Eviction filings in Milwaukee, WI have fallen sharply since Governor Tony Evers blocked the initiation of non-emergency eviction proceedings on March 27. Compared to equivalent periods in previous years (2012–2016), eviction filings were far below average in March, April, and May. Eviction protections in Wisconsin began to expire on May 26.
More detail on eviction protections in Wisconsin can be found on the COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard.
* Filings in the last week may be undercounted as a result of processing delays. These counts will be revised in the following week.
Eviction filings in Milwaukee were higher than average in January and February of this year.1 That pattern reversed in March, and filings by and large ceased in April and May. In a normal April, over 1,000 evictions are filed in Milwaukee. This year, only 15 were filed.
Milwaukee is made up of 298 Census Tracts. In each of those Tracts, we map eviction filings over the last four weeks compared to the typical number of filings in the average year.1 Over that period, we see steep declines in eviction filings across the city.
American Community Survey (ACS) data allow us to categorize neighborhoods by their racial/ethnic majority: White, Black, Latinx, or Other/None. Most evictions in Milwaukee are filed in majority-Black neighborhoods. Since March, eviction filings have dropped steeply across all neighborhoods.
When you toggle the figure to see data relative to average, comparisons are being drawn—within the same set of neighborhoods defined by racial/ethnic majority—between filings in 2020 and average filings in 2012–2016.
