Allison Dikanovic and Clara Neupert (Wisconsin Watch) and Princess Safiya Byers (Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service) August 25, 2020 Kelli Walton waited four weeks to hear whether she qualified for state emergency rental assistance. When the news came, it was too late. By the time the Social Development Commission, which distributes the aid, told her she was on a waiting list with thousands of others, Walton’s landlord had already issued a five-day notice — kickstarting an eviction. The mother of two from Milwaukee said before the pandemic, she was paying rent on time. But Walton was infected by the coronavirus in April as it swept through the nursing home where she worked. She spent nearly three weeks in a hospital struggling to breathe. Walton lost months of paychecks while recovering, joining a backlog of thousands waiting for the state Department of Workforce Development to process their unemployment insurance claims. Months later, Walton, 34, is still waiting on her unemployment benefits. Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! She fell behind on her bills — including rent. That delay left Walton with a damaging eviction filing on her record, forcing her to scramble to stay in the home as she recovers from the virus. “It’s really frustrating to know you can be put out,” she said. “Where can you go if you don’t have anywhere to go?” Thousands of Wisconsin renters contemplated those questions since May 26. That was when Gov. Tony Evers’ 60-day moratorium on evictions expired. Evers was among the first governors to lift a state moratorium, and his $25 million statewide emergency rental assistance program is failing to meet the demands of thousands in need. Local governments and housing advocates are now trying to catch individuals slipping through the cracks in the federally funded state program. “A lot of us who are doing this work right now are working one person at a time trying to stave off disaster,” said Joanne Lipo Zovic, an attorney and mediator for Mediate Milwaukee, which helps tenants and landlords reach agreements outside of court and is collaborating with other social service groups to fill enormous needs. “We kind of feel like we’re drinking out of a fire hose.” Roughly 30 to 40 million renters nationwide are at risk of losing their homes this year as state moratoriums on evictions expire, according to an August study by the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan humanities think tank. Eviction filings are already upending lives in Wisconsin, especially for Black residents in Milwaukee, even as health officials urge residents to stay at home as much as possible to avoid COVID-19. Milwaukee landlords filed for 1,447 evictions in June, 17% higher than pre-pandemic June averages, data from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab show. The city’s 1,347 eviction filings in July were 9% above averages from 2012 to 2016. More than two-thirds of those filings hit Black-majority neighborhoods, according to Eviction Lab data, although Black residents make up just 39% of the population. The disparity highlights Milwaukee’s status as the nation’s most segregated metropolitan area, home to stark racial inequality created and maintained by decades of neglect from business and political leaders, according to research. The pandemic is escalating the housing crisis a year after the city and Milwaukee County declared racism a public health crisis and while coronavirus continues to disproportionately infect and kill people of color. “Pre-COVID, there was definitely a racial pattern of filings, and that is definitely what we’re seeing now,” said Matt Mleczko, an Eviction Lab research assistant. “Though this is a bad situation for renters in general, this is something that yet again is exposing and exacerbating long-running inequalities in cities like Milwaukee.” The crisis is not confined to Milwaukee. Nearly 200,000 Wisconsin households, or 27% of state renters, are behind on rent and at risk of eviction, according to analysis of census data by Stout Risius Ross LLC, an international consulting and investment banking firm. The analysis projects 134,000 eviction filings statewide by November. “What you’re seeing right now is two crises colliding,” said Brad Paul, executive director of Wisconsin Community Action Program Association (WISCAP), the network of agencies distributing the state’s rent assistance funds. “You’re seeing the preexisting housing crisis and COVID. It’s a lethal combination.” Walton started a new job in mid-July and is working part time. While she remains on the state housing assistance waiting list, she is receiving last-minute funds from Community Advocates, a nonprofit administering Milwaukee County’s separate rental aid program.