Tenant rights activists demand more protections
More than 100 protesters marched through Mayor Tom Barrett's neighborhood Saturday demanding a moratorium on evictions and other forms of housing protections.
With the coronavirus pandemic putting people out of work and Gov. Tony Evers' statewide ban on evictions now two months' expired, between 150 and 170 people are being evicted from their homes in Milwaukee every week, according to the Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union, which advocates for tenant rights and organized Saturday's march.
The state ($25 million), Milwaukee County ($10 million) and City of Milwaukee ($15 million) have poured millions into rental assistance programs, but advocates say vulnerable tenants need added protections.
“The rental assistance is good, but it's not enough,” said protest organizer Robert Penner.
“It's very slow, the systems are backlogged, they're over-saturated with cases. A lot of people lose their home before they can even get in contact” with such programs, he said.
Marchers snaked through the streets of Washington Heights on Saturday evening, arriving outside the mayor's house, where they paused for several speeches and demanded more from local leaders.
Reached by phone Saturday, Barrett said the housing crisis is a “major concern” of his, but that state law preempts local governments from imposing much regulation on landlords. He blamed much of that on former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, saying he tilted the playing field in favor of property owners.
Barrett said he would support a moratorium on evictions, but he doesn't have the power to make one.
“I'm very sympathetic to their aims,” he said.
After Evers' statewide moratorium on evictions ended May 26, Milwaukee saw an increased number of evictions. In June, Milwaukee County landlords filed nearly 1,500 evictions, an increase of 26% over June 2019.
Protesters called for a range of tenant protections Saturday, including forbidding landlords from accumulating late payment fees, scrubbing all evictions from tenants' records during the pandemic and instituting a robust mediation process separate from circuit court that provides free legal representation.
During a virtual news conference on Thursday, Barrett announced the city planned to allocate another $15 million in federal funds into rental assistance, which could help about 3,000 families stay in their homes.