Deep Reads: In Milwaukee, a patio becomes a battleground for Black public housing tenants
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2024
⏱️ 38 minutes
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Summary
A community organizer and several residents of public housing in Milwaukee are trying to get attention from their representatives in government. Low-income Black voters, like those at College Court, are often discussed by political pundits as key to President Biden’s reelection campaign against former president Donald Trump. The residents are facing issues like bedbugs, violence, public spillover of mental illness and backlogged maintenance issues, which are all seemingly intractable to an overwhelmed housing authority. The promise of public housing, where rent was typically capped at 30 percent of tenants’ incomes, appears to no longer include safety. The reasons lie in a tangle of acronyms and funding streams, regulations and deputy directors, good intentions followed by fine print and excuses.
This story is part of our Deep Reads series, which showcases narrative journalism at The Washington Post. It was written and read by Jose A. Del Real. Audio narration comes from our partners at Noa, an app offering curated audio articles.
Transcript
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| 1:20.5 | Hi I'm Jose Del Real a reporter for the Washington Post. |
| 1:24.0 | I wrote a story as part of our Deep Reads series, which showcases narrative journalism here at the post. |
| 1:30.0 | This is a story about race and class and representation, and it's set against the backdrop of a historic presidential election in which Wisconsin could decide the outcome. |
| 1:47.4 | This story unfolds in Milwaukee and it follows a community organizer and several residents of public housing as they try to get |
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