The services provided by community action agencies are essential to fighting poverty in Milwaukee County and should be restarted as soon as possible.
This sentiment united representatives of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and supporters of the Social Development Commission, or SDC, at a public hearing on Friday, though they disagreed on the best method to make this happen.
“I think this is an opportunity for us as a community to say that we are in this together,” said Dr. Dessie Levy, who was recently appointed to serve as a commissioner on the SDC board by the Greater Milwaukee Committee.
Levy said her family benefited from SDC’s services when she was growing up.
“I’m a product of someone who has been able to pull themselves up out of poverty with the help of this community,” she said.
The Department of Children and Families, or DCF, held the hearing at the Milwaukee State Office Building, 819 N. 6th St., to get input on SDC’s community action agency designation.
This designation is key to SDC’s future because it makes the agency eligible to receive millions of dollars in federal block grant funds administered by the state.
“It really can’t leave this community because it would destabilize the entire safety net of the community,” said Antonio Butts, the executive director of Walnut Way Conservation Corp., at the hearing.
Concerns about financial plan
SDC abruptly laid off staff and stopped services nearly a year ago.
DCF leadership has said that despite technical assistance, SDC has not created a realistic financial plan to restart services and has submitted funding source information that DCF has not been able to verify.
“DCF would request documents or plans from SDC and often received them late, in a disorganized fashion, or not at all,” said Connie Chesnik, administrator of the department’s Division of Family and Economic Security, in the department’s opening statement.
The department also sent SDC a letter on Wednesday that denied additional reimbursements for 2024 expenses, stating it needs SDC’s 2023 single audit and more documentation to verify the amounts are accurate and were received by the intended recipients.
Public comments
Members of the public voiced support for SDC at the hearing, including current and former SDC employees, board members and community leaders.
“We understand that employees haven’t been paid,” saidThomas Hines, who worked for SDC in the youth and families program at the time of the closure. “I’m one of them, but I can still see that there are some employees here today because we care.”
He said that he still gets calls every week from clients, families and community partners about SDC.
Jeff Pertl, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, said that the department will continue to provide block grant funding to Milwaukee County, though the timeline and pathway is uncertain.
“I am not sure that SDC can do it faster than the process that we’d go through with somebody else, and we’ve been doing it a year already,” he said.
“Who else would run it better than SDC? I don’t know of an agency,” said LaSonda Buck, a former housing manager at SDC.
Next steps
DCF will continue to accept comments on the Social Development Commission by email at DCF.CSBG@wisconsin.gov until 8 a.m. Monday, April 7.
Pertl will review all materials from the hearing and public comments before making a final decision. SDC can ask for a review after the decision.
“Our call is for more public participation, more public hearings, to get more weigh in and feedback directly from the public,” Butts said.
Pertl said that if DCF decides to de-designate SDC, another community action agency may be able to take over providing services on a temporary basis, but it would look for a Milwaukee County organization or organizations in the long term.
Here’s more on the SDC
SDC’s North Avenue buildings face foreclosure risk
State schedules public hearing on future of SDC funding
Here’s an update on what’s going on at the Social Development Commission
‘We just want our money’: Former SDC employees still wait to be paid
How the Social Development Commission failed its Milwaukee residents
Why did the Social Development Commission fail? Here are takeaways from our investigation
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
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