NNS Update: From ‘banker of the underrepresented’ to the Biden administration | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
November 17, 2021
When he’s not working, Joaquin Altoro and his daughter Melina Morales enjoy traveling together. (Photo provided by Melina Morales)
Editor’s note: This article updates a previous story published Oct. 7, 2020, to reflect Joaquin Altoro’s new role in the Biden administration.
After spending most of his professional career serving Milwaukee communities, Joaquin Altoro says he’s excited to now move to a position with the Biden administration.
He is now the administrator of the Rural Housing Service with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development.
“The size of this responsibility is crazy,” Altoro said in an interview with NNS. “As a city boy, I’m overwhelmed about taking my lived experience to leadership at a national level. But it is a privilege that I am walking into with respect and confidence.”
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His new role was announced last week.
For the past two years, Altoro has been making his mark on the entire state as the executive director of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, also known as WHEDA.
By providing loans and grants to first-time homebuyers, farmers and entrepreneurs, WHEDA is responsible for much of the affordable housing created in Wisconsin.
“We did a lot of work to change the behaviors and mindset behind the conversation of equity in order to address disparities in housing,” Altoro said.
Altoro, 46, served as vice president of commercial banking for Town Bank before he was appointed by Gov. Tony Evers in June 2019. WHEDA, which employs about 160 people, reported total assets of $2.8 billion for fiscal 2019, according to its website.
The USDA services 1.2 million borrowers with single-family homes, 14,000 with multifamily units and has $185 billion in asset size, Altoro said.
The WHEDA years
He carries his knowledge and understanding of Wisconsin and its underrepresented communities with him from his work with Town Bank and WHEDA.
Altoro said he first noticed the difference in wealth distribution when he worked as a loan officer in college.
“The people I was talking to weren’t people that looked like me,” said Altoro, who grew up on the North Side. “They didn’t come from where I came from.”
He decided then that the people he did not see in his job were the people he wanted to represent. He dedicated his time to learning and understanding underrepresented communities.
“I wanted to be the banker of the underrepresented but before being a banker, I had to understand the communities I wanted to serve, so I spent time with them,” Altoro said. “I’m not Black or Hmong or a member of the LGBT community, but spending time with people who are helped me learn how to better serve them.”
Altoro is an alumnus of Cardinal Stritch University and a graduate of the Associates in Commercial Real Estate, or ACRE, program at Marquette University.
Carl Quindel, a close friend and manger at the rent- to-own company Strong Blocks, said he’s seen firsthand how Altoro invests his time helping others.
“When I met Joaquin, he was still working at Town Bank,” Quindel said.” “He offered institutional support to people who may not have gotten it otherwise by acting as a bridge between minority chambers of commerce, small business and the bank.”
Altoro built strong and genuine relationships with those he served because he always did what he said he was going to do, Quindel said.
“I am an introvert, so words never really move me,” he said. “I watched Joaquin actually provide resources to people even if it wasn’t from his bank.”
“There is a difference in talking about diversity and having it running through the veins of an organization,” added Ana Simpson, the director of community and economic development for WHEDA. “Joaquin does a good job of ensuring that underrepresented communities are a primary consideration in any decisions we make.”
Altoro sits on many local and national boards, including the boards of Milwaukee Area Technical College, Wisconsin Policy Forum, the National Council of State Housing, Milwaukee’s Black Male Achievement Advisory Council, Forward Community Investments and Nativity Jesuit Middle School.
“Because his personality is so warm and friendly, people often forget that he is an expert in his field,” said Elmer Moore, a close friend and the executive director of Scale Up Milwaukee. “Joaquin has lived his life with a sense of purpose and clarity that focuses on changing the way people in Wisconsin experience life.”
Altoro said he wants people to “understand what it looks like to provide access and start exposing young people to that earlier in life.”
“As a young person I never imagined being the CEO of WHEDA,” he said, “because I didn’t even know the position existed.”