Photo by Tom Jenz
Greg & Rashida Lowery & family
Greg & Rashida Lowery & family
On a recent winter morning, I stood on the porch of a freshly rehabilitated two-story house on 34th Street in Milwaukee’s inner city. Built over 100 years ago, the house had been designed in the American Foursquare style. The wood was newly painted, and the windows trimmed clean, bright against the blue sky.
Beside me stood Greg and Rashida Lowery, smiling with a mix of pride and disbelief. After 32 years of marriage and raising eight children, they were finally homeowners.
Down on the sidewalk, a small crowd of media, city officials and neighbors gathered, their chatter rising. A house tour was about to begin. But for Greg and Rashida, this wasn’t about cameras or publicity. It was about finally having a place to call their own.
“How did you end up with this beautiful house, the first home you’ve ever owned?” I asked.
“I was scrolling through available single-family homes for sale on Homebox,” Rashida said. “I came across this one and contacted our realtor, Mike Weber.”
“Rashida’s in charge,” Greg added with a grin. “We met in high school. High school sweethearts.”
Cost of Renting
Greg works for the Milwaukee County Transit System. Rashida drives a shuttle for UWM through Go Riteway Transportation. For 14 years, they had lived in a rented a home near 52nd and Wright.
“Our rent went from $850 to $1,500 a month,” Rashida said. “We just couldn’t keep doing that. But at last, we have our home.”
The historic home they now owned had once been vacant and distressed, a city-owned property in disrepair. Today it gleamed with modern upgrades: new floors, restored woodwork, updated mechanical systems. It felt solid. Permanent.
Suddenly, there was movement on the street. The crowd parted as Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson walked forward, followed by Commissioner of City Development Lafayette Crump. Television cameras adjusted their angles.
Celebrating Home Ownership
Photo by Tom Jenz
The Lowery Home
The Lowery Home
“We are celebrating another rehabilitated home through our Homes MKE Program,” Mayor Johnson said from the porch steps. “This is the 70th home completed since the program began in April 2023. We’re working hand in hand with emerging developers of color. We take city-owned properties and invest ARPA funds from the Biden administration to turn blighted houses into affordable homes.”
He spoke about partnership and momentum, about what can happen when federal dollars are directed to cities with a clear purpose. Crump explained the economics behind the celebration. “Construction costs are rising everywhere,” he said. “To rehab a house like this often costs more than its market value. But by working with local developers, we make these homes attractive and attainable.”
This local program, officially launched on April 19, 2023, is funded by $15 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars allocated in 2021. The goal is to renovate 150 vacant, city-owned houses and return them to productive use.
Mayor Johnson explained he has declared 2026 the “Year of Housing” in Milwaukee, a citywide commitment to increasing affordability and expanding homeownership. “We are continuing our partnership with Habitat for Humanity to build homes and revive vacant city lots,” he said. “Everything begins at home. When families have access to quality housing and permanent places to live, they invest in their neighborhoods. Then, stability follows.”
But the numbers only tell part of the story. “The average rehab runs between $100,000 and $150,000,” Crump said.
“This one cost about $150,000,” added developer Kelton Buford. “It had been abandoned. There were bullet holes in the siding.”
Blighted No More
Inside, the house felt warm and alive. The kitchen gleamed. Sunlight filtered through restored windows. Media members filled the hallway, but Buford stood calmly amid the activity. At 33, he leads TAS Solutions, the firm responsible for transforming this once-blighted property.
“This is our 20th home completed, top to bottom,” Buford told me. “I grew up in the inner city. Expanding homeownership has always been my long-term goal. I started buying real estate in 2017 and scaled up from there. I’m self-taught.” His work represents more than construction. It is also reclamation, reinvestment in streets that many had written off.
Soon, I found the Lowerys’ realtor, Mike Weber of Keller Williams Realty. “I’ve been working with Greg and Rashida for a couple of months,” Weber said. “They did everything required to qualify for the Homes MKE program. It’s rewarding to help someone buy their first home.”
Later on, I lingered in the front hall. Greg rested his hand on the wall as if testing its permanence. Rashida stood in the doorway, surveying what would soon hold family dinners, holiday gatherings and quiet mornings. Eight children raised in rented spaces would now return to a home their parents actually owned. This kind of shift is not merely financial but generational.
Sherman Park
I moved on, walking through this Sherman Park neighborhood of old homes built in the early 20th century. Many of them stood restored and proud, their porches swept clean. Others remained boarded or empty, waiting for their turn. I tried to imagine the street in the mid-1900s: factories humming, workers coming home at dusk, children playing in the fading light. Neighborhoods are living organisms. They decline, but they can also recover.
Walking back to the Lowery house, I realized the Homes MKE program is not simply about construction permits or ARPA allocations. It is about dignity. This program helps stabilize families who have spent decades paying rent without building equity. It also gives developers rooted in the community a stake in restoring the neighborhoods.
Most of all, the program is about moments like the one on that porch, namely, two people who met in high school, stayed married for 32 years, raised eight children. They worked steady jobs, endured rent hikes, and still believed that someday the key in their hands would open a door of a home that belonged to them.
As the crowd thinned and cameras packed away, I thought again of the Lowerys. The house would be quiet now. Their house. And in that quiet, I could feel something larger taking shape, not just for one family, but for a neighborhood that, brick by brick, is finding its way home again.
