Bill limits help for tenants

In his nationally acclaimed book “Evicted,” Matthew Desmond chronicled the plight of marginalized people of all races and backgrounds that he observed during his two-year encampment in various Milwaukee neighborhoods.

And in its commendable series on greedy slumlords in Milwaukee, the Journal Sentinel has focused community attention on the many outrageous abuses inflicted on poor people by rental property owners who also cheat the city out of payment of taxes and fines. Indeed even a millionaire investment banker was discovered to own properties that are uninhabitable by even the poorest and most desperate people, while hiding behind a corporate shell.

As reported by Bruce Vielmetti in the May 26 Journal Sentinel, a small dedicated group of volunteer lawyers stepped forward in response to these reported abuses to provide legal advice and assistance to victims of the unscrupulous landlords who take such egregious advantage of them (“Change in landlord law could derail free legal help”).

These lawyers have been so effective in advising poor people of their legal rights that the bully landlords apparently afraid of losing their advantage have gone to the Legislature to slip some provisions into a bill that would essentially eliminate these badly needed legal services for the poor.

Shame on the unnamed legislators who prepared these provisions and shame on the governor for signing the bill that contained them. They are unfair, unnecessary and unconscionable. The bill should be repealed.

Frank J. Daily Milwaukee