Milwaukee Community Land Trust celebrates the completion of five newly renovated homes

Jeanette Torres, accompanied by her husband, Jovan Jiron, and their daughter, speaks at a press event celebrating the completion of their new home. The Milwaukee Community Land Trust, with other partners, renovated the home and made it affordable for the family.

A Milwaukee couple is celebrating becoming homeowners, with help from the Milwaukee Community Land Trust.

Organization leaders and city officials made remarks at the new home of Jeanette Torres and Jovan Jiron -- one of five home renovations recently completed by MCLT -- during a press event on July 14.

"It's like a fresh start for us," Torres told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The couple lived in a rental property before it was sold without any warning, Torres said at the event. For the last two years, the pair and their three children lived at Torres’ family home.

Through a deal with MCLT, their new home is in Milwaukee’s Clarke Square neighborhood, and it cost them $90,000.

Torres says that she is thankful to live in a community she loves. As a child, she would frequently walk along Mitchell Street with her grandmother.

“It’s just very nostalgic to me to be in this community,” Torres said.

Torres is a community organizer at Southside Organizing Center. Jiron, her husband, works with the Riverworks Development Corporation. Owning a home in the neighborhood is ideal for work and raising her family, Torres said.

MCLT’s goal is to increase homeownership among Black and Hispanic families in Milwaukee. The group aims to make homes affordable through a community land trust model.

The model allows low-income residents to buy their home at an affordable price. If they choose to sell their home, it must be to another eligible family at a price they can afford.

Lamont Davis, MCLT’s executive director, said he strongly thinks that the family will be “poised for success” because their mortgage is significantly lower than the rent they paid previously.

The organization partnered with groups like One 5 Olive, Northwestern Mutual, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and many more to bring the project to fruition. Renovations for the house cost about $296,000.

Torres and Jiron’s home is one of five properties that the organization just finished renovating, said Davis. They have accepted offers on all those units.

“It’s been a great, joyous month of June just to see so many people getting into their forever homes,” said Davis.

The process of getting Torres and Jiron moved into their new home took about 18 months. Work began in November 2022, but due to some delays, they started “in earnest” during the spring of 2023, Davis said.

“It was worth the wait,” Torres said.

The house was once neglected, vacant, then city-owned, said city development commissioner Lafayette Crump at the press event. The five properties MCLT renovated were added through Homes MKE – that initiative also provided ARPA fund to help restore those properties.

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“Affordable housing is more than just walls and roofs. It’s about dignity,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson during the press event.

MCLT is committed to working with diverse developers and partners to continue growing across Milwaukee County, Davis said. He thinks they can renovate between six and 10 units a year moving forward.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MCLT completes renovations for five Milwaukee homes