About 400 volunteers will convene in the Clarke Square neighborhood on Milwaukee’s south side this weekend to complete extensive repairs on more than 30 homes.
They are gathering Friday and Saturday for Revitalize Milwaukee’s 2017 Block Build MKE initiative — a multi-day event that equips volunteers with supplies bought with thousands of dollars in donations to rehabilitate, repair and modify homes in Milwaukee neighborhoods.
Projects over the two-day stretch will include flooring, lighting, window replacements, new door locks, grab bars and ramp installations, bathroom remodels, painting, fencing, landscaping and gardening, among others.
“Pretty much everything except for roofs and foundations,” said Lynnea Katz-Petted, CEO of Revitalize Milwaukee.
The Clarke Square neighborhood, located immediately south of the Mitchell Park horticultural domes, was selected for the build event following an RFP process last year, in which interested neighborhoods applied for the program.
The organization looks for buy-in from the neighborhoods that apply for the build event, Katz-Petted said.
“We really want to make sure we’re doing it with the neighborhood as opposed to for the neighborhood, so all the neighbors that are in that neighborhood have to sign off on wanting to participate, plus local businesses and any other providers or supporters have to sign off,” Katz-Petted said.
Clarke Square was chosen in January for the organization’s largest block build event, while three other finalists will also undergo smaller-scale block builds this year. They include the neighborhood surrounding Lincoln Avenue Elementary School on South 18th and 19th streets; the east portion of the Miller Valley on the triangle plot of homes between State Street, North 37th Street and West Miller Lane; and the neighborhood located between 3rd and 4th streets on the northern end of the Harambee neighborhood.
The Clarke Square project is sponsored by 15 businesses and organizations, each of which is sponsoring a home and providing volunteers, Katz-Petted said. Revitalize Milwaukee is investing about $100,000 into the neighborhood for the projects, she said.
Volunteers will work from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday to complete the repairs.
This is the second year for the group’s block build event. The first was in 2016, when volunteers made repairs to 35 homes in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood on the city’s northwest side.
In addition to the block builds, the organization provides free home and emergency repairs for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties.
Katz-Petted said these revitalization efforts have proven to bring new life into neighborhoods.
“When we’re starting to do work in a neighborhood, whether it’s one house or multiple houses, it energizes the neighborhood in a way you can’t even describe,” she said. “People come out of their houses and want to know what’s going on. You see them starting to fix up their house and wanting to do a little bit more for their neighbors and helping in ways that they wouldn’t have initiated on their own.”
All of those efforts, she said, help build homeowners’ pride in their neighborhoods and enhance a sense of community.
“It’s really empowering and we’re just a conduit to make it happen,” she said.
