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Class action lawsuit filed against Milwaukee Housing Authority • Wisconsin Examiner

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Class action lawsuit filed against Milwaukee Housing Authority • Wisconsin Examiner

“We are tired, we are beyond tired of the ongoing bed bug infestation here at College Court,” said Stacy Ream, who has lived in the building — one of about 5,000 rental units owned by the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee — for the past nine months. On Wednesday afternoon, spurred on by an increasingly unbearable bed bug and rodent infestation, Ream took a break from his studies in social services and human services to join other residents in announcing a class-action lawsuit against the Housing Authority. The lawsuit calls on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court to “hold (the Housing Authority) to the very basic standard expected of every other landlord in our city.”

Ream spoke outside College Court, the building’s two brown, water-stained brick towers that stood several stories high, with rows of dark windows. From one of those windows, a large piece of cardboard, used by a resident as makeshift insulation, fell onto the grass below during Wednesday’s news conference. Several residents gathered at Ream’s house saw a public safety vehicle pull into the parking lot. A police officer stood at the main entrance to College Court, watching the news conference from a distance.

College Court resident Stacy Ream talks about her experiences in the building. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
College Court resident Stacy Ream talks about her experiences in the building. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

“We are asking the Milwaukee County Court to declare that the bed bug infestation in our building materially impacts the health and safety of every tenant,” Ream said to brief applause, “and to reduce the rent if the bed bugs are not exterminated immediately.” Other residents joined Ream at the news conference, some of whom were members of the organization Common Ground. In March 2023, Common Ground launched a “Tenants United” campaign that has helped residents speak out about their living conditions in Housing Authority-owned properties.

Before moving to College Court, Ream said she lived in another Housing Authority property for 12 years. Ream said she had problems there, “including my apartment flooding, drug deals everywhere, prostitution, trash, rodents.” She also said the Housing Authority overcharged her for fees. After she became paralyzed in 2019, Ream had to wait three years before she was moved to another unit with disability services. “I was eventually transferred here to College Court and am now paying rent again for a unit I can’t sleep in,” Ream said.

The bedbugs, which Ream said she noticed immediately after moving in, forced her to live with her mother. According to the complaint filed in court, Ream found “bedbugs crawling out of the baseboards, in the bathtub, and all over the towels in the bathroom.” Like other residents, Ream made numerous attempts to obtain a “work order” to address the infestation, court records state.

A work order document obtained through public records requests by the activist organization Common Ground lists more than 4,100 work orders filed as “work completed” since 2019. More than 2,500 of the work orders were for “pest control,” including dozens of listings for bed bugs, mice and nearly 400 for cockroaches.

Carmella Holloway shows the media the bed bugs she found in her home and on her body. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
Carmella Holloway shows the media the bed bugs she found in her home and on her body. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

It’s a reality Carmella Holloway has lived with for 18 of the nearly 68 years she’s lived in College Court. “About four months ago, I started feeling something crawling in my ear,” she said at the press conference. “I was extremely uncomfortable. Imagine having a lump deep in your ear, making it harder and harder to hear. I picked and picked, but I couldn’t get it out. Finally, I took my fingernail and pulled two dead bed bugs out of my ear. They had changed color. I was disgusted.”

Holloway kept the bugs in a plastic pill bottle and plastic baggie, which she showed off at the press conference. “This morning I just picked one out of my ear,” Holloway said. “I shouldn’t have to live like this! I pay my rent every month, I’m not behind on anything, and they treat me like I’m not here.” For months, Holloway said, she struggled with the bedbug bites. Earlier this year, Holloway went to the emergency room because she was “bleeding everywhere.” Though she feared it was shingles, doctors told Holloway it was bedbugs. “Do you know how that makes me feel?! Humiliated!”

Last year, just before Christmas, Holloway’s 1-year-old niece got bedbug bites while she was napping. “I can’t imagine her getting bitten on the head, or getting them in her ears or anything like that,” Holloway said. Other family members and friends refuse to visit Holloway because of the infestations. “I’m embarrassed,” Holloway said, “I don’t want them to get bit by these bedbugs, so I isolate myself.” The emotional and physical toll on Holloway’s life has caused her to consider suicide, she said. “My apartment is uninhabitable! The bugs are everywhere. They’re coming through the drains, the toilet, the baseboards, the kitchen pipes!”

Another resident, Maryoen Moore, 75, has seen College Court deteriorate in the decades she’s lived there. “It was really nice when I first moved here 44 years ago,” Moore said. But the building has deteriorated, she added, “in the last 15 or 20 years.” Moore believes Willie Hines Jr., executive secretary of the Milwaukee Housing Authority, “needs to take responsibility and do what he’s supposed to do.” Moore told the Wisconsin Examiner that “if he did what he’s supposed to do, there wouldn’t be a Common Ground or anybody else, if he did his job. But he doesn’t do his job. He just gets paid.”

Moore stressed that Hines “brought this upon himself.” The longtime resident also wants Mayor Cavalier Johnson to “stop covering up for Hines.” Hines joined the Housing Authority in 2015 as deputy director. was appointed to lead the Housing Authority in 2022. The position is not directly appointed by the mayor, but the seven-member board of the Housing Authority – whose members are appointed by the mayor – selects who will lead the organization.

College Court residents and Common Ground members gather to announce a class action lawsuit filed against the City of Milwaukee Housing Authority. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
College Court residents and Common Ground members gather to announce a class action lawsuit filed against the City of Milwaukee Housing Authority. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

The Housing Authority has been rocked by controversy over the past year after a federal audit revealed a “risk of serious fraud.” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Certain buildings, particularly decades-old high-rise apartment buildings like College Court, are known for their structural disrepair, blight, and prevalence of crime. College Court and another high-rise apartment tower called Locust Court together generated more than 800 calls to Milwaukee police between January 2023 and March 2024. Residents reported drug sales, prostitution and people sleeping in the hallways.

The Housing Authority specializes in Milwaukee’s low-income, senior, disabled, and veteran residents, and serves approximately 15,000 people in the city. The Housing Authority is a major landlord in the city and a major distributor of millions of dollars in federal Section 8 rental vouchers. In addition, the Housing Authority contracts, manages properties, and provides real estate advice through an affiliate called Travaux. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the average Housing Authority-owned property is 50 years old.

A Housing Authority spokesman declined to comment for this story because of the ongoing litigation. Mayor Johnson said at an unrelated news conference a few blocks away on Highland Avenue that he was aware of the lawsuit. “We’re going to let that process play out in court,” Johnson said. “I can tell you that from my perspective, we’ve worked with individuals, with organizations, with residents who wanted more enforcement from the city. When we found out that we had the ability to have the Department of Neighborhood Services come in and inspect the units, I said, ‘Yes, let’s use my executive authority,’ and that’s exactly what we did.”

Johnson also said the city has supported the Housing Authority “in a number of other ways,” including making appointments to the agency’s board. “That’s my legal obligation,” Johnson said. “Now those qualified individuals are on the Common Council.” Johnson called on the Common Council to confirm his appointments so things can move forward. Johnson made appointments after his 2022 election that still haven’t been confirmed, he pointed out, something he said hasn’t been recognized enough.

College Court residents and Common Ground members gather to announce a class action lawsuit filed against the City of Milwaukee Housing Authority. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
College Court residents and Common Ground members gather to announce a class action lawsuit filed against the City of Milwaukee Housing Authority. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Johnson dismissed the claim that he was protecting Hines. The mayor also said that it was not the residents making that claim, but rather “certain organizations” that were behind the attacks. “And I think they’re really Trumpian in some of their responses to that.” Johnson cited a letter from Common Ground accusing him of protecting Hines just long enough for him to retire and collect a city pension for his role as head of the Housing Authority. “I don’t know how old Willie Hines is, or when he’s going to retire, or anything like that… That’s bullshit. And I think it’s Trumpian to just throw things at the wall, regardless of whether they’re true or not, and see what sticks. And that’s just unfortunately… It’s not true.”

College Court residents seemed to anticipate the mayor’s response to their lawsuits during their press conference, which was held in front of the mayor. Attorney Michael Cerjak, who represents the plaintiffs in the class action, explained during the press conference that the lawsuit is fairly new. Cerjak could not find any other similar case in the city of Milwaukee. Ideally, Cerjak hopes the court will find the Housing Authority responsible for improving and maintaining conditions at College Court without the need for a financial judgment, discovery phase or a trial. If the Housing Authority chooses to contest the lawsuit, further steps will need to be taken, Cerjak told the Wisconsin Examiner.

“We have emailed Willie Hines about this five times since March. He hasn’t even responded to us…. No response. No response to our requests to meet. Nothing. He’s hiding from us and Mayor Johnson is protecting him,” Holloway said. “He’s left us no choice but to sue,” Ream concluded. “See you in court, Willie.”

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