In the News

By Jesse Garza

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Wednesday denounced plans by the Social Security Administration to close its Mitchell St. field office on the city's south side.

The agency is closing the office at S. 7th and W. Historic Mitchell streets on March 22 over ongoing maintenance and safety concerns, Doug Nguyen, regional Social Security spokesman in Chicago, said Wednesday.

Residents must now visit offices at 310 W. Wisconsin Ave., 8455 W. Layton Ave., 6300 W. Fond du Lac Ave. or 5020 W. North Ave. to conduct in-person business, Nguyen said Wednesday in an email response to an inquiry from the Journal Sentinel.

At a news conference outside the former Forest Home Library, Barrett said he did not hear about the agency's decision to close the Mitchell St. office until January and that the city has offered the former library at 1432 W. Forest Home Ave. for a location.

“What this comes down to is having our federal government serve our residents," Barrett said.

"We shouldn't be creating barriers that make it difficult many times for our elderly, for our disabled people, those who need the help of the Social Security Administration."

Moore, whose district includes the area served by the office, said the proposal would disperse its Spanish-speaking employees currently serving the poor and largely Hispanic residents of the neighborhood to offices that are hard to reach by bus.

She also said the agency has not made serious attempts to find suitable replacement locations and that she and other public officials were not notified of the closure until the decision had already been made.

"They did not include me or other city officials in the decision," Moore said.

"It seems like they contacted us after they had already made this decision."

In a series of letters to regional Social Security Commissioner Phyllis M. Smith and acting regional Government Services Administration administrator John Cooke, Moore offered space she said is available at the new Milwaukee Public Library branch at 906 W. Historic Mitchell St.

In response, Smith wrote that concerns were raised by staff and the public over a lack of heat, elevator breakdowns and several violent crimes in the area that she did not specify.

Smith's letter said the GSA had conducted an "exhaustive search" for an alternate space in the area that meets the agency's requirements but that "those efforts have proven unsuccessful."

Ald. Jose Perez said the building has been given a clean bill of health by the Department of Neighborhood Services and that safety concerns were unfounded.

"There is no reason to leave 7th and Mitchell," Perez said.

Jessica LaPointe of the American Federation of Government employees read a statement she said was from employees at the Mitchell St. office saying they were "blindsided" by news of the closure and told to keep quiet about it.

The statement also said that a sign placed on the doors to the office last week was the only way the public has been informed of the closure.

"We mourn for the closing of our office for the personal loss we feel," LaPointe said, reading from the statement. "But more so for the Mitchell Street community, which is already starving for basic services."

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