A Community-Driven Nonprofit Transforms a Blighted Property into a “Beacon of Light” in Milwaukee September 25, 2025

“When people ask why we chose to build here, the answer is that the people in this community deserve a beautiful space,” says Ashley Thomas. “What used to be an eyesore on our block is now a beacon of light and a space that people in this community are proud of.”

Thomas, the CEO of nonprofit Hope Street Ministry (Hope Street), is referring to Shechem at Hope Street (Shechem), a 12,990-square-foot community center in Milwaukee’s Garden Homes neighborhood that opened in 2022 and has expanded the organization’s programming, amplified its impact, and provided community members with a high-quality place to gather, participate in recreational activities, and access community-strengthening services. Replacing a condemned, city-owned building that Hope Street purchased for $1 and later demolished, Shechem includes a gymnasium, classrooms, conference room/event space, a grab-and-go café and concession area, a resource center, and rooftop patio.

Founded in 1999, Hope Street has long supported community members in Milwaukee’s north side neighborhoods, and Shechem has enabled the nonprofit to do so in a variety of new ways. Initially providing transitional housing and supportive services to men striving to overcome substance use disorder and those working to reestablish themselves in the community after returning from incarceration, Hope Street expanded its focus over time to serve men, women, and children committed to building brighter futures for themselves by surmounting a wider range of challenges. This evolution was the result of the recognition that families needed the opportunity to grow alongside one another.

Today, the organization’s transitional housing program – Homes at Hope Street – provides up to 50 community members at a time with quality housing, counseling, and other supportive programming in a multiunit building that includes 23 apartments and an office/community space. With Shechem, Hope Street has added a new element to its housing program that amplifies the positive impact it has on community members while they live at Homes at Hope Street and after they transition back to fully independent living.

“Shechem is essentially the completion of our housing model,” says Thomas. “When our members leave Homes at Hope Street, Shechem provides a way for them to remain connected to the organization and provides them with continued access to programming we and our partners are offering in the building. The programs available to our transitional housing members are limited to those currently living in the building, and having continued access to support is an important way to help them feel more confident about living on their own in the community again.”

Through Shechem, Hope Street is also now able to impact a much broader group of Milwaukeeans, with teens and young men making up the largest group of visitors to the facility. This is significant, as the 53206 ZIP code where Shechem is located is frequently cited for the high rate of incarceration among Black male residents—with one analysis finding that roughly 42 percent of Black men from the community between the ages of 25 and 34 were in jail or under community supervision. By providing a safe place to gather, play basketball, or take part in a wide range of programming, Shechem is playing a role in shifting the paradigm in the community and reversing the effects of deindustrialization, limited employment opportunities, and a legacy of systemic racism in the housing market and criminal justice system.

“When you think about the statistics that we’re trying to disrupt in our community, it’s really incredible who’s showing up in our space,” says Thomas. “We have hundreds of kids that are coming through our building each and every week. The gym, in particular, has been the biggest draw because of the basketball court, and it’s a really organic way to meet people where they are and have the chance to get to know them. When I ask them where they were and what they were doing before they started coming to Shechem, I hear all the time that they didn’t have a place like this to be. That wasn’t necessarily the goal when we set out to develop Shechem, but it’s been a great byproduct since opening the building.”

Beyond young men, Shechem has also been a particularly effective way for Hope Street to foster a more integrated and cohesive community. With more than 2,000 members who pay $1-$40 per month based on their membership level, Shechem is serving as an important community anchor by bringing people from more than 80 ZIP codes in the Milwaukee area and beyond to the Garden Homes neighborhood. This is notable when considering the history of Garden Homes, which was once a manufacturing hub that became an oasis for Black Milwaukeeans drawn to the city during the Great Migration by high-paying factory jobs and the availability of quality, affordable housing nearby. As manufacturing declined in later years and jobs became less plentiful, however, the community infrastructure deteriorated in a spiral of disinvestment fueled in part by Milwaukee’s status as one of the most segregated cities in the United States.

Community-driven projects like Shechem and the revitalization of single-family homes nearby that provided the neighborhood with its name, and which IFF was also involved with, are visible indicators of the progress being made by local residents and mission-driven organizations committed to strengthening the community from within.

“Shechem is the result of asking our community what they needed that they didn’t have access to, and what they’d like to see in the neighborhood within walking distance of their homes,” says Thomas. “What we heard really influenced what Shechem ultimately became. This is a community with committed stakeholders that invests back into itself. While there are challenges, there are lots of people and organizations doing their part to make a difference. We’re proud to be doing our part in that and working alongside many others in the community who are doing the same.”

To realize its vision for Shechem, Hope Street persevered through a seven-year development process, continually overcoming hurdles to bring the facility to fruition. Among them was assembling the capital needed for the $4.8 million project. While executing a capital campaign that drew support from a wide range of philanthropic institutions and individual donors, the nonprofit sought financing to be able to move forward with the development of the new facility more quickly. After conversations with several potential lenders that did not result in a loan commitment, an introduction by one of Hope Street’s board members to a bank led to a $3 million loan that enabled the organization to move forward with construction and, ultimately, to open Shechem in 2022.

With the loan maturing in 2024, however, Hope Street needed to refinance it to avoid a balloon payment and extend the term of the financing over a much longer period. While the same bank offered the organization permanent financing for Shechem, the new loan would have required Hope Street to pledge both of its facilities as collateral. Seeking to mitigate the risk to the organization and eliminate any possibility of a scenario in which the organization could lose ownership of Shechem and the Homes at Hope Street facility next door, Hope Street continued to explore its options. This process led the organization to IFF, which provided Hope Street with a $3 million loan in June 2024 that did not require the Homes at Hope Street facility to be used as collateral.

“We were fortunate to have options for a permanent loan for Shechem, but it wasn’t ideal to tie our Homes at Hope Street building to the debt,” says Thomas. “Keeping the buildings separate through the financing was a major benefit, since it reduced our risk while giving us a much longer runway to pay off the loan over the next 15 years. Seeing what Shechem has become, and knowing where we started almost a decade ago, it’s an awesome feeling to know that there are no more hurdles to jump over and that Shechem and Homes at Hope Street will continue to be assets to the community for years to come.”