Legal Aid director urges county to sustain Eviction Free MKE; program reports served 10,000 people

Colleen Foley, executive director of the Legal Aid Society in Milwaukee, asked the Committee on Finance to continue county support for Eviction Free MKE, a program that provides eviction defense and related services.

Foley told supervisors the program "was supposed to be a 3 year pilot" and is now moving into year five. She said the program "has served over 10,000 impacting over 30,000 individuals, including over 13,000 children in our community." She cited a Stout report commissioned at the three-year mark that, according to her summary, "said that it has saved the community approximately $23,300,000 in avoided costs in the safety net system."

Foley described operational steps taken to stretch funding, including staffing adjustments (from a dozen lawyers down to 6.5 full-time equivalents), 2.5 FTE support staff, a paralegal, intake person and a wraparound liaison. She said the program provides post-case services such as a monthly sealing clinic and a security deposit clinic intended to remove eviction records or secure double damages when landlords fail to comply with deposit laws. She also described the program acting as a court watchdog: Legal Aid's work led to prosecution and conviction of a landlord accused of wage-garnishing and fraud, which Foley said removed that landlord from doing business in Milwaukee County.

Foley told the committee the program is seeking $100,000 from Milwaukee County (and a matching sum from the City of Milwaukee) to sustain operations for the coming year; she said other grants that had supported the program have decreased or ended. Foley said staff are actively pursuing additional funding but asked the county and city to match $100,000 each to maintain services.

No formal committee decision was recorded in the hearing transcript; Foley's testimony was delivered as public comment during the budget hearing.