Housing is one of the biggest barriers facing people returning from incarceration, advocates say. Officials in Milwaukee County are hoping to address that challenge through events aimed at encouraging more landlords to rent to them. 

The events are co-hosted by Milwaukee County and the local nonprofit The Community, and are connecting landlords, property managers and housing providers with reentry organizations and county housing resources.

“The totality of what we’re trying to do is increase landlord engagement by having more places interested in renting to these folks, asking questions and starting conversations to see why people don’t, learn why people do, and share that with other landlords,” said Shannon Ross, founder and CEO of The Community.

The Community works to reduce the stigmas associated with incarceration and build a better future for those with a criminal record. 

The first landlord engagement event was held Tuesday at ThriveOn King, 2153 N. Martin Luther King Drive. 

The event was open to Milwaukee County landlords, property owners and property management companies interested in learning more about reentry housing.  

Another event will take place on Aug. 26 at Sherman Phoenix, 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave. 

Obstacles to housing

Ross said many landlords are reluctant to rent to people with criminal records.

“People have this belief – which is sometimes true, not always – that a person that has a criminal record is still engaging in criminal activity,” Ross said. 

Kenya Pratt, who operates six rental properties in Milwaukee and rents to people involved with the justice system, said a criminal record does not tell a person’s whole story.

“Some of their criminal background is not a real background. It could just be a situation,” she said. 

For those with a criminal background, landlords can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful reentry, Pratt said. 

“Landlords sit up here and judge a person instead of wanting to help a person,” she said.

What landlords need

LaTonya Baker, founder and CEO of the Milwaukee Reentry Housing Hub, said housing alone is often not enough.

Baker said people returning from incarceration can benefit from a range of services, including life-skills training and connections to health care, among others. 

The housing hub works to expand housing opportunities for returning people by connecting them with landlords and providing training and support to housing providers. 

“What the landlords don’t really have is more mentorship, support, guidance and networking opportunities,” Baker said. “When people have stable housing, they have a better support system.”

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Close window

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site.

*** Also, the code below will NOT copy the featured image on the page. You are welcome to download the main image as a separate element for publication with this story. ***

You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules.

• Credit should be given, in this format: “By Ron Smith, Wisconsin Watch”
• Editing material is prohibited, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and in-house style (for example, using “Milwaukee, Wis.” instead of “Milwaukee” or changing “yesterday” to “last week”)
• Other than minor cosmetic and font changes, you may not change the structural appearance or visual format of a story.
• If published online, you must include the links and link to milwaukeenns.org
• If you share the story on social media, please mention @milwaukeenns (Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky), and ensure that the original featured image associated with the story is visible on the social media post.
• Don’t sell the story or any part of it — it may not be marketed as a product.
• Don’t extract, store or resell Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content as a database.
• Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.
• Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.
• Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.
• Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use. 
• If we send you a request to change or remove Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately.

For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org. 

The county and others are working to expand housing for people returning from incarceration

by Devin Blake, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
August 2, 2026

<h1>The county and others are working to expand housing for people returning from incarceration</h1> <p class="byline">by Devin Blake, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service <br />August 2, 2026</p> <p>Housing is one of the biggest barriers facing people returning from incarceration, advocates say. Officials in Milwaukee County are hoping to address that challenge through events aimed at encouraging more landlords to rent to them.&nbsp;</p> <p>The events are co-hosted by Milwaukee County and the local nonprofit The Community, and are connecting landlords, property managers and housing providers with reentry organizations and county housing resources.</p> <p>“The totality of what we’re trying to do is increase landlord engagement by having more places interested in renting to these folks, asking questions and starting conversations to see why people don’t, learn why people do, and share that with other landlords,” said Shannon Ross, founder and CEO of The Community.</p> <p><a href="https://milwaukeenns.org/2023/12/14/nns-spotlight-how-the-community-fills-information-gaps-for-those-who-have-been-or-are-incarcerated/">The Community</a> works to reduce the stigmas associated with incarceration and build a better future for those with a criminal record.&nbsp;</p> <p>The first landlord engagement event was held Tuesday at ThriveOn King, 2153 N. Martin Luther King Drive.&nbsp;</p> <p>The event was open to Milwaukee County landlords, property owners and property management companies interested in learning more about reentry housing.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Another event will take place on Aug. 26 at Sherman Phoenix, 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave.&nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Obstacles to housing</strong></h2> <p>Ross said many landlords are reluctant to rent to people with criminal records.</p> <p>“People have this belief – which is sometimes true, not always – that a person that has a criminal record is still engaging in criminal activity,” Ross said.&nbsp;</p> <p>Kenya Pratt, who operates six rental properties in Milwaukee and rents to people involved with the justice system, said a criminal record does not tell a person’s whole story.</p> <p>“Some of their criminal background is not a real background. It could just be a situation,” she said.&nbsp;</p> <p>For those with a criminal background, landlords can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful reentry, Pratt said.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Landlords sit up here and judge a person instead of wanting to help a person,” she said.</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What landlords need</strong></h2> <p>LaTonya Baker, founder and CEO of the <a href="https://www.mkereentryhub.com/housing">Milwaukee Reentry Housing Hub</a>, said housing alone is often not enough.</p> <p>Baker said people returning from incarceration can benefit from a range of services, including life-skills training and connections to health care, among others.&nbsp;</p> <p>The housing hub works to expand housing opportunities for returning people by connecting them with landlords and providing training and support to housing providers.&nbsp;</p> <p>“What the landlords don’t really have is more mentorship, support, guidance and networking opportunities,” Baker said. “When people have stable housing, they have a better support system.”</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <p><em>Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between </em><a href="https://www.catchlight.io/local"><em>CatchLight Local </em></a><em>and </em><a href="https://www.reportforamerica.org/"><em>Report for America</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2026/08/02/the-county-and-others-are-working-to-expand-housing-for-people-returning-from-incarceration/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org&quot;&gt;Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-NNS-Favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=171982&amp;amp;ga4=G-HGM4XK3QCM&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2026/08/02/the-county-and-others-are-working-to-expand-housing-for-people-returning-from-incarceration/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/milwaukeenns.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Copy to Clipboard

1