Read about how our persistence is paying off! http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/124170179.html
On May 23 Common Ground leaders and Wells Fargo Regional President Fred Bertoldo publicly announced the bank’s commitment to participate in Common Ground’s Milwaukee Rising revitalization effort. In front of hundreds of community leaders at Klieger Auditorium, Mr. Bertoldo announced an investment of:
1) $2 million in market rate mortgage commitments for qualified owners who will purchase the rehabilitated properties in the target area,
2) $300,000 contribution to support the rehabilitation subsidy for properties in Sherman Park in the target area, and
3) $100,000 contribution to Mercy Housing Lakefront to establish the Clean Slate program in Milwaukee. Clean Slate is a program to hire local workers to clean-up, board-up and maintain vacant, foreclosed properties throughout the City, including Sherman Park.
This neighborhood revitalization initiative will address the blight of foreclosed homes and revitalize the housing market in a 130 square block area in Sherman Park around Wheaton Franciscan – St. Joseph. Common Ground and the City of Milwaukee will work with civic and private sector partners to make this effort a reality.
The goal of the MKE Rising effort is to rehabilitate 100 homes in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park community over the next four years. To make this effort happen, the City of Milwaukee will invest Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds of $2 million for the acquisition and rehabilitation of foreclosed properties for homeownership, demolition, assistance for homeowners purchasing foreclosed properties, and for the development of affordable rental properties. Zilber, Limited has begun as the primary developer for the effort.
On Monday May 23rd 2011 7:00-8:30pm Common Ground will host a public action to publicly release the Milwaukee Rising revitalization project with key stakeholders.
Common Ground will publicly announce the Milwaukee Rising revitalization. This effort will focus on the rehabilitation of 100 homes over a four-year period in Sherman Park. At the May 23 action over 250 Common Ground delegates will recognize and thank our partners in this effort. Representatives from our partner organizations, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Alderman Michael Murphy, will attend.
Join us! Kleiger Auditorium, St. Joseph Hospital 5000 W. Chambers Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
On March 21st 2011, 200 Common Ground members gathered to discuss next steps for our Education Initiative “It’s About Our Children.” We learned how the budget process at the state level works. We heard from parents and children that will be affected by the looming budget cuts in our state, and we learned how the cuts will affect our schools. See photos and some of the details here.
Our goal is to work together with local and state leaders to make our schools better.
We are currently in our research phase. We are meeting with people who are involved in Education across our public, charter and choice school landscape. After we finish our research phase, we will decide on an issue that our member organizations can get behind and work to achieve for our children. Stay tuned!
Little did we know a year ago that Common Ground would be engaged in three campaigns that have the potential to impact so many lives in southeastern Wisconsin. At the March 7 Delegates Assembly held at Mount Mary College 120 members heard updates on our campaigns and discussed next steps in these important campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »
On Monday February 28th, over 500 Common Ground members, concerned about looming budget cuts to school funding, gathered to call for a meeting Governor Walker and Senator Alberta Darling to discuss how we can work together to deal with these cuts in a way that won’t sacrifice the quality education of our children.
Hundreds of members committed to meeting over the next 3 weeks in small groups – called Listening Sessions – to put together ideas about how to deal with these cuts.
We will gather again on Monday March 21st to bring our ideas and talk about next steps.
If you are interested in attending one of these Listening Sessions, please join us. We also encourage you to hold your own listening sessions at your organizations. We’ll provide training on how to conduct these sessions. See below for details.
If you have questions, please feel free to send us an email
Training on How to Conduct Listening Sessions
Thursday, March 10th @ 7 pm Bethel TempleListening Sessions
Monday March 14 @ 7 pm Immanuel Presbyterian Church 1100 N. Astor Milwaukee, WI Saturday March 19th @ 8:30 am Hopewell Baptist Church 2375 N. 25th Street Milwaukee, WIOur Next Meeting: Ideas and Next Steps
Monday March 21st @ 6:30 pm New Larger Location! Mason Temple Church of God in Christ 6090 N 35th Street Milwaukee, WI
PLEASE JOIN US for an Important Common Ground event in Milwaukee!
Monday, February 28th at 6:30 pm
Hopewell Baptist Church
2375 N. 25th St., Milwaukee
In the midst of political turmoil throughout our state, we must not lose sight of a critical issue — the education of our children. Multiple news sources state massive education budget cuts are coming. The Journal Sentinel reported that Title I funding might be refused. This is federal funding to help academically and economically “at-risk students.”
Common Ground is going to do something about that.
Common Ground wants to work with Governor Walker to develop a strategy. We should be talking about the education
of our children. Let’s start the conversation.
As a major follow up to our Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy People event just 3 weeks before, over 200 Common Ground members listened as banks committed to move forward with us on tackling the foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee. The meeting took place on November 15th, 2010 at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
All five banks were again in attendance (including Deutsche Bank, who originally declined our invitation) agreed to our short-term demands. They clearly recognized the importance of their relationship with Common Ground and the City of Milwaukee. The demands are
1. Provide reasonable maintenance and monthly status reports on properties under their responsibility.
2. Commit to bring people with decision-making authority to a mid-February 2011 meeting to review a Sherman Park Revitalization Plan.
A most valuable new partner in the issue campaign was also announced – Mercy Housing, represented by Cindy Holler, President Mercy Housing Lakefront in Chicago. Mercy Housing is a non-profit, nationally known organization with twenty-four years of experience in the management of housing development and rehabilitation for the purpose of preserving communities. Ms. Holler reported that Mercy Housing recently opened an office in Milwaukee and is very excited about the opportunity to work with Common Ground, the City of Milwaukee and the banks to develop and execute a plan that will revitalize the Sherman Park neighborhood and beyond.
This is a stunning achievement because just a year ago the banks barely responded to our invitations to discuss the foreclosure crisis.
The meeting was a satisfying report on the progress of the Faces of Foreclosure Campaign but it closed with a reminder that there is still much to be done. Common Ground members committed to photograph and evaluate the condition of two to six vacant properties each month.
This shows that we are serious about our commitment to Transforming Lives and Strengthening Communities.
Common Ground has received significant media coverage because of the banks attending the Healthy Neighborhoods/Healthy People 2010 event. ABC/WISN Channel 12, NBC/WTMJ Channel 4 and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel all covered our story.
The next step is to see how the banks respond. we’ll find out at our next meeting on November 15th, 2010.
On September 10th, Common Ground leaders along with city officials packed the hearing room at Milwaukee City Hall to listen to what the banks and servicers had to say regarding the upkeep of the homes they are responsible for in Milwaukee neighborhoods.
July Meeting with Banks and Servicers
In July banks and servicers (companies hired by banks to “service” their work with mortgage customers) met with Common Ground and representatives of the City of Milwaukee. That meeting was the culmination of long, steady pressure by Common Ground on Deutsche Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo Bank to take responsibility for vacant foreclosed properties throughout the City of Milwaukee. In that meeting, the servicers agreed in principle to several demands and to a meeting in September to review their results.
September Follow-up with Banks and Servicers
The agreed-upon follow-up meeting took place on September 10 at Milwaukee City Hall. Prior to the meeting Common Ground Faces of Foreclosure Issue Team members had worked with city representatives to create clear steps each bank or servicer must make to take care of these properties. Banks and servicers must:
• Register all of their vacant foreclosed homes with the city
• Provide a responsible contact person in Southeastern Wisconsin
• Present a plan to maintain the vacant properties
• Explain their current state of services
The banks and servicers responses were mixed. Some of the banks were prepared and provided clear results and plans. Others seemed not to have taken the demands seriously, providing flimsy excuses for not taking action and not bringing the requested information. Common Ground leaders and the City of Milwaukee presented up-to-date poster size photos of properties, demonstrating where banks and servicers are not living up to their commitments. In their signature brown Common Ground t-shirts, twenty-five participants created an obvious demonstration of citizen interest.
Common Ground and the City of Milwaukee will continue to work with the banks and servicers until all are responding to requirements.
Read this recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about the meeting. The article states that there was an “overflow committee room.” Common Ground filled the majority of the seats in the room that day.
The Greater Milwaukee area has much to offer — and much to fix. We have a health care crisis, there aren’t enough jobs, and crime is out of hand. We created Common Ground to address these critical social issues. Our members come from all races, religions and political backgrounds, but we share a common mission: To replace despair with hope in our community.
