Meg Jones

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Randy Jones stood on the neatly tended lawn in front of his Sherman Park home Sunday afternoon and smiled.

Built in 1925, the two-story house features a fireplace, beautiful wood trim and built-in cabinet in the dining room. The owner before Jones was a bank; the home was among hundreds of foreclosures in Milwaukee following the recent housing crisis.

"I got lucky," said Jones, who paid $105,000 for his home four years ago. "I feel bad for everyone else because I got the best house."

The home on N. 51st St., which had been vacant for three years before Jones moved in, is among 57 Sherman Park homes acquired, renovated and sold at market value through Southeastern Wisconsin Common Ground's Milwaukee Rising program since 2008. Another 18 homes are under renovation.

During a tour on Sunday designed to showcase Common Ground's efforts in an area of Milwaukee hit by violent protests and vandalism last month, the organization arranged for volunteers, officials and community members to visit Jones' home, Washington Park High School's athletic field and a ministry on W. Center St.

"If you have people who are homeowners, they care. The problems in Sherman Park didn't happen from people who were homeowners, they happened from people who didn't even live here," said Jones.

The work to buy, renovate and sell vacant homes in Sherman Park has created about $6 million in property sales, said Keisha Krumm, Common Ground lead organizer. The homes have generated almost $200,000 in annual property tax revenue.

"Part of what our group has done has been a catalyst to the other work that's being done in this neighborhood," Krumm said.

Common Ground is an organization of religious groups and congregations, small businesses, nonprofits, schools, unions and neighborhood associations working on social issues. Among its programs are Milwaukee Rising and Milwaukee Neighborhoods Now, which pushes for more investment in the community, including a proposal unveiled last month for an indoor sports complex on the city's south side.

Alex Hardy, who has lived across the street from Washington High School since 1997, remembers his neighborhood getting hit hard by predatory lending that led to the housing crisis.

"The thing I'm most impressed with is the work (Common Ground has) done to rehabilitate foreclosed houses," said Hardy, a retired Milwaukee Public Schools social worker and deacon at Community Baptist Church.

Hardy hopes the athletic field at Washington High School can be renovated through a public-private partnership to provide a rubberized running track, instead of concrete, and an improved football field. Both he and his children learned to swim in the recreation program at the high school pool. Nearby W. Center St. also needs a lot of work, said Hardy, including improved streets and sidewalks and businesses to move into boarded-up buildings.

Invisible Reality Ministries moved into an empty building — a former synagogue in the 5300 block of W. Center St. About 70% of the renovations are done, including electrical, plumbing, painting and roof repairs, with work still to be done in the building's classrooms, said Pastor Will Davis.

"We've achieved so many milestones to rehabilitate homes, move people in and hire local contractors to do the rehabilitation work," Davis said. "Today we're focusing on neighborhoods where we're rehabbing homes. We went from 300 foreclosed homes (a few years ago) to only 60 now."

On an easel at the back of Invisible Reality Ministries, the last stop of Sunday's tour, was a map of the Sherman Park section of the city dotted with tiny houses, all homes that had once been boarded up and vacant and are now owned by folks like Jones through the Milwaukee Rising campaign.

"We can create change," said Davis. "People shouldn't have to feel scared to live in these neighborhoods."