Dozens of Milwaukee tenants packed City Hall Monday, demanding city leaders and Milwaukee police do more to hold landlords accountable for nuisance violations tied to crime and unsafe living conditions.We talked with resident Wi llie Staten, who lives on Milwaukee's south side, before Monday's meeting."Unsafe. Real unsafe. And I still feel that way, and I still see things that goes on around the building," Staten said.Staten described broken doors and gates that remain unsecured, saying the conditions leave them vulnerable to the criminal activity happening around their buildings.At the center of the debate is City Ordinance 80-10, which allows police to cite properties with nuisance violations. Nuisance activities, according to MPD, include loud music, loitering, and illegal drug activity.Watch: Milwaukee tenants, Common Ground push city leaders for more landlord accountability over nuisance violations Tenants demand landlord accountabilityTenants say police are not citing landlords enough.Community non-profit organization, Common Ground, presented data obtained from MPD showing 911 calls to report crime from 2017 to 2025 have stayed relatively the same, while nuisance complaints filed during that same period decreased."In our analysis, Common Ground found thousands of properties that theoretically met the 80-10 threshold, but were not declared such. Thousands. Probably, not all of them should be nuisance," Gabriella Diaz of Common Ground said.Under current policy, three substantiated calls for service in one month, like a noise complaint, or two substantiated major events, such as a shooting, in one year trigger the pre-nuisance process. From there, MPD says it sends a letter to the landlord and attempts to improve conditions without formally filing a citation or fining the landlord.MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough acknowledged room for improvement in how the process is applied."Nuisances isn't as easy as we want it to be for the bad situations. It is a process; we do use that process. We know there are ways to grow," Hough said.Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman also addressed the need for better communication."We do have to improve our communication with our political leaders and also our community. We always can listen more and need to make sure we're responding," Norman added.Despite the energy at Monday's meeting, no policy was changed.Kevin Solomon of Common Ground expressed optimism about the gathering's long-term impact."This was a big win. And hopefully we will feel the ripples of this policy change for years to come across the entire city," Solomon said.This story was reported on-air by Jenna Rae and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.Its about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for TMJ4 on your device.Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.Report a typo or error ...read more read less