Milwaukee affordable housing: waitlists, lotteries, how to apply

For Milwaukee affordable housing, start with the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM), the city's housing authority (the local housing office). It keeps a separate waitlist, a line you join now for housing that isn't available yet, for each kind of housing it runs. You apply online, and in most of its housing your rent is about 30% of your income.

What kinds of affordable housing does HACM run?

HACM runs four kinds of affordable housing, each with its own list:

• Public housing. Apartments HACM owns and rents out. Your rent is about 30% of your income, and if you move out, you give up the apartment and its lower rent.
• Section 8 vouchers. A Section 8 voucher pays part of your rent at a private landlord you choose. You pay about 30% of your income, and HACM pays the landlord the rest of the rent.
• Project-based vouchers. A project-based voucher lowers the rent on one apartment in a particular building while you live there. If you move out in your first year, you lose the lower rent. After a year, you can ask HACM for a voucher you can take to an apartment you choose.
• Tax-credit and other apartments. HACM's tax-credit apartments have lower rents for households under an income limit, the most a household can earn and still rent there. Ask HACM how to apply for one.

The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), the state housing agency, also gives out vouchers in Milwaukee County, through a local office that runs its program. It takes applications only through its online portal while its list is open, so check its applicants page to see whether it is taking names.

How do you find out which lists are open?

HACM posts every list it is taking applications for on its open waiting lists page. To see which Wisconsin lists are taking names today, check our Wisconsin waitlists page.

HACM keeps a separate project-based voucher list for each of these buildings, and some put certain groups first:

How do you get on HACM's Section 8 list?

HACM adds names to its Section 8 list only when it reopens the list, and it says it posts each reopening on its waitlist website at least 10 business days ahead. Check that website often, and apply as soon as it opens. Being on the list doesn't promise you a voucher.

If you signed up between 2021 and 2024 and weren't chosen in HACM's June 2026 lottery, the random drawing that picked 5,000 people for the list, you can't appeal. Apply again when the list reopens.

What are the 2026 income limits for Milwaukee?

An income limit is the most your household can earn in a year and still get a particular kind of housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the federal housing department, publishes limits for the Milwaukee area: Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties. The 2026 limits took effect May 1, 2026.

HUD's 2026 area median income for the Milwaukee area is $108,400: half of families earn more, and half earn less. For a family of four, the very low and low limits are 50% and 80% of it. The extremely low limit is 60% of the very low limit, or the federal poverty guideline if that is higher. That is why it is $33,000 for four people rather than $32,520.

Federal rules say at least 75% of the households HACM newly gives vouchers to each year must be at or under the extremely low limit. So if your income is above that limit, expect a longer wait. Tax-credit buildings often use their own charts, so ask each building.

How is rent set?

In HACM's public housing and voucher housing, you usually pay about 30% of your income, and HUD pays HACM the rest of the cost. For example, a household with $30,000 a year in income pays about $9,000 a year, or $750 a month. Your adjusted income, your income after deductions such as an amount for each child, can lower that.

With a voucher, HACM sets a voucher limit for each home size, officially the payment standard. It is the highest rent plus utilities a home can have while you pay only your 30%. If the rent plus utilities is higher, you pay the amount above the voucher limit too. When you first rent with the voucher, your share can't be more than 40% of your monthly adjusted income.

HACM says rent in its tax-credit apartments is generally 30% of income. You pay a deposit of one month's rent or $150, whichever is more, plus the first month's rent when you sign the lease.

How do you apply for HACM housing?

1. Gather six things for everyone in your household: names, birth dates, a mailing address, Social Security numbers, a phone number and an email address.
2. Apply online on HACM's waitlist page. HACM takes waitlist applications online only, and says public libraries have free computers.
3. Join every list that fits you. You may apply to any HACM list and to as many project-based buildings as you like.
4. Watch your email. HACM can't tell you your place on a list. It emails you when your name comes up.
5. Fill in the full application when HACM invites you. For its tax-credit apartments, HACM checks your credit report, criminal history and three years of rental history, and confirms your income and savings.
6. Keep your account current. Log in to HACM's portal and check your details and lists whenever your phone, email or address changes.

Where else can you look?

• Buildings. Our Milwaukee building directory lists subsidized and income-restricted buildings. Call each building's office and ask whether its waitlist is open.
• Wisconsin's rental search. WHEDA's free statewide rental search has a help line at 1-877-428-8844 on weekdays.
• Buying a home. The city's Milwaukee Home Down Payment Assistance gives grants of up to $5,000, or $7,000 in some neighborhoods. They go to first-time buyers, people who haven't owned a home in the past three years, who live in the city and are under its income limits. Its Homebuyer Assistance Program makes forgivable loans of up to $35,000 to fix up a city-owned foreclosed home you buy. Both require 8 hours of homebuyer counseling; the loan program can waive it for people who have owned a home before.

How do you avoid housing scams?

• Never pay to join a waitlist. HUD's inspector general warns that fake waitlist announcements spread on social media to collect money and personal details.
• Don't answer those ads, and never give your Social Security number in reply to one. Call the number on HACM's own website instead.
• Walk away from rushed payments. The Federal Trade Commission says fake rental ads ask for wire transfers, gift cards or cryptocurrency and pressure you to pay fast.

What should you do next?

See open listings on our Wisconsin page, and use our qualify check to see which ones fit your household's size and income. Our guides to the public housing waitlist and to open Section 8 waitlists explain what happens while you wait.