Milwaukee Combats Racism
Segregated Housing
Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond found that in Milwaukee County the annual average eviction rate, primarily amongst Black-dominated neighborhoods, was 7.4%, which was more than 5 times the rate in primarily white-dominated neighborhoods (Mukherji).
Desmond considers these eviction rates as one of the two processes that are destroying the city of Milwaukee. The other process is incarceration. As discussed earlier, Wisconsin has some of the highest conviction rates among Black Americans, which has been indicated to be a growing rate (Mukherji).
Header Photo: Cornelius, "MORTGAGE LENDING STRUCTURES REINFORCE SEGREGATED POVERTY."
Photo 1: Wenger, Suzette. "To solve poverty, first make housing affordable, Pulitzer winner Matthew Desmond says in Lancaster speech."
Similar to many other Midwestern cities with similar racial backgrounds Milwaukee's discriminatory housing policies from the mid-20th century are still largely a part of residential patterns today. According to research that was published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, "16 of the 18 suburbs of Milwaukee County enacted restrictive housing covenants in the 1940s, many of which remained in effect into the 1960s and 1970s" (Stebbins). This has impacted homeownership amongst this minority as well as the eviction rates discovered by Desmond.
Photo 2: Milwaukee Sentinel. "Aligning Equity and Housing Policy."