Milwaukee – May 28, 2024 — Each year, the Rotary Club of Milwaukee recognizes a local leader, who makes the community a better place to live and work. Michael Gosman, president and chief executive officer of Acts Housing, earned the honor this year for his inventive ideas, products and services that have resulted in stronger families, neighborhoods and communities in Milwaukee.
Gosman, who earned his law degree from the University of Chicago, left a promising career as an attorney to pursue his passion for community service, joining Acts housing in 2013.
Annually, Acts Housing and its nonprofit affiliates assist more than 300 families to purchase and/or rehabilitate homes in Milwaukee. The organization offers three primary services: financial and homebuyer education, real estate brokerage and home rehab coaching. Since 1995, Acts has helped more than 4,000 Milwaukee families into homeownership and under Gosman’s leadership, the organization has grown from seven employees to more than 40, and from less than $1 million to nearly $9 million in combined revenue.
“Michael is deserving of this award because he shared responsibility for solving issues of our community. He does so with integrity, humility and he shares responsibility with our business leaders for the good of the community,” said Linda Gorens-Levey, partner, General Capital Group. “He’s humble, he’s strategic, he’s gracious, and it’s hard not to get behind Michael Gosman as a leader.”
To meet an unmet market need, Gosman created Acts Lending, a division that provides loans to families who experience barriers to homeownership. He also established Acts Homes, which serves to interrupt predatory practices of out-of-state investors who convert single-family homes to rentals. With philanthropic funds, Acts Homes buys rental homes from investors to make them available for owner-occupied homeowners, a novel concept that attracted coverage by Fortune and the Wall Street Journal, among others. In its first 18 months of operation, Acts Homes has already purchased more than 60 homes. In 2024 alone, it aims to purchase 80 properties and sell 60 to first-time homebuyers.
In its early years, Acts Housing primarily supported Southeast Asian and then Latino communities. However, recognizing the needs of the Black community, Gosman and Acts make a conscious effort in 2018 to focus on traditionally Black neighborhoods of Milwaukee. Those efforts have resulted in an increase of more than 500% in Black families purchasing homes through Acts.
Gosman was recognized for his leadership and passion for the community with a 2019 Milwaukee Business Journal 40 Under 40 award.
Gosman will be recognized at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee meeting at noon on Tuesday, May 28, at the War Memorial Center.
