evidence: Between 1913 and 1917 Milwaukee, Wisconsin‘s population increased by 79,000 people, while the housing stock only increased by about 6,000 units – resulting in a shortage of 7,000 homes. As early as 1910, Mayor Emil Seidel, the first Socialist mayor of Milwaukee, had run on a platform of expanding the amount of low-income housing within the city. But, with his defeat two years later, the idea never moved forward. It was not until 1918 that Mayor Daniel Webster Hoan would again pursue the idea. This would ultimately lead to the development of the first city funded and planned housing project: Garden Homes. [...] The Housing Commission was a ten-man collective of city employees and Milwaukee businessmen that had two goals. The first was to look at how to alleviate the housing problem in the short term, while the second was to look for long-term solutions for Milwaukee‘s affordable housing shortage. After two years of research, the Commission believed they found their answer in a municipally funded and planned cooperative housing development.