What You Can Do

Organize and Interdict

• Get to Know the Good Neighbors and Landlords, Your Alderman and Police Officers - Homeowners and landlords who care about their property and tenants are likely allies in the battle against slumlords near them. So are the police and your alderman or your local Business Improvement District and other non-governmental community development corporations. Communication and information sharing between residents and city authorities is essential to monitoring slumlords and bringing the law and city officials down on the messes they make. Once you have legitimate, documented complaints about a property and owner, you can pass this to aldermen to expedite enforcement of city codes and ordinances.


• Organize a Slumlord Watch - A small group of people working together can be very effective in monitoring slumlords, noting problems, communicating with authorities, and even directly pressuring slumlords by communicating (by phone and mail) your complaints and your intentions to see laws and building codes enforced. Public "shaming" protests and pointed, fact-based communication to the media, the slumlord and/or his colleagues, and their lenders can send a strong and influential message. Use the carrot and the stick when possible.


• Report Building and Property Violations to the City - Call the DNS or use their online forms to accurately report real problems with buildings and lots. Follow up with the DNS if you do not receive a call or see action.


• Report Criminal and Nuisance Activity to Police and Your Alderman - Report all criminal or nuisance activity at or near a given property and give the exact address in your report. In the case of nuisance activity insist that police officers ticket the offenders. It will help if you make it clear you will appear in court to testify against the offenders. Here is where it helps to have backers and to communicate with other nearby residents about what is taking place. When one person takes the lead in aggressively standing up to crime and nuisances, others will follow. Your alderman should always be willing to give you this support. Ask for it, and don't quit asking until you get it.


• Insist on Enforcement of the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance - If police respond to 3 or more nuisance or criminal complaints at the same premises within a 30-day period, the property can be declared a chronic nuisance even if no convictions result. Make sure police and your alderman put this process in motion when you have called, observed, and documented 3 or more police responses to a problem property in a month. The owner will receive significant fines as they are forced to pay for the cost of all police services used in responding to calls regarding his property. The City can go after a tax lien to enforce payment, so most nuisance property owners clean up after their first brush with this ordinance. There are twenty nuisance activities listed in the code including but not limited to loud music, loitering, illegal drug activity, harassment, disorderly conduct, battery, indecent exposure, prostitution, loitering, littering, keeping animals that disturb the peace and discharge of a firearm. A complete list is found in 80-10-2 of the Milwaukee Code of Ordinances. For more information about the ordinance and how to use it, see the city website.


• Get Vacant Buildings Boarded and Condemned - Vacant buildings attract vagrants, squatters, vandalism, and arson. Any sign of such activity is grounds for boarding up a building.
  • Go After Banks that Own Vacant, Foreclosed Properties - Although a vacant property may be better in the short-term than a slumlord-owned property, vacant buildings left behind by slumlords are not desirable either. Often vacant buildings are foreclosed properties owned by banks that may not be local and are in any case not in the business of owning and maintaining property. If this is the case with a property near you, communicate with the bank about the condition of their property and inquire about their intentions and actions with it. Inform them of the chronic nuisance ordinance. Get others to do the same.
  
  
  • Raze or Rehabilitate - While the city tries to motivate owners to make corrections or find new owners who will rehabilitate buildings, Milwaukee under its ordinances tears down 50% of the buildings that have been vacant for 6 months and that have code violations the building owners have not corrected. Prior to razing a condemned building, the City may be able to sell it to someone who will rehabilitate it.
• Buy Properties from Slumlords or Find Good Buyers - Slumlords inevitably need to unload their properties, especially if they are receiving pressure from the city about violations, taxes, fines, etc. Try to find a good buyer, but first it wouldn't hurt to have several people make lowball offers--i.e., offers that are probably about what the property is worth. Slumlords are seldom aware of or interested in reality since they are hoping for a sucker to come along -- possibly another slumlord who buys properties on the basis of what he thinks he can resell them for. Sadly, once the market is filled with "investors" who have no intention to occupy or rehabilitate a building, its subjective market can get very detached from its real value--i.e., what it would cost to be made into a decent, habitable dwelling with a reasonable mortgage and tax assessment. Try to think of ways to instigate a "reality check."

• Expose the Rats, Rehabilitate their Sense of Shame - Coupled with these other measures, if you have done your homework and are able to present strong, evidenced based arguments about a particular slumlord, there are ample opportunities to raise the hue and cry with the press, politicians, city bureaucrats, neighborhood groups, etc. Read on for some ideas and models to follow.