Editor’s note: This timeline is no longer working, but we are keeping the page live as a record of its publication.
Reporter Clara Neupert created this timeline to explain how the pandemic has made Wisconsin’s housing crisis even worse for renters, especially for people of color.
About half of Milwaukee County renters are considered rent-burdened, meaning they spend at least 30% of income on rent, a Wisconsin Policy Forum report finds. Some 40% of African American renters in the four-county Milwaukee metro area spend more than half of their incomes on rent, compared to 21% of white households.
Mounting research illustrates that even the threat of eviction exacts a physical and mental toll from tenants, and the CDC is now citing stable housing as a vital tool to control COVID-19, which has killed nearly 200,000 Americans.
The federal government on Sept. 4 published an emergency order to halt residential evictions through the end of 2020.
But questions loom about how well the order will be enforced, and groups representing landlords are challenging the moratorium in court.
Explore more of our reporting on evictions:
Evictions damage public health. The CDC aims to curb them — for now.
‘Rent is still due’: What you need to know about the CDC’s order to pause residential evictions
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