David Michael Miller
Tree Lane Apartments
Heartland Housing struggled to maintain Tree Lane Apartments, above, and Rethke Terrace, which have generated numerous police calls.
Two troubled Madison supportive housing complexes — Rethke Terrace and Tree Lane Apartments — may soon have new owners. Dane County’s Public Works and Transportation Committee approved resolutions Tuesday night that would authorize the transfer of the ground and condominium leases for each of the buildings to Cinnaire, a Michigan-based nonprofit affordable housing developer with an office on Doty Street in Madison.
According to the resolutions, the leases are contingent on the pending sale of properties to Cinnaire. The sale is meant to keep the current tenants in their apartments and keep the buildings affordable.
The county’s Health and Human Needs and Personnel and Finance committees will consider the resolutions on March 28 and April 1 before the full board votes on the lease reassignment. Dane County owns the land each building sits on and condo space inside the buildings. The city of Madison and WHEDA, which both provided subsidies for the project, would also have to approve any sale.
The complexes at 709 Rethke Ave. and 7933 Tree Lane are part of the city of Madison’s “housing first” initiative, which aims to house homeless people with “wraparound” support services offered on-site. Rethke Terrace, which opened in 2016, provides 60 apartments for veterans and the chronically homeless. Tree Lane Apartments, with 45 apartments for homeless families, opened in 2018. The complexes were originally managed by Heartland Housing, based in Chicago.
Heartland struggled to manage the buildings amid its own financial struggles that eventually caused the company to withdraw from the properties. Both buildings generated high volumes of 911 calls each year and were declared chronic public nuisances by the city. Milwaukee attorney Michael S. Polsky was appointed as receiver for the properties June 1. City officials pledged early this year to help tenants relocate as they faced the prospect of closing both buildings.
“Folks may have read a lot about the Rethke [Avenue] and Tree Lane properties in the news lately,” Casey Becker, administrator of Dane County’s human services department, told members of the public works committee. “The city of Madison, Dane County, WHEDA, and Cinnaire Corporation have been meeting about a potential sale of both of those properties to Cinnaire Corporation. Those talks have been going very well.”
Added Supv. Jacob Wright: “I would commend our staff on working hard on getting a solution to this, because I know how hard it’s been.” The resolutions, which passed unanimously, noted that they are “the culmination of an unprecedented legal and legislative process that, once concluded, will prevent the two properties from falling into further disrepair and preserve affordable housing for its current and future tenants.”
According to Cinnaire’s website, the company “provide[s] creative capital solutions to projects with high social value that may not otherwise receive support from traditional financial institutions.” A representative from Cinnaire was not immediately available for comment.
