DOT is adding concrete barriers to the Holt Avenue Park and Ride lot

MILWAUKEE – The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has added a new step to prevent people from living in local parks.

DOT added concrete barriers to the Holt Avenue lot along I-94.

“I mean, first of all, you don’t want to be here. Now you feel like you’re locked up,” Tracy Bennett said.

Bennett lived in her car at the park-and-ride. She and her husband had nowhere to turn after being evicted in May, but came across the parking lot in July.

“This is not a joy ride. It’s not something we expected, planned for. It’s not life. It’s not,” Bennett explained.

For months, TMJ4’s Megan Lee has been covering the camps. However, these concrete barriers are new.

People who live in the car park said the barriers went up a few weeks ago.

When Lee asked the DOT about the barriers, he got this response:

Bennett is worried that she will have nowhere to go. She said, “you know next week they’re going to come and push them a little further, come and push them a little further until there’s nowhere else for them to go.”

Lee asked Bennett if there is a shortage of affordable housing in Milwaukee.

“Yes. Perfect example. Perfect example right here,” she said.

Bennett is working to get assistance to move into a more stable living situation.

“You can only ask people so many times for money, help, food. You can only ask so many times,” she said.

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