By Heiner Giese, AASEW Legal Counsel

Last week I had an in-person meeting with Meagan Winn who has been hired by the Milwaukee County Court system as Court Coordinator for the Eviction Diversion Initiative. She has prior experience in working on housing issues and has worked in other states on projects of this type.

I was able to give her an extensive overview of how the AASEW views the current housing market and the issues facing the eviction court in particular. She may become available as a resource to landlords, particularly pro-se landlords, who need guidance for an eviction filing or assistance to get their tenants into mediation to avoid a court case.

I attended a conference in Washington, DC on Oct. 17 titled “A Path to a Permanent Program” for emergency Rental Assistance. I raised questions as to why housing providers are not included in these programs (there were 250 people in person and another 1,000 on Zoom – but extremely few real estate investors).

Elisha Harig-Blaine, manager of Virginia’s Dept of Housing & Community Development, heard my complaint and spoke up to the federal government panelists from HUD and the White House: “Their voice [landlords] just seems to be absent from this conversation. I’m wondering what you can say as administration officials how you are reaching out to that sector – encourage them to come to the table.”

I was able to bring the detailed AASEW Eviction Study to the attention of HUD after the event. 

On November 4 HUD announced that Princeton University and other academic outfits are getting $2 million to assess the impact of Emergency Rental Assistance “with a focus on housing stability and eviction outcomes.” Please send me your experiences so that I can forward the “outcomes” for landlords, both good and bad, for such reports.