The Milwaukee Police Department’s District 4, working with Alderman Bohl, has instituted a new program to address nuisance properties. In collaboration with the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) and Housing Division in the County’s Department of Health and Human Services, the program will help turn around a cycle of chronic nuisance households and non-responsive landlords in Milwaukee neighborhoods.

The project involves the police department sharing nuisance property and other potentially serious police reports with the housing entities at the city and county. This information on tenant run-ins with the law and potential landlord unresponsiveness could be used in program eligibility hearings for landlords or tenants in the federally funded Section 8 housing program. Section 8 housing allows tenants to secure quality housing and only pay 30 to 40% of their income while the city covers the gap. The bonus to landlords is a guaranteed payment from the city or county through the local administration of federal funds each month.

“HACM and the County's Housing Division do not have the resources to keep updated criminal records on all of their participants or to investigate every nuisance property immediately. With the help of District 4’s program, the information will be proactively shared with the housing authorities and that’s very enabling,” Ald. Bohl said.

According to the Housing Authority, there is a 14- to 18-month waiting list to participate in the Section 8 program.

The effort to step up enforcement by sharing police department reports was proposed by Captain Eric Moore and Lt. Charles Berard of the 4th Police District to Ald. Bohl as a means of creating greater accountability in the Section 8 program. “I appreciate the ideas and work of Capt. Moore and Lt. Berard on down, including police community liaison officers at District 4, Julie Strache and Joy Bell, who handle the nuisance property monitoring,” said Ald. Bohl. “Their out-of-the-box thinking has the potential to really shake things up when it comes to landlord and tenant accountability.”