“Use and improve the 80-10 Nuisance Ordinance!”

That’s the message from Common Ground (CG) on Monday afternoon, at a hearing hosted by the Common Council Steering and Rules Committee about crime, corporate landlords, and nuisance issues. About 75 CG members packed the room.

It comes as part of CG’s high-profile South Side Safety campaign. The organization went public in October 2025 after hearing from 1,057 South Side residents about rampant safety concerns. In April, CG released a 5-Point Safety Plan, signed by dozens of CG leaders and various local
leaders—including Mayor Johnson, Council President Pérez, Alderwoman Zamarripa, DA Lovern, City Attorney Goyke, MPD District 2 Captain Mejia, and two County Supervisors. One point of that 5-Point plan? Policy reform.

“We are advancing Point #4 of our Safety Plan. We need MPD and the City to be proactive and
effective,” said Gabriela Diéguez of CG’s Strategy Team and South Side Action Team.

The organization released a 9-Page Evaluation of the 80-10 Nuisance Ordinance on Monday. “Our report helps explain why Sam Stair of S2 Realty—the largest South Side landlord—was able to operate a drug trafficking ring under the City’s nose for years. It is also a blueprint for
how to sharpen one of MPD’s most powerful tools to hold corporate landlords accountable and make our neighborhoods safer.”

Created in 2001, the 80-10 Nuisance Ordinance enables MPD to financially penalize landlords for rampant crime on their properties. A property may qualify as a nuisance with a minimum of three calls for service for nuisance activities in a 30-day period or two “vice, violence or gang
complaints” in one year (“3-in-30” or “2-in-1”). City Code defines over 30 nuisance activities, including loud music, loitering, drug dealing, battery, prostitution, littering, and more. Once a nuisance, a property owner has 10 days to submit and get MPD approval for an abatement plan. If no plan is submitted, or the plan is not followed, the owner is billed for the time of officers responding to calls for service. Three or more bills in a year can result in an additional “chronic nuisance” citation for up to $5,000.

The City reports “a high degree of success” with the 80-10 Nuisance Ordinance, citing a study that “81% of cases are resolved without any billing for service.”

Common Ground has three concerns with 80-10.

1. First, 80-10 is being used less frequently and inconsistently. CG cites records from August 2017 to August 2025 in which 991 nuisance letters were sent to property owners. The number of letters dropped by about 1⁄3 from 2018 to 2025 without a similar drop in
crime. Some Police Districts, like District 2 on the south side, stayed relatively consistent; while others, like District 7, on the northwest side, reported 0 nuisance fesignations in the last two years.“Differences around are expected since crime is not evenly distributed,” said Common Ground. “But this data shows that 80-10 has been used less and less, and that there is no standard operating procedure for how MPD Districts use 80-10.”

2. Second, CG identified over 2,900 properties citywide in 2025 that they say appear to have met the 80-10 nuisance threshold, but did not receive a designation. Of those, the organization says 60%—a little over 1,800—were residential properties. At the hearing, CG shared testimonies from tenants in three such properties.

“Please do something,” said Sylvia King in a statement. “I’ve lived at 2519 S 13th St, an S2 Realty property, with my 6-year-old daughter for over a year. I wish she had a safer place to grow up. There was the man high on heroin in the inside staircase. There was the trespasser yelling in the hallways at midnight. There was the gun pulled on my boyfriend just outside. It’s ridiculous. We call and call, but nothing changes.”

According to records CG obtained from MPD, Ms. King’s address met the 80-10 threshold in November of 2024, with 5 calls for service (4 “assault”, 1 “weapon”) and 3 WIBR crimes (2 “assault”, 1 “car theft”) in 30 days. CG shared similar stories and data for:

– Windsor Court on 20th and Highland Blvd (Alder District 4)—owned by The Michaels Organization in New Jersey. Michaels owns 6 buildings with 457 units in Milwaukee, including the Wesley Scott Apartments, featured December 2025 in the Journal Sentinel for “nuisance conditions”; and

– The Knitting Group Lofts on 21st and Pierce (Alder District 8)—owned by Stonebridge Global Partners (SGB), a Beverly Hills, CA, investment firm. SGB also owns the Lindsay Commons on 21st St—totaling 354 units between both.

“Residents need to call the police, yes. But this is a two-way relationship: People need to see that calling actually makes a difference,” said Diéguez.

3. Third, CG calculates that approximately 48% of the 80-10 nuisance properties are ownedby “corporate landlords” with 10 or more units. The worst offenders? Berrada Properties (39 nuisance letters) and S2 Realty (7 letters). Moreover, CG says 13 additional S2 properties met the 80-10 criteria but were not declared nuisances.

“As we have said with Highgrove Holdings and S2 Realty: Corporate landlords must be held accountable,” said Common Ground. “We cannot allow them to continue to extract rent, damage neighborhoods, and rob MPD of resources without consequences.”

Common Ground provided 9 recommendations for improving 80-10. For MPD:

– Create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for 80-10 usage.

– Track “confirmed” crimes (i.e., substantiated by an officer responding on scene) since 80-10 is only activated by confirmed calls for service.

– Track Part II “quality-of-life crimes” in addition to Part I serious crimes.

– Conduct officer trainings on 80-10: What it is, how it works, and why use it.

For the City:

– Track 80-10 usage, billing, and effectiveness.

Improve 80-10 call thresholds.

– Evaluate 80-10 fees.

– Evaluate legal changes to 80-10 since its creation in 2001.

– Evaluate the effectiveness, criteria, and ethical standards of the Administrative Review Board of Appeals—the Board that considers 80-10 appeals by landlords.

You can read CG’s full report here. Common Ground is a non-partisan, non-profit, organizing alliance of 45 member institutions across greater Milwaukee—including congregations, schools, non-profits, small businesses, and neighborhood groups. CG’s South Side Action Team includes
parishes, food pantries, and tenant organizations, representing about 20,000 South Side residents.
CG is advancing other points of its 5-Point Safety Plan. The organization submitted 20 addresses to MPD District 2 for greater accountability (Point #1), and is scheduling a neighborhood improvement walk around St. Hyacinth Parish with City leaders this summer (Point #2).

Contact: Kevin Solomon, CG Senior Associate Organizer

727-667-6329

kevin.solomon@commongroundwi.org

CommonGroundWI.org
Logistics: City Hall, Room 301-B — 1:30-3:00pm

CG will gather 1:00pm on the first floor of City Hall to prepare