ACTS Community Development Corporation

Mission

ACTS Housing’s mission is empowerment through homeownership.

Strengthening Milwaukee Neighborhoods Through Home Ownership

ACTS Community Development Corporation (ACTS Housing) was founded in 1992 by three Catholic churches to help low-income residents become homeowners. ACTS partnered with the City of Milwaukee to connect neighborhood residents to vacant, vandalized and foreclosed homes, and supported each family in home purchase and rehab.

Now an incorporated lending program, ACTS has expanded its reach and its impact:

• Homeownership enables families to build economic self-sufficiency, and correlates with children’s higher performance in school
• Higher homeowner occupancy rates stabilize neighborhoods and build communities of mutual support
• Restoring vacant properties to the tax rolls has positive economic and public safety effects
• ACTS is an avenue for refuges and other immigrants assimilating into American life

ln 2016, ACTS brokered the sale of 165 homes, 50 of which had been vacant properties, a number that far outpaces any other effort to address the issue of vacant homes. ln 2017, it increased its maximum loan size from $15,000 to $25,000. With Bradley support, ACTS is finalizing its capital campaign for making modest renovations to its headquarters.