Milwaukee officials hope new affordable housing development will help address housing crisis

The Corliss is a new private affordable housing development in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood.

The development cost nearly $200 million, including some public funding, and offers over 500 affordable rental units. It consists of eight buildings at the site of a former landfill at 135 E. Becher Street.

Milwaukee`s District 14 Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic represents the area where The Corliss is located. She spoke with WUWM’s Eddie Morales about how the project could help address housing challenges.

Eddie Morales: The project aims to address problems like resident displacement, rising costs, and keeping aging residents in place. Can you explain the scale of those concerns and how much of an impact that city officials hope The Corliss will have?

Marina Dimitrijevic: Just like many cities across the United States, affordable housing is still something we`re really struggling with. We, as the City of Milwaukee, are thousands of units under what we need for a city our size when it comes to affordability. It`s one of the top things I hear, especially in my community.

This is a way to chip away at what is a very large-scale problem. And speaking of scale, this is a pretty large-scale project. It`s just under 600 units and every unit is affordable, meaning that it`ll be somewhat income-based. There is specifically over 100 units dedicated for older adults who want to age in place. So this is quite the right step in the right direction on what I do think will be a long worthwhile journey to making our city more affordable and accessible for everybody....

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Leo’s notes: The Corliss are not one-off solutions. If communities want teachers, service workers, seniors, and families to stay rooted where they live and work, affordable and workforce housing must become a sustained priority, not an exception.