Here & Now

Wisconsin's Evictions Roller Coaster

Frederica Freyberg:

Tonight, in the second of her reports on housing insecurity, reporter Marisa Wojcik explores how the court process of evictions and federal rental assistance fits in to Wisconsin’s broader housing crisis, even as the CDC has reinstated a pandemic moratorium on evictions with the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

Paul Burke:

I mean, it can be tough, emotionally tough, when you have, you know, sometimes little kids are here. They’re there with mom and dad and they’re being evicted.

Marisa Wojcik:

Commissioner Paul Burke sees every eviction case that comes through the Brown County courthouse.

Paul Burke:

Most of them, I’d say 90% of what we generally see are for nonpayment issues.

Marisa Wojcik:

Meant to slow down the spread of COVID-19, Burke saw firsthand how the ban on evictions emptied out the courtroom.

Paul Burke:

Numbers-wise, we probably have about 20 or so on today, all told. And on pre-COVID, it wouldn’t be unusual for us to have 50 or 60.

Marisa Wojcik:

Per week?

Paul Burke:

Per week.

Marisa Wojcik:

Statewide, evictions decreased by a third while the ban was in place over the last year. The moratorium expired on July 31st, but days later, the Centers for Disease Control put a new one in place, for counties with high transmission rates of COVID-19, as the Delta variant spread rapidly.

1. Scott Schnurer:

I get calls an hour before the first court date, return date —

Marisa Wojcik:

Green Bay housing attorney J. Scott Schnurer provides free services through Legal Action Wisconsin, and if a tenant does have a lawyer present, it’s probably him.

1. Scott Schnurer:

Tenants would be in a much better position if they had representation. At lot of time — there’s the process, which is difficult when you’re not familiar with it.

Marisa Wojcik:

But most tenants go through the process alone.

Paul Burke:

They will come in and I ask them if they have a legal defense and they say, “Yes, I lost my job. I’ve lived here for two years and I’ve always paid my rent and I lost my job. That’s why I haven’t been able –” and they think that’s a perfectly valid defense, and it’s certainly understandable. And they’re very surprised when I tell them that that’s not.

Marisa Wojcik:

Without a lawyer present, the tenant is at a disadvantage.

1. Scott Schnurer:

It is intimidating to be in a courtroom when you’re not used to being in a courtroom.

Marisa Wojcik:

It’s not just what happens in the courtroom, but the entire eviction process is unknown territory to most renters.

1. Scott Schnurer:

The speed of the whole process is really scary. I mean, it can happen from start to finish in three to four weeks, and the sheriff shows up and moves you out and then you’ve lost everything.

Joseph Fischer:

I’ve been involved with easily hundreds of evictions.

Marisa Wojcik:

Deputy Joseph Fischer in the Brown County Sheriff’s Office assists in removing the tenant, only if they haven’t left when the court ordered.

Joseph Fischer:

When someone truly does need help, I don’t want to be the person just to remove them. I want to at least give them some sort of direction if they’re willing to take it.

John Rousseau:

The emotion and the stress, the fact that these people are going through a crisis of losing their housing, all of that comes out at the very last step.

1. Scott Schnurer:

I think the pandemic really showed the disconnect in communications between landlords and tenants. It’s been either you pay your rent or you don’t, you get out or you don’t get out, and I think that there’s this mentality that you just don’t communicate that until it’s almost too late.

Marisa Wojcik:

Joe Dekeyser owns six properties in Green Bay, and to him, communication is important.

Joe Dekeyser:

You have to have a line of open communication with your client or family and also have patience and the ability to understand things that they are going through also in their lives.

Marisa Wojcik:

Dekeyser says he’s only gotten to the point of evicting a tenant once.

Joe Dekeyser:

In my situation, anyway, it is the last resort.

Marisa Wojcik:

For landlords with far more properties, evictions are far more common.

Joe Dekeyser:

I personally saw it right here in Green Bay, being in that courtroom. Yeah, there were companies that they have a full time person with a folder six inches wide full of eviction notices and went up to the judge and just read one right after the other, just like it was calling out people for lunch.

Branden Dupont:

It’s really used as a rent collection tool.

Marisa Wojcik:

Branden Dupont is a data analyst with the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Branden Dupont:

If you have 70% of your income is going to rent, and you have a large shock, so your car breaks down or you are — your kid has some sort of emergency, maybe they break their arm. You have this decision, right, because you’re already overextended financially, do I pay my landlord or do I pay to fix my car so I can get to work, or this medical bill because my kid broke their arm. Oftentimes what the serial eviction practice is doing is it’s trying to re-prioritize who gets paid first.

Marisa Wojcik:

And hedging what bills to pay first is happening to more and more people.

Cheryl Detrick:

The income disparity has just gotten worse and worse. Look at the home buying market. It has just skyrocketed in value. Which is great for property tax values, it’s great for communities, it’s great for homeowners who are suddenly able to have this equity in their home that maybe they didn’t have before, but it’s not good for people who are either looking to buy or looking to rent, because as those values go up, rents go up too.

Marisa Wojcik:

A recent census survey estimated nearly 78,000 households in Wisconsin are behind in rent.

Cheryl Detrick:

Most people are paying more than 50% of their income in housing. We’re talking about people who are paying fair market rent, $600 to $800 a month, depending on their family size. Something happens. It takes one tiny slip, and they go off the edge and they can’t make their rent. Then they get evicted.

Marisa Wojcik:

Green Bay resident Norma Tucker lived this when she was forced out of her home.

Norma Tucker:

I couldn’t afford it anymore. And my payments started out at $600-plus, and then when I moved out, it was $849 for the payment, and that was more than half of what I made.

Marisa Wojcik:

The moratorium was put in place to address an immediate health crisis but evictions have been impacting health long before the pandemic.

Branden Dupont:

To be in good health, you need stable, reliable shelter, right? First and foremost. But you know, there is a lot of established research showing an association between evictions and a whole host of social determinants of health in the worst health outcomes. For children especially, it’s an incredibly destabilizing experience.

Marisa Wojcik:

A glimmer of short-term stability came with billions of federal dollars in emergency rental assistance. In Wisconsin, the state has partnered with local community action agencies to get that money out. The renter applies for assistance, and the check goes straight to the landlord.

Brad Paul:

In order to make this successful, it really does require buy-in and participation from landlords, communities, tenants, state government, federal dollars. There’s a lot of pieces to making this work. Right now the need is to meet people’s emergency needs and get them stabilized while we figure out longer term solutions for our housing crisis.

Marisa Wojcik:

Norma now lives in subsidized housing, where her rent is guaranteed to be a third of her income, and she’s enjoying her retirement there.

Norma Tucker:

We work puzzles, we have dinners, and it’s just nice.

Marisa Wojcik:

For “Here & Now,” I’m Marisa Wojcik reporting from Green Bay.

Frederica Freyberg:

Wisconsin officials are urging residents who are behind on rent because of COVID-related hardships to apply for the millions of dollars in rental assistance that is still available in the state.