News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Changes in FoodShare and Medicaid requirements have caused benefits to be cut off for many and created difficulties for beneficiaries to get their applications reviewed or renewed.

And state workers are struggling to keep up.

Beverly Knox and her son Christopher Knox have had a front-row seat to the disruptions.

The long wait

Christopher Knox is the caretaker for his mother, who had brain surgery to remove a tumor and suffered a stroke nearly 30 years ago. She no longer has mobility in almost half her body.

The nightmare for them has looked like this:

“I was on hold with people from the (FoodShare) program for one and a half hours waiting to conduct my mom’s interview,” Knox said. “They asked me for my mom’s case number and put me on hold for another 20 minutes, and then an automated voice said something like: ‘We close at noon on Thursdays’ and ended the call.”

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ FoodShare call center is indeed closed at that time, which is not common knowledge for many people on these programs based on NNS interviews.

Knox said at least three times in June he endured two hours or more of wait times to secure a FoodShare interview for his mother so she could get the assistance she needed. 

Many times, Knox said, he was met with rude and disrespectful customer service. 

“She can communicate on her own, but ain’t no way in the world (she) would be able to do all this by herself,” Knox said. 

In addition to the family’s difficulty in getting the mother interviewed, Knox has had to send in documentation to again prove his mother’s medical condition for both FoodShare and Medicaid. 

“You need proof of everything,” he said.

‘All hands on deck’

Emergency FoodShare allotments ended in February, causing wholesale review of both FoodShare and Medicaid cases. In addition, work requirements for FoodShare and Medicaid recipients were reinstated earlier this year and are being phased out over nine months.

Jamie Kuhn, director of the Wisconsin Medicaid program, acknowledged during a call with the press the probability of long hold times. She said this is because of the high call volume, the hiring of new staff and the flood of cases that need to be reviewed.

“This is an unprecedented effort and all hands are on deck,”  Kuhn said. 

Knox was finally told by a call center employee to file a complaint with the Hunger Task Force, which works with the state Department of Health Services, or DHS, to expedite severe cases. 

“We are deeply concerned,” said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force.

During the pandemic, the federal government issued extra emergency allotments of FoodShare. And during the pandemic, more people were accepted into Medicaid programs. Many requirements, such as being employed and having proof of income, were lifted or lightened. 

Rise in FoodShare, Medicaid recipients

The number of FoodShare recipients in 2019 averaged 609,359 a month in Wisconsin, according to DHS numbers. But despite the winding down and official declaration of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin has seen an average of 709,832 FoodShare recipients per month from January to June. That’s about 100,000 more Wisconsinites accessing FoodShare a month. 

For Wisconsin Medicaid, which includes programs like BadgerCare Plus, about 1.2 million people were receiving state medical insurance before the pandemic. That number has now risen to 1.6 million Wisconsinites. The DHS estimates that 1 in 4 residents will have to go through the renewal process over the next year. 

Studies from the Urban Institute and NORC estimate that at least 300,000 Wisconsinites will have to transition off of Medicaid. These studies also estimate that anywhere from 49,000 and 72,000 Wisconsinites will become uninsured. 

According to the DHS, more than 32,000 people who took action to renew Medicaid services were found ineligible in the month of June. 

Emergency FoodShare allotments ended in February and Wisconsin Medicaid programs resumed routine operations in May. Many of those Medicaid cases were suspended for people who did not submit renewals on time. 

As a result of the emergency aid, not as many people went to food pantries during the pandemic emergency period, Tussler said. That has since stopped. 

The Hunger Task Force saw a 20% increase in the use of food pantries from January to June and a 36% increase in the use of meal sites during the same time. 

A version of this story was first published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, a nonprofit news organization that covers Milwaukee’s diverse neighborhoods.

Wisconsin residents endure long waits due to FoodShare and Medicaid changes is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Correction: A previous version of this story included an incorrect figure for the number of fatal Milwaukee police pursuits in 2023 and incorrect percentages of pursuits ending in injuries from 2007 to 2022.

At 1:06 a.m. on Aug. 1, 2019, Le’Quon McCoy was driving through a North Side Milwaukee intersection when the driver of a stolen Buick Encore ran a flashing red light and crashed into McCoy’s Jeep Renegade. 

The speeding driver, who was fleeing police, hit McCoy’s Jeep so hard that it bounced off a tree on one side of the road and into a parked car on the other side. McCoy, 19, died at the scene.

“He got off work around like 9 or 10 at night. He stopped here to see me,” his mother, Antoinette Broomfield recalled. “He told me he would be to see me the next day, and he was going to drop a friend off at home. And that’s the last time I heard from him.”

The death of McCoy — described as a warm, outgoing, “big teddy bear” with many friends — inflicted a still-unhealed wound, Broomfield said. 

A court sentenced Aaron Fitzgerald, the driver of the stolen Buick, to 10 years in prison and eight years of extended supervision related to McCoy’s death.

But Broomfield’s quest for accountability didn’t end there. She’s suing the city of Milwaukee and four officers who pursued Fitzgerald. Broomfield, whose attorney was present while she spoke to Wisconsin Watch and WPR, said the officers could have averted the tragedy by calling off a high-speed pursuit that spanned residential and commercial streets. 

Broomfield’s lawsuit, filed in March 2022, comes during a 20-fold surge of police chases in the years since Milwaukee loosened restrictions for pursuits — reaching an average of nearly three per day in 2022, according to Milwaukee Police Department records. 

The department engaged in 1,028 chases in 2022, up from 50 in 2012, according to data provided through an open records request. The 2021 tally was even higher: 1,078. It eclipsed all years since at least 2002, according to a 2019 Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission report.

The trend unfolds as Milwaukee grapples with a spike of reckless and deadly driving. 

More pursuits mean more chances of injuries to fleeing suspects, officers and other responders and third parties like McCoy who become unwittingly involved.

In 2022, for example, 132 pursuits injured at least one suspect, and 36 pursuits resulted in at least one third-party injury, data show. Officers faced injuries in five pursuits.

During more than 6,600 pursuits from 2007 to 2022, fleeing suspects were injured in 13% of pursuits, followed by third parties (4%) and officers (1%), according to an analysis of the 2019 Fire and Police Commission report and other data obtained by Wisconsin Watch and WPR. 

The toll of Milwaukee pursuits hasn’t ebbed this year. Four this year were recorded as fatal through June 26, the data show.

“There are good reasons not to permit the escape of dangerous criminals,” Broomfield’s lawsuit says. “But sometimes it is preferable to simply prolonging the danger to innocent motorists and pedestrians that occurs if a pursuit is not terminated.”

Milwaukee police pursuit data incomplete

Milwaukee’s full count of police pursuit casualties is unclear.

For example, although three people died last year when a pursued Toyota Avalon plunged off a bridge and erupted into flames, police records for that crash say it ended in “subject injury,” “violator death” and “third party injury.” One woman was hit and injured as the driver fled police, according to media reports.

Also not logged in the Fire and Police Commission report: instances of injuries occurring just after a pursuit was canceled.

Official police records often paint an incomplete picture of the impact of pursuits, said Jonathan Farris, chief advocate for the Wisconsin-based Pursuit for Change, which seeks to limit police pursuit casualties. Farris lost his son in 2007 when a driver fleeing a Massachusetts State Police trooper crashed into a cab his son was in, killing him and the cab driver.

Farris points to a 2015 USA Today investigation that found the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration significantly undercounted police pursuit deaths over several decades.

“Most of us who have been following this for a fair number of years have seen more than enough examples of pursuits that were not logged,” Farris said.

Milwaukee tightens, then loosens pursuit policy

The Milwaukee Police Department cites a nationwide surge in deadly driving as one of several factors leading to more police pursuits. Milwaukee’s loosened restrictions on pursuits have permitted officers to crack down on reckless driving and vehicle-based crimes in recent years, said Inspector Craig Sarnow, who has spent much of his 24-year department career in roles that monitor and investigate pursuits.  

“I can recall back to my time as a patrol sergeant, when the policy was more restrictive,” he said. “We used to have individuals that would try to bait Milwaukee police officers into getting into pursuits knowing full well that we couldn’t because our policy was so restrictive.”

But safety advocates say Milwaukee’s previous, more restrictive policy — adopted in 2010 under then-Chief Edward Flynn following a string of deadly pursuits — made progress that has since been erased. The policy allowed pursuits in narrower scenarios, generally when an officer had probable cause that a violent felony had occurred or was about to occur — or if someone posed a “clear and immediate threat to the safety of others.” 

Police under Flynn’s policy made fewer arrests related to pursuits compared to before the policy was implemented, but they also saw fewer pursuits ending in injuries.

A policy tweak in 2015 allowed police to pursue a vehicle if the vehicle was involved in a violent felony. That change allowed officers to pursue carjacked vehicles. Pursuits more than doubled that year, compared with 2014.

Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission in 2017 ordered Flynn to further loosen the policy, allowing pursuits in reckless driving cases, or when a car was linked to drug dealing. Pursuits in 2018 spiked to 940 from 369 the previous year. The number of pursuits ending in officer, suspect and/or third-party injury also swelled, with instances in each category more than tripling.

The public safety risk of pursuing those suspected of nonviolent crimes outweighs the risk from the violation itself, said Mark Priano, a board member with the advocacy nonprofit PursuitSAFETY. He lost his 15-year-old daughter in 2002 after a teenaged driver fleeing police ran a stop sign and struck the family’s minivan; she died a week later after slipping into a coma, according to media reports.

“These pursuit-related deaths or injuries are not accidents,” Priano said. “This was a planned event that could have been controlled.”

Safety advocates point to Milwaukee as an example of the consequences of rolling back a restrictive pursuit policy, said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina and an expert in high-risk police activities.

“Cops like to chase. It’s exciting. It’s a fun thing to do,” he said. 

Alpert, who also sits on an advisory board for PursuitSAFETY, described the back-and-forth between Flynn and the Fire and Police Commission over pursuit policies and the ensuing surge in pursuit-related injuries as a “horror story.”

Pursuit reform often follows a cyclical pattern, Alpert said: more restrictive pursuit policies following injuries and deaths prove unpopular within police departments, prompting a return to the previous status quo.

Police call alternatives ‘practically impractical’

Companies are pitching to police a range of technologies aiming to reduce risky pursuits. They include high-tech GPS trackers, tire deflation tools and even a grappling device that might appear Batman-inspired — allowing an officer to entangle a fleeing vehicle to decelerate it.  

Milwaukee police in 2016 started attaching GPS tags to certain cars, allowing for tracking in lieu of a pursuit, but that was later discontinued. Neither that nor other methods worked as well as traditional pursuits, the department says. 

Before the Fire and Police Commission approved the latest version of Milwaukee’s pursuit policy last summer, one commissioner asked if alternatives existed to catch reckless drivers.

Nicholas DeSiato, the police department’s chief of staff, called nearly all alternatives “practically impractical.”

“They can be effective when appropriate, but it also requires incredible coordination and, sometimes, just dumb luck,” he said. “In terms of a hot pursuit, to effectively combat reckless driving, it’s a necessary tool.”

Priano of PursuitSAFETY acknowledged the need for police pursuits in certain situations. He advocates for restricting them to catch violent felony offenders — while finding other ways to deal with other reckless drivers.

As reckless driving persists, Sarnow doesn’t expect new restrictions on pursuits any time soon. But the department remains open to reviewing alternatives. 

“We’d be remiss if we didn’t revisit these things, because things change right?” Sarnow said. “And we have to make sure that we’re staying on the forefront.”

Fewer pursuits in Madison

Madison, Wisconsin’s second largest city, has limited police pursuits as Milwaukee’s number surges. The Madison Police Department logged just 20 pursuits in 2022, about 2% of Milwaukee’s count, records show.

Madison has just under half of Milwaukee’s population and has logged no more than 27 annual police pursuits since 2016, even amid leadership changes and local reckless driving challenges.

Madison police use a stricter pursuit policy than Milwaukee’s: Officers may initiate pursuits only when they have probable cause that a suspect is committing, has just committed or is about to commit a felony —– similar to Milwaukee’s former policy. A sergeant monitors the chase and can call it off. Additionally, officers must follow many traffic rules — including stopping at red lights and stop signs, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.

The department also uses surveillance cameras and tire-deflating spike strips, Barnes said. If a suspect gets away, officers use detective work to locate them. 

Barnes, who years ago as a rookie drove his police cruiser through a fence and hit a tree during a pursuit on a rainy day (he was uninjured), said his department’s safety-focused culture leads to fewer pursuits.

“Anyone who thinks a pursuit is out of policy or not safe — if you stop that pursuit, no one will say anything about that,” he said. “Because you’re ultimately responsible for what happens with that vehicle.”

Still, Barnes doesn’t fault Milwaukee for pursuing more cars under its looser policy, suggesting that comparing Madison to Milwaukee is not apples to oranges. 

Milwaukee “may have more criminality, and we’re all dealing with the stolen car epidemic,” he said. “I think they’re trying to get a handle on it, just like we all are, and they’re doing what’s best for their community.”

“I wish it was all a dream”

The judge presiding over Broomfield’s suit has put the trial on indefinite hold, as both her attorneys and the city’s attorneys finish preparations. 

“There are police pursuits virtually every day of the week,” U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller said while presiding over a May pretrial hearing. “To suggest that each and every one of these cases exposes the officers to liability is very much an open question, at least in the mind of this judge.”

While Broomfield awaits the start of the trial, she’s trying to take care of her mental health, with regular trips to see a counselor. She is also getting support from her church congregation. Still, the pain persists.

“My husband ended up passing away from stress from a heart attack from just constantly being in pain and worrying about it,” she said. “My daughter, she’s not the same. She’s different. My son, he’s not the same. … Everybody is grieving.”

“Some days, I don’t even want to get out of bed,” she added. “Some days I just wake up and wish it all was a dream.”

Broomfield wants a more restrictive Milwaukee pursuit policy to prevent other families from feeling similar pain.

Her lawsuit isn’t about money, she said, and she also seeks accountability related to the pursuit that killed her son. 

“I know everybody makes mistakes,” she said through tears. “Why couldn’t I even just get an apology that it happened to my child?”

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

Hot pursuit: Milwaukee police chases now top 1,000 per year. Some prove deadly. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

This story is part of a collaboration between Wisconsin Watch, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and The Appeal. 

Four decades ago, a newspaper investigation described Milwaukee’s municipal legal system as “cash register justice.” Thousands of impoverished residents with mental health or substance use issues languished in county jails due to unpaid civil violation fines, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Responding to the outcry from The Milwaukee Journal’s 1985 investigation, the city stopped automatically jailing residents who failed to pay civil fines and expanded its Court Alternatives Program. As a result, Milwaukee sent people like Sue Eckhart to court, where they could help low-income residents and those with mental health problems by offering alternatives to incarceration. 

Eckhart has managed the alternatives program for decades, providing assessments, screenings, and referrals to treatments or community service for those facing civil violations, such as illegal parking or loitering.

Since 2015, the program’s vendor, currently JusticePoint, Inc., has served 705 people with mental health issues, 80% of whom resolved their cases without paying a fine, wrote Eckhart, the organization’s program director, in an email to Wisconsin Watch, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and The Appeal. The nonprofit says it’s served 11,000 total clients during the last eight years.

Although the organizations providing those services changed over time, the core staff — Eckhart and her colleagues — stayed put. But in May, Eckhart suffered a “gut punch” when the city terminated her organization’s contract before it expired in 2024.

Officials provided little explanation as to why and did not line up another vendor to take over what many see as vital work to curb mass incarceration. 

“I never saw that coming at all,” Eckhart said in an interview.

In a last-ditch effort to seek answers, JusticePoint sued the city on July 10 — a day before the city’s cancellation took effect. A Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge quickly granted a temporary restraining order, allowing JusticePoint’s services to continue as the dispute unfolds in court. 

But the prospect of eliminating — and not replacing — JusticePoint’s services has stirred confusion and deep concerns among those serving some of Milwaukee’s most vulnerable residents.

At a time when numerous states and cities are taking steps to reduce pretrial detention, advocates in Milwaukee say attempting to halt the city’s court alternatives program is a step in reverse.

“It is shocking that Milwaukee Municipal Court would suddenly cancel the contract for such an invaluable program,” wrote a coalition of 24 local organizations in May after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported the city’s plans. They added that the court had provided no information on what would happen to the hundreds of people JusticePoint currently serves. 

One of JusticePoint’s clients is Quintin Walls, a 42-year-old father of six, who owed $100 for a civil violation. He has received services from the organization three times now, starting when he received parking tickets while living in his car. Over the years, the organization connected him to community service to pay off his fines and to resources that led him to secure housing.

The coalition urged the mayor and the city’s Common Council to save the program, but officials say neither has control over the contract. The council funds but does not oversee the program, allocating $487,000 for JusticePoint’s services this year.

Two Municipal Court judges, Phil Chavez and Valarie Hill, recommended terminating the contract before a third judge, Molly Gena, was elected in April, city officials said during a June Common Council subcommittee meeting. It would have been illegal and unenforceable if the council had directed the court to rescind the termination notice, Assistant City Attorney Kathryn Block said at the subcommittee meeting. 

Alderman Jonathan Brostoff, who represents the city’s East Side, called the court’s decision “fishy” and “quite troubling.” 

Brostoff and Alderman Michael Murphy, who represents Milwaukee’s West Side, later told Wisconsin Watch they were concerned about the court’s lack of transparency.

Court officials declined to answer questions from Wisconsin Watch, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and The Appeal, citing the pending lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson declined to comment for this story, but added that Johnson “was not involved in any decision-making” regarding the contract.

Nick Sayner, JusticePoint’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said he’s troubled by the lack of transparency from officials.

“The court’s silence and the city’s silence tells you that you should be concerned that there’s something else going on here,” Sayner said.

Judges ‘lost faith’ in JusticePoint

Judges Chavez and Hill told Chief Court Administrator Sheldyn Himle they “lost faith” in JusticePoint over the longstanding practice of sharing citations with attorneys at Legal Action of Wisconsin, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to people with low incomes, according to a May 15 email between Sayner and Himle.

The city attorney’s office had advised JusticePoint to share citations during pilot phases of a program to help people with low incomes find legal representation, Sayner wrote to Himle.  

“It is not clear to me how we were to know we should have ceased this activity prior to receiving your feedback,” Sayner wrote. “Once we were notified by your office to end this activity, we stopped providing that information immediately.”

Sayner also told Himle that JusticePoint hadn’t received broader feedback from the court for several years, but was open to it as long as the program’s principles remained consistent. 

Legal Action of Wisconsin attorneys were not aware of any past issues with sharing citations, said Susan Lund, an attorney with the nonprofit. Her firm receives identical copies of citations through police department open records requests and said she did not know why JusticePoint’s information sharing would be a problem. 

(Legal Action of Wisconsin separately sued the Municipal Court in July, alleging the court failed to record hearings on judgments and case reopenings as required by state law.) 

In a May 15 letter, the city’s purchasing department informed Sayner it was terminating JusticePoint’s contract, effective July 11. JusticePoint had not delivered unspecified “possible solutions” following a May 5 meeting, the letter said. 

Eckhart, whose office sits on the second floor of the Municipal Court building, said she was mortified upon learning the news. 

“‘Oh, my God, what are our clients going to do?’” she said she thought. 

The city terminated the contract under a “convenience” clause, rather than for cause, allowing it to be canceled for any reason as long as the city gave JusticePoint 10-days written notice. If it had terminated for cause the city would have had to give JusticePoint 30 days to fix any alleged deficiencies.

“At no point was JusticePoint informed that failure to respond with possible solutions would result in the termination of the contract,” Sayner and fellow co-founder Edward Gordon wrote to the purchasing division.

Plan to replace JusticePoint’s services is unclear 

Speaking at a June subcommittee meeting, Himle said the court planned to continue the Court Alternatives Program without JusticePoint. She did not clearly answer how that would happen without a new contractor. 

“The judges have made some decisions on how to continue as best they can through referrals they may make,” Himle said.

James Gramling, Jr., a retired Municipal Court judge, said in an interview it was unreasonable to expect judges to make such assessments from the bench, particularly in cases unfolding on Zoom.

“The judges seem to think they’re going to be able to identify from the bench people that have addiction, mental health issues and refer them to some agency. Good luck with that — it’s not workable,” Gramling said. 

As a judge, Gramling would assess the needs of defendants and then rely on one of Eckhart’s case workers to perform a full screening outside of the courtroom, Grambling detailed in a letter to the Common Council. Defendants would often be directed to perform community service or receive counseling or treatment. 

“Many thousands of people are processed without individual treatment by the court,” Gramling wrote. “And many of those defendants are disadvantaged members within our community: the poor, those addicted to drugs and alcohol, those suffering from mental health issues.”

Nearly 60% of JusticePoint participants participate in community service. The program’s alcohol and substance abuse program serves more than 90% of participants, as do its mental health services, according to the city budget.  

Gena, the newest of the three Municipal Court judges, said terminating JusticePoint’s contract would make her job “a lot harder.” Speaking at the June meeting, the former Legal Action of Wisconsin managing attorney said she could order people to pay fines but can’t address root causes that will send many people back to court.

“It was indicated that maybe the other judges have a plan — I don’t,” she said. 

JusticePoint’s lawsuit argues termination lacked good cause

In its lawsuit, JusticePoint argues the city violated the Wisconsin Fair Dealership law, which protects “dealers” — typically business owners — whose economic livelihood could be imperiled by “grantors,” who, through a contract, grants dealers the ability to sell or distribute goods or services. The law prohibits a grantor from terminating a relationship with a dealer without good cause, proper notice and the ability to fix any issue at hand. 

“The City seeks to terminate — abruptly, unilaterally, and without good cause — JusticePoint’s relationship with the City,” the lawsuit argues. “Worse yet, the City has not contracted with another vendor to provide these critical services to the people of Milwaukee.”

The Circuit Court granted JusticePoint a temporary restraining order to maintain its contract as the case plays out. A hearing on that order is scheduled for October 5.

‘Thank you for being so kind to me.’ 

Eckhart has collected countless stories of people her colleagues have helped over the decades. She recalled one man who bathed in a pond outside of the Municipal Court building and had racked up many citations while struggling with alcoholism. Eckhart’s team connected him to a treatment service and resolved his tickets.

She said she later saw him with frostbite on his feet during the winter and gave him a pair of heavy socks. He later returned to thank the team. 

“And I’ll never forget that,” Eckhart said.

Then there was Theodora Athans, whose photo appeared in The Milwaukee Journal’s 1985 “Justice Denied” series that revealed how the court created “debtor’s prisons” within the Milwaukee County’s criminal justice system.

Athans lived with schizophrenia and the Milwaukee County Circuit Court found her to be a “danger to herself.”

But Eckhart said her team found Athans housing and the woman later volunteered for the alternatives program.

“Thank you for being so kind to me,” Eckhart recalled Athans later saying when Eckhart visited her while she was sick in the hospital.

“The people we help, I don’t think would get help anywhere else,” Eckhart said, “and that’s the part that bothers me.”

JusticePoint offers incarceration alternatives in Milwaukee. Two judges tried to cancel its contract. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Public health experts, advocates, nonprofits and politicians don’t always agree with each other. 

But in the case of tackling opioids, they offer this consensus: People should learn how to use Narcan.

Narcan, a brand-name version of naloxone, blocks opioids from binding to receptors in the brain, quickly reversing the effects of an overdose.

Opioid overdoses a growing concern

“Everyone has the potential to find someone that is experiencing an overdose,” said Amy Molinski, peer support specialist at Community Medical Services and one of the peers for the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative. The program is a collaboration between the Milwaukee Fire Department, the city of Milwaukee Health Department and other groups. 

In 2022, Milwaukee County confirmed 621 overdose deaths, according to a county overdose dashboard.

In early April 2023, the county linked 17 deaths in just a few days to suspected overdoses. This has prompted warnings about the dangers of fentanyl and other drugs.

Overdose risks extend both to those who take illicit drugs and those who have prescription opioids, said Milwaukee Fire Capt. David Polachowski, who supervises the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative.

“If you don’t have Narcan available,” Polachowski said, “there’s just potential for a fatal overdose.” 

In short, Narcan saves lives. Here’s how to use it. 

How to detect the signs of an opioid overdose 

The first step of using Narcan is to know the common signs of an opioid overdose.

They include having pale skin and lips; experiencing slow breathing and “snoring” breaths; vomiting; and having a limp body. In addition, victims can have extremely constricted pupils, or “pinpoint” pupils. 

How to check for responsiveness

The next step is to check for responsiveness.

If someone is experiencing an overdose, they are not able to communicate, said Courtney Geiger, public health strategist with Milwaukee Health Department.

Polachowski said to take the knuckles of your hand and rub it in the center of the person’s chest as hard as you can, while you’re calling their name or just calling out to them.

If the person is unresponsive, check for breathing.

How to check for breathing

See if the person’s chest is rising, or place your hand or head on the person’s chest. 

If the person is breathing but is unresponsive, call 911. A person does not need Narcan if they are breathing, since Narcan’s purpose is to restore breathing.

But, Polachowski said, “You need to call 911 in case it’s not an overdose. You want to have EMS (emergency medical services) on its way, so that they can treat the person for whatever reason that they’re unresponsive … if it’s a diabetic reason or stroke or a heart attack … .”

If the person is not breathing, administer Narcan and still call 911.

“You just put your phone on speakerphone, call 911 and then you start the administration of Narcan,” Polachowski said.

How to administer Narcan

Narcan comes in a nasal spray bottle with enough for two sprays.

Insert the nozzle into a person’s nostril and spray it once. If you can, tilt the person’s body, or at least their head, to the side to prevent choking or aspiration in case of vomiting. 

After the initial spray, wait two to three minutes to see if it works, “which is going to seem like forever,” Polachowski said.

How to prepare for emergency workers to arrive

The goal is to get the person breathing again while waiting for EMS to arrive, Geiger said.

If the first spray does not get the person breathing, then administer the second spray into the other nostril. If the person does not begin breathing after the second spray, begin rescue breathing. 

For rescue breathing, make sure the person is on their back, clear their airway by tilting the head back and chin up, pinch their nose, create a seal with your mouth around the person’s mouth and gently breathe into their mouth for one second.

Keep breathing into their mouth every five to six seconds, until the person can breathe on their own or EMS arrives.

Be ready to relay to EMS as much information as you have about the person’s situation and what steps you have taken.

Where to find Narcan in Wisconsin

Narcan is widely available in Wisconsin and can be purchased without a prescription at hundreds of pharmacies. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services maintains a map showing those locations.

Wisconsin residents can receive free Narcan by mail. Submit a request here. 

Where to find Narcan specifically in Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Health Department distributes and provides training free for Narcan at the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building, located at 841 N. Broadway; the Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, located at 1240 N. 10th St.; and at community events. People can get training, and related resources, by emailing harmreduction@milwaukee.gov or calling 414-309-5295.

Narcan and training also is available at no cost at the Community Prevention Center, a clinic of the Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers. The address is 1243 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive, and the phone number is 414-897-5645.

Narcan also can be found at no cost in “HOPE Kits,” which are distributed by the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative and available at many firehouses throughout the city. The kits also include fentanyl test strips, among other resources.

Jim Malewitz of Wisconsin Watch contributed reporting. A version of this story was first published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, a nonprofit news organization that covers Milwaukee’s diverse neighborhoods.

Here’s where to find Narcan in Wisconsin — and how to reverse an opioid overdose is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Editor’s note: The Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee voted early morning June 16, 2023 to end funding for Child Care Counts, a program launched during the pandemic that subsidizes child care providers.

Milwaukee County parents pour a larger share of their income into child care than Americans living almost anywhere else, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis of the National Database of Childcare Prices. 

The median Milwaukee County household spent 15% to 26% of their income for child care, depending on the type of service, according to the 2018 data Wisconsin Watch analyzed. That’s above the 7% benchmark the federal Department of Health and Human Services recommends.

That disproportionately forces county parents to make tough choices — such as whether to leave careers to stay home with children, risking harm to their finances and the economy.

The U.S. Department of Labor database, updated in May, contains price data by provider type, age of children and county characteristics from 2008 to 2018. When measured as the share of a family’s median income, Milwaukee County ranked among the top 10 most expensive counties for six of eight types of child care listed in the database. It cracked the top five for costly infant and preschool care.

At more than $16,000 per year, median infant care prices in Milwaukee County are higher than in 97.5% of all counties — while household incomes fall squarely in the middle, Monica Vereen, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson, said in an email.

Statewide, annual child care costs eclipse the average rent or college in-state tuition. 

That’s when care is available at all. 

Much of Milwaukee’s South Side is considered a “child care desert,” where only one licensed care slot exists for every three young children. More than 8,300 Milwaukee County children lack any available professional care, according to the advocacy group Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed, leaving a 13.3% gap between kids and available slots.

Additional child care deserts stretch across Wisconsin, where providers face a financial cliff, advocates warn.

The state’s Child Care Counts program — launched in 2020 with federal COVID-19 relief funding — kept thousands of providers open during the turbulent pandemic. But funds will run dry by January unless lawmakers intervene. 

“This is a crisis on the brink of happening,” said Ruth Schmidt, executive director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association. “Some would say we’ve already been in crisis.” 

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed allocating more than $340 million to Child Care Counts in his 2023-25 budget. The plan’s fate depends on negotiations with Republican lawmakers. 

The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee on Thursday plans to consider the Department of Children and Families’ budget, which could include child care subsidies.

Child care costs force sacrifice

Diana Rico is a married mother of four living on Milwaukee’s South Side. As her kids have grown — the oldest is in college and the youngest is 21 months — Rico has moved between jobs and school, but child care costs have sometimes required her to stay home with the kids.

“Raising kids with one income, it’s doable, but it does restrict the quality of life that we can be giving our children,” said Rico, who also serves as an Early Childhood Education Ambassador with Milwaukee Succeeds, which pushes for education equity. She said child care is so expensive that “often it’s not even worth it.”

Rico recalled paying $280 per week for care at one center.

At one point, Rico, who did not finish high school, made a promise to her oldest daughter: She would earn her equivalency degree before her daughter graduated from high school.

Rico delivered. But to cover child care costs while she studied, her husband worked more, diminishing family time. The couple also halted their daughter’s dance lessons and cut their cable subscription, Rico said.

“I was taking things away from them that they enjoyed, something that they can be themselves and build a personality outside of school,” Rico said. “The biggest one was having to take away time from my husband to spend time with us as family.”

Basic needs elusive for many Milwaukee County families

In the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Cheyenne Pierce, a single mom and retail worker, lived in perpetual calculation mode as she juggled tasks and stuck to tight budgets. “It adds so much stress to someone’s life when they have to think that way constantly,” she said.

Many Milwaukee County families struggle to meet broader basic needs, with 17% earning less than the poverty level, according to 2021 data from United for ALICE, a research and advocacy program managed by United Way of New Jersey. That’s compared to 11% statewide.

Meanwhile, 27% of Milwaukee County families — and 23% of families statewide — live above the poverty level yet can’t afford basic costs. That is called the ALICE threshold, which stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.” Those residents typically earn too much to qualify for traditional state aid.

Families of color in Milwaukee County disproportionately fall below the ALICE threshold, as do nearly three in four single mothers and nearly half of single fathers in the county.   

Low wages push child care workers from industry

Child care providers and educators also struggle to make ends meet, leaving centers statewide hard-pressed to retain workers.  

Constrained by razor thin profit margins and broken economics, Milwaukee providers pay teachers only $13 an hour on average, below the county’s living wage for one adult with no children. Few centers offer benefits, and nearly half of workers receive public food or health assistance, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty.

The median Wisconsin child care worker must spend 59% of their earnings to put their own child in infant care, the Economic Policy Institute found. 

But pricey tuition and low wages don’t translate into big profits for providers. That’s because they must maintain low staff-to-child ratios to meet safety requirements — spreading revenue across many workers.

Briana Stanford, a South Side Milwaukee mother of two, said she earned too little as a child care provider to live, even with government aid. She left her job and now stays home with her children.

“Pulling myself from the workforce was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I like to make my own money, and I like to work.”

Toshiba Adams is an adjunct professor at UW-Milwaukee and chairs Milwaukee Area Technical College’s child development program. She couldn’t afford quality child care when her son was born in 1997. So she and her mother started a center on Milwaukee’s Northwest Side. But she couldn’t survive on her low salary, prompting her to dissolve the business in 2006 and move into a full-time role at MATC.

Yimma Davila-Castro, owner of Yimma’s Bright Beginnings Daycare on Milwaukee’s South Side, says her salary is “whatever is left over” after she pays the center’s bills.

“Which is, many times, not that much,” Davila-Castro said.

Child care staffing shortages persist 

Two-thirds of Wisconsin early childhood educators surveyed last December by the National Association for the Education of Young Children reported staffing shortages. Nearly a third considered leaving their job or closing their child care home. The top thing that would prompt them to stay: competitive wages.

“You go to work at McDonalds, name any restaurant, you’re going to get paid more than we can pay,” Davila-Castro said.

Milwaukee mother and journalist Ashley Smart sees the staffing turnover first hand as her daughter’s favorite teachers come and go.

“We showed up one day, and there were all these new people,” Smart said. “We were like, we don’t know who these people are.”

The Wisconsin Policy Forum found that centers paying higher salaries tend to receive higher ratings on YoungStar, Wisconsin’s five-star rating system for providers.

But in deeply segregated Milwaukee, many providers in predominantly Black and brown communities are stuck at two- or three-star ratings because they lack equitable access to money, Adams said. 

“Children are suffering,” she added. “A lot of people are suffering based on these inequitable structures.”

Wisconsin child care funding: an unbalanced stool 

Investing in child care pays off in the long run, a range of studies show. 

University of Chicago and University of Southern California researchers, for instance, found that high quality early childhood programs can deliver annual returns of 13% per child on upfront costs when considering outcomes in education, health, employment and behavior. 

But, Adams said: “You can’t run a high-quality program without high-quality money.”

Schmidt of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association calls for a “three-legged stool” approach to investment that includes contributions from government, businesses and parents. 

“Right now it’s one leg, it’s parents,” Schmidt said. “It’s just going to fumble, it’s going to teeter, it’s not going to be solid.”

Outside of the child care industry, some businesses offer employees stipends or flexible spending accounts, allowing them to withhold pre-tax dollars for child care expenses. Some pay child care centers a stipend for priority access to care slots. Additionally, the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families’ “Partner Up!” grants help businesses cover costs associated with supporting employee child care needs.

But the third leg of the stool, government funding, remains key to stabilizing the industry, advocates say.

Legislature weighs Child Care Counts funding

As Wisconsin’s child care sector suffered during the pandemic, advocates viewed the Child Care Counts launch as an acknowledgement of the industry’s importance to the economy and  wellbeing.

Stabilization payments totaling nearly $379 million have helped 3,300 statewide providers remain open, preserving 22,000 child care jobs, the Wisconsin DCF estimates. 

The funding allowed Davila-Castro to give bonuses to her teachers, cover utilities and provide financial relief to her customers. She also purchased high-quality teaching materials, which she said helped boost the firm’s YoungStar rating to five stars.

More than a quarter of Wisconsin providers said they would have closed without the grants, survey data show, and 60% expected to raise tuition if stabilization payments end. 

Evers’ $340 million Child Care Counts funding proposal survived an early Republican culling of 500-plus budget items. And it could move closer to law during Thursday’s Joint Finance Committee meeting.  

“We need revenue coming into our child care industry,” Schmidt said. “Without it, they will have to raise their rates. And that is going to hit working families.”

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

Some Milwaukee County parents leaving workforce due to sky-high child care costs is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

After Esther Grams purchased her first business, she thought 2020 would be her year. 

It wasn’t.

She navigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic like other business owners, and during that time, she realized she might have to relocate.

That year, Gov. Tony Evers revived a plan to widen a 3.5-mile segment of the Interstate 94 East-West Freeway corridor in Milwaukee between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges from six to eight lanes — calling it one of the state’s “most congested and dangerous roads.”  

The plan would demolish the current home of Central Bark Milwaukee Westside, her franchised doggy daycare center near the freeway.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has tried to expand the 60-year-old freeway stretch between 16th and 70th Streets for over a decade, and in a previous plan, Grams’ business was slated for demolition. 

Grams is among six business owners in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley who are in limbo — waiting for the state to finalize the $1.2 billion project and enter negotiations for real estate acquisitions. One home will also be demolished as well. 

Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation want to expand the interstate to decrease traffic congestion, high crash rates and repair aging infrastructure. But the highway cuts through the city, and opponents say the expansion will disproportionately disrupt Milwaukee’s West Side neighborhoods that the highway shaped six decades ago. 

More than 20% of households near the corridor lack a car, and project critics say Wisconsin should invest more money in public transportation and less on expanding highways. 

Through its News 414 collaboration, Wisconsin Watch spoke with five people who live and work in Milwaukee’s West Side neighborhoods about how the expansion would affect them, and reviewed more than 50 testimonials and 100 public comments submitted to the state transportation department. While some residents support the expansion, many said it could either worsen or fail to address quality-of-life issues, such as noise from extra vehicles rushing down the highway and pothole-ridden local streets. 

Meanwhile, expansion opponents endorse an alternative plan to repair the freeway without adding additional lanes while also boosting public transit investment. 

“It’s unfortunate that the Department of Transportation and Gov. Evers have sidestepped the impacts to neighborhoods in favor of a quicker commute from suburbs to downtown,” said Milwaukee County Supervisor Peter Burgelis, who represents the neighborhoods near the freeway corridor. 

Business owners near I-94 in limbo

Since 2004, residents have dropped their dogs off at Central Bark Milwaukee Westside, which sits on the corner of West St. Paul Avenue and North 25th Street near I-94.

The dog daycare was among 11 businesses originally slated for demolition in the state’s previous expansion plan in 2016, which called for creating a “double decker” freeway and adding one additional lane to each side.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker halted the project in 2017, citing cost concerns before Evers revived his version. Construction is expected to begin in 2025.  

Evers wants to modernize the 27th Street interchange near I-94 by adding left- and right-turn lanes to increase its capacity, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Grams managed the daycare and other Central Bark locations for 12 years before purchasing the franchise in 2019 from an owner looking to downsize. Grams said she likes her current location’s convenience for long-time customers who mostly live in the suburbs. 

She knew about the possibility of the freeway project when purchasing the building but figured she had a few years to plan. She has been searching for new locations since late 2020. 

“I’m like a super planner. I try to plan everything out like super far in advance,” the 30-year-old said, adding that planning is difficult because she lacks a timeframe of when she’ll have to move.

Moving might allow Grams to expand and grow her business, she said, but it could also displace loyal customers, and she wonders how the dogs will adjust to a new facility. She wants to keep existing customers by staying in the Menomonee Valley area, but her franchise agreement limits her relocation options.   

Also facing demolition: Badger Ford Truck Center, a Ford dealership.

Badger Ford has operated near West St. Paul Avenue in Menomonee River Valley for 58 years. Its president told the Milwaukee Business Journal in 2021 that he would rather not move, and he had researched alternative sites years ago in response to the original plans to expand the highway.  

The dealership declined Wisconsin Watch’s interview request. 

Other businesses awaiting final decisions on the highway expansion to negotiate compensation for their properties include MKE Junk Junkies, a junkyard; Milwaukee Dog Training Club, which operates inside of Central Bark Milwaukee Westside; and a former Red Star Yeast warehouse and a private storage facility. 

Menomonee Valley Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to redeveloping the Menomonee River Valley, has praised the state’s decision to proceed with the project and said it hoped the businesses could relocate in the area.

The nonprofit did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s request for comment.

Burgelis said cutting off access during construction to 27th and 35th Streets, another interchange the state wants to modernize, will devastate small businesses in the area.

“The project is going to have real impacts to small businesses,” Burgelis said, adding that he hopes effects will not ripple to the surrounding neighborhoods.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation did not respond to questions for this story, but it shared a statement with Wisconsin Watch that said: “We remain committed to developing infrastructure solutions that benefit the public for decades to come.”

“We’ve listened to the community and stakeholders, and their feedback played an important role for modifications to the preferred alternative,” the statement said. 

Asked for comment, Evers’s office referred Wisconsin Watch back to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which said in an additional statement: “The Evers administration and Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) care deeply about the impact of our infrastructure projects,” adding that the state remains committed to minimizing community impacts.

“The I-94 East-West Corridor Study is still undergoing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, including active public involvement currently underway for the Supplemental EIS to help determine the final configuration of the project,” the statement said.

Highways shape Milwaukee neighborhoods

Freeways have a long history of plowing through Black- and brown-majority neighborhoods nationwide. That includes I-94, said Christine Donahoe, an ACLU of Wisconsin staff attorney.

The 3.5-mile freeway stretch at issue cuts through seven different neighborhoods: Avenues West, Merrill Park, Piggsville, Johnson’s Woods, Bluemound Heights, Story Hill and Menomonee Valley. Each was shaped by highways and some still feel the impact of “white flight” from decades past, according to a City of Milwaukee analysis.

The communities were cohesive and thriving before the state built the highways through them, Donahoe said.

The interstate cut a racial boundary through Milwaukee and prioritized the movement of people and goods from the city’s white suburbs to its downtown, said Amanda Merkwae, the advocacy director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, during a public hearing about the expansion in 2022.

One neighborhood the highway overlooks is Johnson’s Woods, a quiet area between South Hawley Road and South 70th Street. It was established in the late 1800s and transformed in the 1950s when Milwaukee County razed a strip of its northern blocks to build I-94. 

Today, a metal gate separates the early-20th-century bungalows and two-story duplexes that sit near the freeway’s eastbound entrance ramp at 68th Street.

To upgrade the ramp, the state plans to demolish one residence, a 1960s ranch-style house that a mother of four and her husband rented for four years. The family did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s requests to comment. 

The state’s original 2016 plan would have demolished three residential homes on the northern edge of Johnson’s Woods and five others. 

“I’m glad that it’s only one, wish it was zero,” Burgelis said.

Sound barriers could reduce highway noise

One woman who has lived on the northern edge of Johnson’s Woods for 27 years shared concerns about noise pollution linked to the increasingly busy freeway corridor.

“I wish they put a wall up there if they’re not going to do nothing else — at least put a wall because it’s kind of noisy,” said the 72-year-old woman who declined to give her name.

Michelle Jacobi, a music instructor living nearby, agrees and wants a sound barrier for safety reasons, such as preventing dangerous action from the highway from spilling into her neighborhood. She recalled an incident in which a gunman shot a Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputy following a 2 a.m. traffic stop just south of I-94. A passenger and driver fled the car and ran into the neighborhood, where the passenger reportedly shot the deputy before fatally shooting himself. 

“I think the sound barrier would have prevented that,” Jacobi said. 

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation plans to build six noise barriers on both sides of the freeway. But property owners and residents must first vote on a barrier plan at a public meeting during the project’s final design, according to the department. 

Barriers could limit the noise from additional traffic, but they could also obstruct the views of neighborhood residents, “and it’s not it’s certainly not the same neighborhood that it was before that gets installed,” Burgelis said.

John Linn, a nearly 30-year Story Hill neighborhood resident, agrees. He likes being able to view the American Family Field parking lot from his house. 

“I just like an unobstructed view, and I’ve seen some of the sound barrier walls, and I just don’t I don’t think that’s attractive,” Linn, 65, said. “I think it makes the neighborhood look walled in.”

Linn said if the project keeps the current roadbed elevation around the neighborhood, he doesn’t see a point for the barriers. 

Milwaukee residents want fixes to local streets 

Numerous residents have complained about deteriorating local streets around the east-west corridor.

While Jacobi said she leans toward “being okay with” the expansion, she also wants a focus on filling the potholes lurking on neighborhood streets — including one in front of her house.

Other residents agree. 

“The quality of the freeway roads is probably just acceptable,” said Carlos Vasquez, who uses I-94 daily and has parents who live in Johnson’s Woods. “But the (local) streets are terrible. It’s hard to find one street where the whole street is like where you’re not just bumping around.”

More than one-third of major roads in Wisconsin are in fair or below roadway condition and likely to deteriorate over the next 10 years, according to a 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers report. 

The I-94 expansion would not focus on local roads, which lie outside of the state transportation department’s jurisdiction. Cities are generally responsible for maintaining their own streets, although state and federal funding sometimes helps. 

Opponents tout ‘Fix at Six’ alternative 

“Fix at Six” signs remain scattered throughout east-west corridor neighborhoods. That’s the name for an alternative plan — supported by a range of civil rights, environmental and health advocacy groups — to repair the existing six lanes of the highway stretch at issue while alleviating congestion by adding a rapid transit bus line and creating safer paths for cyclists. 

Dan Adams supports that option. He has lived on the border of the Piggsville and Merrill Park neighborhoods for 12 years and has criticized the highway widening plan since its earliest days.

The state transportation department rejected keeping the highway at six lanes after a 2016 department-commissioned study said the option would not effectively accommodate future traffic volumes in 2040.

But years of  research shows that widening highways can increase traffic volume by encouraging more people to drive.  

In a decade advocating for alternatives, Adams said he’s become “fairly jaded” and “just resigned” that the state would widen I-94 no matter what. 

“What we as neighbors said, what people at their community meetings said — it was just a foregone conclusion that they were going to extend it regardless of any other findings or input from the community,” Adams said. 

Residents widely agree that I-94 needs some reconstruction, but the neighborhoods surrounding it also need improvements, Adams said.

“We need some investments from the state to improve connections from our neighborhood, which is completely surrounded by the freeway, to surrounding neighborhoods and surrounding amenities,” Adams said, “and we also need investments in those amenities, whether it’s the parks or the bike trails or transit. And there’s just never any response. It’s just silence.”

The state transportation department plan includes additional bike lanes and a one-time $25 million funding for public transportation, but activists say more is needed at a time of deep fiscal challenges for the Milwaukee County Transit System that threaten service for thousands of bus riders.  

“You can always find a billion dollars for highway expansion,” Gregg May, the transportation policy director at 1000 Friends Wisconsin, said during a 2022 public hearing. “But when the Milwaukee County Transit System is facing a fiscal cliff, we can’t seem to find the money for that.” 

Jonah Chester contributed to this report. The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

How would widening Milwaukee’s I-94 affect residents near the highway?  is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

In November 2021, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced a lawsuit against Berrada Properties that alleged the company, which owns 8,000 rental units (most in Milwaukee and Racine), has serially violated Wisconsin landlord-tenant law.

The alleged violations included allowing illegal provisions in leases; illegally charging tenants late rent and court fees; and engaging in illegal security deposit deduction practices.

A spokesman for Berrada Properties told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the company  “vehemently denies any assertion of wrongdoing.”

But the lawsuit’s allegations beg the question: If true, why are such violations allowed to accumulate?

Milwaukee’s efforts are stymied by a combination of factors, including lack of funding that delays city actions on possible violations, local housing experts say. Additional factors: the state Legislature’s intentional weakening of local governments’ abilities to regulate rentals and the reluctance of tenants to complain because of fears of retaliation.

“These landlords only do what they are allowed to do,” said Robert Penner, an organizer with the Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union. “There are supposed to be regulations in place that hold them accountable.”

The role of Department of Neighborhood Services

The first thing Milwaukeeans are told to do when they have a safety issue in a rental unit is to reach out to the city’s Department of Neighborhood Services, or DNS. The department is responsible for enforcing building, zoning, fire, environmental, property maintenance and other ordinances.

DNS closed most of the 37,393 filed to the department in 2022,  said Tanz Rome, finance and administration manager. In February, 879 complaints remained pending across all sections of the department, she said.

How DNS processes complaints

Delays vary by section and non-emergency complaints can take six to eight weeks for inspection, she said. But the department handles any life safety complaints within 24 hours, she said.

In a meeting in October, DNS Commissioner Erica Roberts blamed budget constraints, staff turnover and a scarcity of contractors as the source of delays in approving permit applications, conducting demolitions and completing inspections. 

“They receive a very low percentage of the city’s budget,” Penner said. “And even when they can go out, the most they can do is deem a home unsafe, and tenants have to move or give the property owner a fine.”

A DNS inspector may issue a written order, which has a specific time frame indicated for compliance. 

Tenants voice fears

Though illegal under state law, Penner said many tenants are afraid to contact DNS because they fear landlords will retaliate.

Although state law says no landlord can retaliate after a tenant has filed a complaint, it assigns no entity to enforce the law.

Rome said, however, that city ordinance protects tenants from landlords who retaliate.

A tenant can file a complaint with DNS, which can cite a property owner for retaliation. 

Lax landlords

Raphael Ramos, an attorney with Legal Action of Wisconsin, said many non-compliant landlords depend on tenants not reporting issues to avoid having to deal with habitability concerns.

“Code enforcement by agencies like the Department of Neighborhood Services is generally precipitated by tenant complaints,” Ramos said. “Absent a complaint, we have seen landlords sit passively and refuse to make repairs, knowing that not much will happen unless a tenant reports the issue to DNS.”

Both the city and Milwaukee County have taken some measures to put tenant protections in place.

The city has established lead certification for rental units and expanded accessibility accommodation funds. The county has established a right to counsel for low-income tenants facing eviction, expanded tenant-landlord mediation services and increased funding for housing-first policy, which works to house people in need then triage other needs to keep them housed.

Legislative constraints

But over the years, regulation has been constrained by the state Legislature, some of whose members, including leadership, own rental properties.

In 2009, the city created a residential rental certificate ordinance, which required apartments located mainly near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood, on Milwaukee’s North Side, to be certified by city building inspectors before they can be rented.

It was nixed in 2015 by Assembly Bill 568, which limits how local municipalities can regulate rental units.

Lawmakers have also changed legislation surrounding eviction procedures. Recent legislation has expedited the eviction process and given landlords the right to get rid of a tenant’s property.

Lawmakers have limited local government’s say in how far back a landlord can go in checking prospective tenants’ financial, housing and criminal histories; limited tenants’ ability to withhold rent; and made it easier for a landlord to shift the costs of exterminating bed bugs or other pests to the tenant.

Penner says these types of changes are the reason so many Milwaukee residents feel powerless.

“Residents need to know that they have some type of power over their living situation, and right now there is no institution that gives tenants power,” he said.

What can residents do?

Mediate Wisconsin offers landlord-tenant mediation to those willing to communicate their needs to avoid eviction or resolve other issues.

Ramos stressed the importance of tenets understanding their rights.

“In addition to documenting the conditions at issue, complaints to DNS can provide some protection to tenants by creating a presumption of retaliation if a landlord responds inappropriately, like by trying to evict,” he said.

Even without a field DNS complaint, the law still allows tenants to engage in rent abatement, a reduction of rent paid due to material health or safety-related concerns, he said.

While it’s up to tenants to carry out rent abatement, DNS and Community Advocates, a Milwaukee-based social service nonprofit, can help tenants understand the risks and benefits of the practice. 

“Regardless, a tenant cannot be forcibly removed from a property without notice and going through court. You cannot be evicted without due process,” Ramos said.

Above all, Ramos said, existing programs can help tenants in need.

Keep good records

Nick Toman, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, said tenants should keep all documentation of all interactions with their landlords.

“Get it in writing,” he said. “Landlords are required to provide dates they are going to fix an issue, and you can be entitled to the monetary loss resulting from an issue.”

No matter how bad things get, he said, withholding rent without going through proper channels is likely to end badly.

For more information

Milwaukee tenants can call or visit the Rental Housing Resource Center (414-895-7368) to get help or ask questions. 

Wisconsinites statewide can call 2-1-1 for information about housing and other issues, or contact Legal Action of Wisconsin (855-947-2529).A version of this story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

Why Wisconsin renters feel powerless in landlord disputes is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Wisconsinites who experience eviction sometimes lose more than a home. 

Those who can’t afford to move and store their belongings may lose them, too — adding to the financial and emotional toll of displacement.

In Milwaukee County, where landlords filed for more than 200 evictions in the first week of April alone — about half of those filed statewide — government and nonprofit officials have in recent years bolstered resources for eviction prevention. But little, if any, aid is available to help residents retain or reclaim their possessions following an eviction. 

What happens to a tenant’s stuff during and after an eviction? Here’s what to know. 

Eviction requires judge’s signoff

First, remember that a landlord can’t remove a tenant without a judge’s order. 

It is illegal for a landlord to file for an eviction before giving a tenant a notice, usually of five or 28 days. 

When tenants face an eviction, housing advocates suggest they talk to their landlords, apply for rental assistance and find legal support. Milwaukee County residents can visit EvictionFreeMKE.org to find resources, including free legal representation and information about their rights as a tenant. 

Check language in lease 

Milwaukee County is among jurisdictions that used to require any landlord to hire a moving company to assist a county sheriff’s office with eviction. But a 2013 state law made such requirements dependent upon leasing language. 

Under that state law, landlords may dispose of items however they want to — without hiring a mover — if a lease specifies that landlords won’t store left-behind items. There is one exception: prescription medication and equipment. A landlord must hold those items for seven days and return them at a tenant’s request. 

If the lease doesn’t explain how the landlord will handle left-behind property, Milwaukee County landlords must hire one of the two moving companies approved by the sheriff’s office. 

Executing an eviction 

When the sheriff executes an eviction, a tenant who comes to the door gets about 15 minutes to gather their belongings and leave, said Tom Brittain, president of Eagle Movers, one of the bonded moving companies in Milwaukee County certified for eviction-related moves. Sometimes tenants aren’t there when the sheriff arrives. In either case, the sheriff decides what goes with the moving company, according to Brittain.

The movers do not take items the sheriff declares as junk, such as dressers with missing drawers, stained beds or insect-infested furniture, Brittain said. Due to safety concerns, the company also leaves clothing that’s on the floor or dirty. A landlord can ask the movers to place “junk” items on the curb for garbage collection.

State law requires the sheriff to mail a notice to the tenant’s last known address within three days of the removal of possessions. The notice must tell tenants where they can retrieve their possessions. 

Landlords and tenants must pay the moving company. In some counties, the moving company’s monthly storage can cost more than the tenant’s rent. Eagle Movers charges landlords $220 per hour for five movers and a truck, Brittain said. The company charges tenants $30 per month for every 100 cubic feet plus a $60 labor charge, Brittain said.

If items go unclaimed for two months, Brittain notifies the tenant by phone, email or letter that their belongings will be sold. About 60 to 70% of people reclaim their belongings, Brittain said. 

“I’ve always looked at us as kind of a lifeboat for tenants,” Brittain said.

Currently, there aren’t any programs that assist people with funding to rent trailers or U-Haul vans to move their belongings. But Heiner Giese, an attorney who represents the Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, said there should be.

“They’ve given (millions) to pay for lawyers to help tenants, which is all well and good. They can get a delay or they can get the case dismissed,” Giese said. ”But jeez, you know, they should take some of that money, a very small amount of it and they could really do some good by having a fund available for tenants.”

What happens to pets during an eviction?

Sometimes tenants manage to remove their belongings before the sheriff arrives but struggle to find a place for their pets. 

Surrendering a pet to an animal shelter can be difficult due to a lack of capacity. Karen Sparapani, executive director of the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission, has seen cases in which a tenant will return to their former rental every day to feed the animal until the sheriff executes the eviction. In other cases, pets are left to starve, said Sparapani. 

The sheriff calls Sparapani’s office to pick up animals left behind during an eviction, typically dogs over 40 pounds and many cats, Sparapani said. 

The agency will put pets up for adoption if they go unclaimed for more than eight days.

“We can work with somebody who has time to find a place, and we work with them on fees too,” Sparapani said.

Pet owners who return must pay a boarding fee of $20 a day, plus a $25 impound fee for a licensed animal and $35 for unlicensed animals, Sparapani said. Any necessary vaccines or other treatment will add costs. 

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

Wisconsin eviction process: What happens to a tenant’s property? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

On this 414 Day in Milwaukee, we have an update about News414. 

For those unfamiliar, News414 is a collaboration in which we share information and respond to questions and perspectives in whatever way is easiest for Milwaukee residents — whether through email, social media, phone calls, in person or texting. 

Texting creates two-way conversations with residents on issues ranging from food security, housing, employment, civil rights and public health — allowing us to share information you’ve asked for. Those conversations also power our journalism, helping Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and Wisconsin Watch understand what information and accountability Milwaukee residents want and need. 

About 1,300 people subscribe to our English-language service. More than 100 subscribe to our Spanish-language service. 

Here’s what’s new: We just upgraded our texting technology. 

We’re now working with a company called Subtext, which has helped many newsrooms connect with residents through texting. On our end, the switch makes texting a little smoother and easier to monitor. On your end, not much should change — other than the number where you can reach us. 

We can no longer respond to texts to our old number (73224). Previous subscribers will receive  a text alerting them of the change. 

To sign up for the texting service, click here or enter your cell number in the sign up box below. An automated text from a 414 number will welcome you to News414 and instruct you on how to finish signing up. Please save that number in your phone and text us there if you ever want to connect with a reporter.

Or you can sign up by texting the letters MKE to the number 414-409-5831. You will automatically get a welcome message from a 414 number. Save that number in your phone for future texting. 

How Milwaukeeans inspire our journalism

Three years into News414, we’ve learned so much from what Milwaukeeans have shared through News414. They’ve helped us better understand community needs around food access, housing, public health, transportation and more. They’ve inspired dozens of stories, ranging from resource lists to investigations. 

Those include an examination of a Milwaukee Area Technical College’s attempts to better serve local Black and Latino students. Separately, we documented tenants’ long waits for rental assistance, and one story examined how the state was giving undocumented immigrant renters mixed signals about whether they qualified for aid.

News414 chats inspired our 2021 story about residents who struggled to navigate a confusing federal funeral assistance program after loved ones died of COVID-19. One resident received compensation for her father’s funeral shortly after we published details about her long wait. 

Also in 2021, News414 connected a Milwaukee landlord with information about her tenant’s rental assistance application, helping to prevent an eviction

Last summer, we investigated Milwaukee’s lack of investment in cooling aid after several residents asked where to find affordable air conditioners. We learned that about 36,500 Milwaukeeans lack air conditioning and government agencies and nonprofits offer little help. But we also learned that Eras Senior Network, serving older adults of Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, is trying to fix that for older Milwaukeeans.  

Residents alerted us early to a baby formula shortage that began in early 2022 and is still not completely over. That helped us learn that market consolidation and contracting practices left Wisconsin and other states vulnerable to a shortage.

The list goes on, and it will keep getting longer the more we hear from residents. So please keep asking questions and letting us know what our journalism — and our communities —  should look like. 

News414: We’re upgrading our texting service. Here’s what to know. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on March 30, 2023 with additional information related to bus fare changes.

Milwaukee County is modernizing its bus fare collection system, aiming to make transit equitable for residents. 

Bus riders can pay for their fares through WisGo, a new fare collection system, starting Saturday, April 1.

Everyone with a plastic WisGo card or the Umo mobile app will ride for free after reaching daily, weekly and monthly caps. Riders currently paying with an M-card have through the end of September to transition to the new system. 

Milwaukee County leaders gathered on Wednesday to announce the launch of WisGo and its partnership with Waukesha County, which is joining the fare collection system. Leaders touted a system that’s equitable for riders and predicted it would help return ridership to pre-pandemic levels. 

“Historically, only those who could afford to pre-purchase discount passes to ride the bus got the best value. But with WisGo, these inequities are being addressed through fare capping. Now, everyone pays the same rates no matter how many times they ride,” County Supervisor Priscilla Coggs-Jones said in a news release. 

Milwaukee County, like public transit systems across Wisconsin, has faced a years-long slide in ridership and revenue that only worsened as remote work options expanded during the pandemic. While Milwaukee County ridership is recovering from the lowest pandemic-era numbers, it’s still lagging behind its earlier status. 

The new fare collection system is powered through the Umo Mobility platform and is used around the world in places such as New York and London.

The technology has made transit in those cities easier to navigate as ridership recovers from the pandemic levels, said Bonnie Crawford, Umo’s vice president and general manager.

“People expect technology. We’re used to connecting to technology in all of the ways that we engage in our neighborhoods, whether that’s paying for your coffee or buying your groceries, and this is really that next step for Milwaukee County and the region,” Crawford said. 

Riders can scan their phone or WisGo card on tap-and-go validators onboard buses, which will determine how many times a rider has paid a fare and automatically deduct the lowest amount owed. The validator will also tell riders if their fund balance is low.

Riders will also be able to use WisGo cards and the Umo app on Waukesha Metro Transit buses. Waukesha County is the first to join the regional fare system.

“Transit is something that’s extremely important for a big segment of our population. It gets a lot of people to work; gets them to the doctor; it gets them to the grocery store; and without it, I don’t know how we would really function,” said Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly, adding that the two counties aim to make transit efficient. 

Under WisGo, riders will immediately see lower costs.

The regular fare — for ages 12 to 64 — will be $2 per ride, down from $2.25. Under WisGo, it will be capped at $4 per day, $19.50 per week and $72 per month.

The reduced fare — for ages 6 to 11, 65 and older and those with qualifying disabilities — will be $1 per ride, down from $1.10. It will cap at $2 per day, $11 per week and $32 per month under WisGo. Learn more about reduced fares here. 

M-Card or cash riders will continue paying regular per-ride fares of $2.25 or reduced fares of $1.10 until the transition period ends Sept. 30. After that, the cash fare will drop to $2 per ride or $1 under the reduced fare.  

“The way that you’re going to get riders on board is to ensure that no rider is left behind, and that’s really a commitment we have here in Wisconsin and throughout the world,” Crawford said. 

The Umo Mobility app will replace the RideMCTS app. The app connects to other modes of transportation like Uber and provides real-time tracking of Milwaukee County and Waukesha County buses. It accepts credit and debit cards, along with Apple Pay, Google Pay and WisGo cards. 

The WisGo card is an alternative to the Umo app and will replace the M-Card. The cards will be sold and available for reloading at nearly 100 locations, such as supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores.

M-Card users can exchange cards for a free WisGo card from April 1 through June 30. After that, the card will cost $2. Reduced fare riders will receive a WisGo card in the mail. Riders with Commuter Value Passes and U-Passes are automatically enrolled in WisGo.

Riders will not be able to store value on the M-Card starting Aug. 31, and the Milwaukee County Transit System will stop accepting the card on Sept. 30. MCTS CONNECT, Milwaukee County’s bus rapid transit service that launches June 4, will not accept M-Cards. 

Riders can still pay with cash on all bus routes, but those paying cash will not qualify for fare caps.

Regular fare replacement for WisGo cards will cost $2, and reduced fare replacement cards will cost $5.

Ambassadors will assist riders with downloading the Umo app or getting a WisGo card. 

For more information

Virtual and in-person sessions explaining the program are slated for April 6, April 22 and April 28. You can sign up at RideMCTS.com/Community.

You can also visit the following resources for information on WisGo:

RideMCTS.com/WisGo: Timeline and overview of WisGo

RideMCTS.com/UmoApp: How to download the Umo app

RideMCTS.com/WisGoLocations: Where to pick up a free WisGo card through June 30

RideMCTS.com/TopThingstoKnowAboutWisGo: Quick tips

RideMCTS.com/ReducedFare: For minors, seniors, and persons with a disability

RideMCTS.com/TPReducedFare: For Transit Plus riders who use the bus

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

Milwaukee County to cap bus fares under new system. Here’s what to know.  is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

After March 31, BadgerCare Plus recipients must return to the pre-pandemic process of reapplying and being re-evaluated for coverage.

Local health care professionals want them to be prepared. BadgerCare Plus serves people who need health care coverage but who may not qualify for Medicaid.

Because of federal legislation that went into effect in March 2020, those who have received BadgerCare Plus benefits have been able to keep those benefits without having to go through the renewal process as was required every 12 months before that time, said Caroline Gómez-Tom, enrollment network and accessibility manager for Covering Wisconsin.

But Gómez-Tom said, “People should not panic.”

Covering Wisconsin is a nonprofit organization based out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison that helps people throughout Wisconsin understand and apply for health insurance.

Here are some crucial details to keep in mind:

How to prepare

First, people should understand that everyone’s date to reapply will be different. 

Renewal dates will fall anywhere from June 2023 to May 2024, said Elizabeth Goodsitt, communications specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which manages BadgerCare Plus. 

People should receive a letter in March informing them of their renewal date. They will then receive a renewal packet 45 days before that renewal date, Goodsitt said.

Update your digital accounts

Gómez-Tom said people should update any digital accounts related to Medicaid.

You can create an account on access.wi.gov, which is Wisconsin’s Medicaid website. You can also download the MyACCESS mobile app, “which is probably even easier than the website,” said Gómez-Tom.

These platforms can be used for communicating with the Department of Health Services, or DHS, about renewal dates and other important correspondence.

‘Read everything carefully’

Winona Grieger, a navigator at Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center, emphasized the importance of “paying attention” to any correspondence from DHS and “reading everything carefully” to understand what is expected.

Don’t renew prematurely

As far as collecting relevant paperwork to prepare for the renewal, Gómez-Tom counseled that recipients not “jump the gun.” DHS will be, for the most part, assessing people’s employment situation and want the most current pay stubs possible.

Additionally, there is a potential risk in trying to renew prematurely.

“We don’t want people to renew before their time to renew, because that might risk them losing coverage sooner than they would otherwise,” Gómez-Tom said.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

In addition to household income, household size is the other major factor in whether someone qualifies for Medicaid. UW-Madison outlines these thresholds on a chart. 

Gómez-Tom advises caution in reviewing this information, though, because someone can look at this chart and determine they do not qualify.

“There are other factors that can affect it (eligibility),” she said, including yearly expenses and tax information specific to the applicant. “A navigator can take everything into account and determine that a person actually is eligible.”

“Throughout this whole process and transition, if people have any questions along the way – need help with finding their renewal date, what they will need for their renewals, doing the renewal itself, finding out other options if they find out they are not eligible – navigators are here to help,” said Gómez -Tom. “No question is too small.”

How to get help

People can connect with a Covering Wisconsin navigator by calling 608-261-1455 or 414-400-9489 — or by visiting coveringwi.org or wiscovered.com.  

Or they can call 2-1-1, a service that helps connect people to resources.

What Wisconsin’s BadgerCare Plus recipients should know to keep their benefits is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

A labor shortage and outside investors who snap up properties have created a double whammy that’s impeding efforts to boost affordable housing in Milwaukee.

For the past few years and especially since the pandemic, out-of-state investors have been buying up and renting single-family homes and duplexes throughout the city.

Housing experts from Milwaukee service agencies that address affordable housing issues said they are directly competing with families with low to moderate income.

Out-of-state investors now own 7,170 single family homes, condos, duplexes or triplexes across Milwaukee, an increase from 5,250 in late 2018, researchers Mike Gousha and John Johnson wrote in a November 2022 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article. 

Gousha is senior adviser in law and public policy and Johnson is a research fellow at the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education at Marquette University Law School.

Most recently, the Community Development Alliance, which focuses on neighborhood improvement efforts, and Acts Housing, a housing counseling agency, have partnered on a goal to create 5,000 new homeowners of color in Milwaukee by the end of 2025.

Acts Housing is working to address the barriers low-income families face when trying to buy homes. With a new acquisition fund, it’s purchasing Milwaukee homes that will be resold to residents at affordable prices.

But a construction trade labor shortage is hovering over such efforts.

“There is not enough skilled labor in construction or any of the allied trades,” said Kurt Paulsen, a professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Roofing, electric, HVAC; none of those areas have enough contractors to do the job.” 

Paulsen said the city’s best bet is rehabbing and improving the quality of existing homes — but even that poses an economic challenge. 

“Buying a home that is in disrepair means getting a mortgage big enough to fix it,” he said. “No one is going to write a $120,000 loan for a home that costs $80,000.” 

Chris Garrison, the construction and operations director for Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, said finding contractors can be difficult even for an organization that has been in the business of building for so long.

“We have good relationships with some contractors, and they are willing to work with us, but they seem to be getting busier and busier,” he said. “It can also be a struggle to have all the equipment they need to build a home on a small city lot.” 

Additionally, Garrison said, some contractors don’t want to be in the areas where Habitat for Humanity builds, which includes the Midtown and Harambee neighborhoods. 

“Sometimes, because of things like crime, contractors don’t want to work somewhere,” he said. “Or if they are working there and get things stolen or damaged, they don’t want to come back.” 

Garrison said Habitat is proud that it built 20 homes last year but is constantly concerned about whether what it does is enough to move the needle.

“We do what we can like everyone else,” he said.  “But I think it is safe to say a lot of businesses in the industry are shorthanded and could use more help.”

Paulsen sees the city’s housing challenges as an opportunity for community development.

“Funding the nonprofits already doing the work paired with on-the-job training and other resources can help create the capacity and infrastructure to do this work on the scale it needs to be done,” he said.

For Teig Whaley-Smith, the chief alliance executive for the Community Development Alliance, these concerns are top of mind as the organization helps lead the charge to create homes.

“We try to consider how we can build smarter, faster, greener and better,” he said. “And because we are Wisconsin, we only have about eight months (of good weather) to build, so we think about how we can build inside and then move parts outside.” 

Some work is unfolding to address the labor shortage in construction, he said, specifically by the Ezekiel Community Development Corporation, a construction company that trains workers.

 Despite the challenges, everyone agrees that more can be done. 

“We know what works,” Paulsen said. “It’s a huge price to pay, but there will be a greater cost to society if we don’t.” 

Labor shortage, outside investors strain affordable housing efforts in Milwaukee is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.