Responding to the Foreclosure Crisis in Milwaukee

Everyone by now knows of the terrible consequences we face stemming from the foreclosure debacle. As part of the $700 billion bailout plan passed by Congress this fall, certain monies were allocated for cities and states to address some of the problems with the foreclosure crisis: increased crime in neighborhoods with a concentration of foreclosed (and oftentimes abandoned/vacant) properties; a depressed housing market with rapidly declining housing values; and a declining property tax base as a result of the declining home values and reduction in home ownership.

In order to make recommendations to the City of Milwaukee regarding these problems and on how to spend the $9.2 million allocated to the City in the bailout plan, Mayor Barrett established the Milwaukee Foreclosure Public Initiative (MFPI), a public-private partnership. Our own Assistant Dean for Public Service Dan Idzikowski was one of the leaders of the MFPI, serving as a workgroup chair (which oversaw three committees related to the MFPI’s work). In fact, the Mayor specifically recognized and thanked Dan in his press release on the final work product of the MFPI.

Dan asked me to participate in the MFPI, and I was happy to serve. One of the things that struck me during my time working on the MFPI was the sheer enormity of the foreclosure problem here in Milwaukee: to date, there have been more than 1,700 foreclosures, with some 4,000 additional properties at some point in the foreclosure process. While other cities may have it worse, this is still quite a challenge for our City. But I was also struck by the fruitful collaboration by different community stakeholders in the process — non-profit organizations, government agencies, educational institutions (Marquette and UWM, specifically), developers, and banks (yes, even banks, who were very willing to work with everyone to help fix the problem).

While at times I saw the process through a public choice theory lens, most of the time the process — and the ultimate product reflects this, I would argue — reflected the positive description offered by pluralism of our legislative/governmental process. By having the different interest groups — or, said another way, community stakeholders — represented and involved in the decision-making process, the result was a set of recommendations that reflected an informed decision-making process that viewed and addressed the problem from the varying perspectives.

Which recommendations the City adopts remains to be seen. But the experience reflected, at least for me, some of the more positive aspects of our local government decision-making. And, of course, it was nice to see the Marquette University Law School being used as a resource for the community, as evidenced by Dan’s superb leadership in the MFPI.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Jason Decent

    A pleasant surprise I found upon coming to Marquette was the law school’s level of community involvement. Not just on the service level, but also on the policy level. For policies and governments to be effective there needs to be vision and collaboration – and hopefully both are formed through incorporating diverse view points. The law school’s sponsorship of forums to foster collaboration and debate provides students with unique opportunities and the community at large with an invaluable asset. That commitment seems to have been incorporated into the new law school and will undoubtedly find room to grow in its new home. I hope that as law students we can take a cue from the law school and recognize that because of our training, and the role of law in our society, we have an opportunity to play an important and unique role in public life.

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