Four Ways Coordinated Data Can Expand Homeownership: Lessons from Milwaukee

Update: According to new data that came out during the publication of this article, Milwaukee is beginning to move the needle on homeownership. New research found that Black and Latino homeownership is increasing in Milwaukee, reversing a trend from the great Recession, and that the demographic profile of new homebuyers in Milwaukee now more closely mirrors the city's overall population.

Median housing prices have far outpaced median incomes over the past few decades, and lower-income families are less likely to buy homes compared with their counterparts in previous generations. In Milwaukee, homeownership rates have remained low and have been steadily declining for years, especially for Black and Latino households.

In response, the Milwaukee nonprofit Community Development Alliance (CDA) created a cross-sector affordable housing strategic plan aimed at expanding affordable homeownership for Black and Latino families and narrowing the city’s racial wealth gap. Since 2022, Data You Can Use (DYCU) has served as CDA’s data partner. DYCU helped break down silos among the city’s three leading homebuyer counseling agencies, consolidated their data, developed two public-facing tools on homeownership and new construction, and helped CDA and local advocates interpret and communicate DYCU’s findings.

Before DYCU’s involvement, the data that would form the backbone of the mapping tools were not consolidated across agencies, meaning families who were served by more than one agency were being overcounted. This duplication, and the fact that data were not regularly visualized together, made it difficult to have a baseline for assessing program performance and determining which communities needed more support. Thanks to the trust that CDA and the other three agencies (United Community Center, Acts Housing, and Housing Resources Inc.) had in DYCU and to their shared mission to boost homeownership, DYCU was able to created a combined, deduplicated dataset.

DYCU translated this consolidated data into two mapping tools to show supply, demand, and homeownership assistance, which helped clarify housing supply and resident needs for CDA, policymakers, and community advocates. The first mapping tool plotted new and aspiring homeowners in the Milwaukee area, and the second showed newly constructed homes, home sales, vacant lots, and home purchases in the city of Milwaukee that included support from the city’s Acts Housing Homeownership Acquisition Fund. It was essential for DYCU that these tools offer transparent data on homeownership assistance to both policymakers and the public. By keeping the tools current with six-month update cycles and communicating both the tools’ utility and their limitations to CDA, DYCU solidified their reputation as a trusted source of data and insight for Milwaukee policymakers, housing nonprofits, and residents. Together, local data and this communication infrastructure shaped CDA’s work in four important ways and offers a model for how community data organizations can strengthen housing equity efforts.

1. Guiding CDA’s strategic planning

DYCU’s analysis and open collaboration with CDA helped inform CDA’s strategic vision so they could better focus on the neighborhoods and groups with the highest need, set measurable targets, and track progress. 

Equipped with deduplicated data, CDA identified which homes had already been purchased, which households had been given down payment assistance, which neighborhoods still needed increased homeownership assistance, and how well they were serving different groups of people. This clarity informed how CDA adapted its strategy to local conditions, set measurable goals, and refocused their efforts on specific neighborhoods (for example, those with more vacant lots). 

From 2024 to 2025, CDA successfully converted vacant lots into 140 homes for first-time buyers and increased homebuyer counseling participation and down payment assistance programming by 10 percent year over year. They also increased the of records for people receiving services by 455 percent from 2023 to 2025.

2. Building community data capacity

CDA’s increased data capacity also helped them inform the local Resident Advisory Council on Housing (RACH), a group of 14 Milwaukee residents who help shape CDA’s priorities. Working with DYCU to ensure completeness and accuracy, CDA presented the homeownership data to the RACH, who used it to strengthen their expertise, ask questions, suggest new program directions, and inform advocacy.

     “Residents want the data. People may say it is too complicated for the residents to understand, but that means someone is not explaining the data right.”

—Teig Whaley-Smith, Chief Alliance Executive, CDA

3. Strengthening affordable homeownership advocacy

DYCU’s data and guidance equipped local advocates to make a compelling, evidence-backed case for investment in and protection of affordable homeownership programs.

In 2024, the City of Milwaukee proposed reducing its down payment assistance budget by 90 percent. In response, DYCU produced profiles for each aldermanic district in the city, showing the number of people served by CDA in each district, recent progress in Black and Latino homeownership, and the predicted impact of the proposed cuts. After familiarizing themselves with DYCU’s data, profiles, and tools, RACH members gave compelling testimony at city hearings, combining quantitative analysis with lived experience and organized voices from the community. 

After hearing the data DYCU prepared and the testimony from the RACH and other community members, the city restored $1 million to the down payment assistance program.

4. Influencing investment

DYCU’s influence did not end with public investment. Between 2024 and 2025, CDA secured more than $4.5 million in new investment for its programs from funding partners, including philanthropic entities like the Zilber Family Foundation and Northwestern Mutual, as well as individual donors. DYCU worked with philanthropic partners to create story maps and other materials that made neighborhood-level outcomes visible. With credible, concrete evidence in hand, CDA was able to demonstrate results, strategically target investments, and communicate data in ways that opened doors to new investment.

DYCU has become a trusted authority on housing in Milwaukee for public, philanthropic, nonprofit, and community partners. DYCU’s work helped shift housing from a fragmented issue to a shared, citywide priority. Amid DYCU’s efforts, the City of Milwaukee went from proposing cuts to nearly all its down payment assistance program to declaring 2026 the “year of housing.”

By breaking down silos, arranging data to be transparent and digestible, and serving as a reliable communication partner, DYCU strengthened CDA’s work to push Milwaukee toward concrete, significant commitments to closing their racial homeownership gap.

In recognition of this work, Data You Can Use won the 2026 G. Thomas Kinglsey Impact Award .

This story is cross posted from Housing Matters.