”
The city partnered with Emem Group, a local design-build real estate firm, to create new home designs for Josey Heights and Walnut Circle, located at N.12th and W. Lloyd Streets and N. 20th and W. Walnut Streets., respectively. The three models available are named after titans of the Black civil rights movement — “The Rosa”, “The Malcolm” and “The Martin.”
The auspicious titles, which “are even more so important given the recent events,” said Michael Emem, the group's president, were thought of before unrest swept across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death.
Founded in 2014, Emem Group is one of Milwaukee's many Black-owned businesses. It has a staff of three.
Emem said he reached out to the city a little over a year ago with the idea to build more homes in the subdivisions. He was involved in designing and building one of Walnut Circle's first homes in 2008 before the financial crises slowed further growth in the area.
He said increasing home values in the past three years led him to reach out to the Department of City Development and “start the conversation about the city participating in closing the gap between the cost of building new construction and the initial appraised values of those homes.”
Emem said officials responded by increasing the homeowner subsidy from $10,000 to $30,000, after forming partnerships with Associated Bank and the Zilber Family Foundation.
“For me (recent events are) just a reminder that we have a lot of work to do,” Emem said. “It keeps me motivated and dedicated to the work being more than just about building physical buildings and structures. In a lot of ways, it's mission-driven.”