Affordable Housing

The Issue

The coronavirus pandemic exposed the issue of housing stability among households in Wisconsin. As the accompanying economic downturn closed businesses and led to a loss of 114,000 jobs, lower-wage jobs in the leisure/hospitality sector were the hardest hit. Overnight, a crisis for tens of thousands of rental households emerged as many Wisconsinites struggled to pay rent and utilities. Keeping the coronavirus pandemic from growing from a housing crisis to an unmitigable housing disaster required substantial interventions at the state and federal levels. State and federal eviction moratoria and emergency rental assistance funding helped, and continue to help, keep households out of eviction court and the homelessness system. 
But even before the pandemic, there were serious concerns about housing stability. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, 86 percent of extremely low-income households are cost-burdened (paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing), and 65 percent are severely cost-burdened (paying more than 50 percent of their income for housing). In 2019, there were 27,026 filings for evictions on Wisconsin households, with 4,264 judgments for eviction.

​Housing stability improves physical and mental health outcomes, school youth, and many other community outcomes. Even when we are past the pandemic, interventions for housing stability will continue to be needed.

Policies that favor landlords over tenants:
  • Evictions
    • Allow landlords to dispose of tenants' personal property, except prescription drugs and medical equipment, immediately after an eviction. Prior law said they had to store the property at the tenant's expense.
    • Suppose criminal activity is occurring in a rental unit. In that case, a landlord can give a tenant a five-day notice and begin eviction proceedings, which the tenant can contest. A tenant who is the victim of a crime cannot be evicted. An arrest or police involvement is not necessary.
    • Speed up eviction by eliminating some defenses used by lawyers representing low-income tenants. 
  • Landlord authority
    • Prevent local governments from limiting how far back a landlord can go in checking prospective tenants' financial, housing, and criminal histories. 
    • If a tenant has an emotional support animal, the landlord can require proof that it is needed.
    • Limit tenants' ability to withhold some rent if they continue to live in a unit they say is uninhabitable. The new law says any cited problems must impact health and safety. The landlord can challenge the withholding of rent in court.
    • Make it easier for a landlord to shift the costs of exterminating bedbugs or other pests to the tenant.
  • Municipal authority
    • Void local ordinances mandating sprinklers in buildings with fewer than 20 units. 
    • Put restrictions on when and how a municipality can conduct targeted neighborhood inspections and cap the number of fees that can be charged. 
    • A rental property can only be subjected to a neighborhood inspection once every five years unless the city discovers a "habitability violation," such as a lack of hot or cold running water. 
    • Cap the reinspection fees a local government can charge a landlord after discovering building code violations to no more than twice the initial inspection fee. 
    • Limit an array of local powers, such as banning municipalities from requiring landlords to distribute voter registration information to new tenants and imposing a moratorium on evictions.  

The Wisconsin  Interagency Council on Homelessness  Suggests WI  should
  • Create a “Wisconsin Restorative Housing Program” to revitalize, preserve, stabilize, and increase homeownership for Wisconsinites of color through direct grants to homeowners for down payment/closing cost assistance, mortgage assistance, and home improvement assistance
  • Create a Permanent Housing Rental Assistance Program for veterans experiencing homelessness with $1,000,000 annually, as proposed in Gov. Evers’ proposed 2021-23 executive budget. 
  • Create a program to provide small grants to landlords to bring affordable housing units online with $2,000,000 annually, as proposed in Gov. Evers’ proposed 2021-23 executive budget.
  • Utilize the Children’s Health Insurance Program to create a health services initiative focusing on housing support services for low-income families. 

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How  you can help
Other Resources ​​
Adapted from    The Wisconsin Interagency Council on Homelessness,    https://nlihc.org/  .​