Due to a HUD funding cut, Tenant Resource Center is now only serving Dane County. Here’s their press release and ways you can help
PRESS RELEASE
The Tenant Resource Center has been forced to discontinue providing all forms of housing counseling to Wisconsin residents outside of Dane County as all funding has been lost for these valuable services as of October 1st, 2019. For decades, the TRC has provided free information and answered tens of thousands of questions from tenants and landlords alike about Wisconsin law regarding tenant-landlord rights and responsibilities. All of our staff and volunteers have always taken this responsibility to heart as we believe in housing justice for all!
As a nonprofit organization, we rely on public funding, grants and donations in order to do the important work of ensuring that all tenants and landlords in Wisconsin have the most up-to-date and accurate information about their rights and responsibilities. The TRC is the only organization in the State of Wisconsin that is staffed to answer questions regarding tenant-landlord law for anyone who calls or walks in our doors. Despite being referred to in Wisconsin state law (Wis. Stat. 704.17(3m)(b)1.), and by name, in state-wide resource pages like the Wisconsin State Law Libraryand the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, as well as in several county-specific resource pages (Brown, Sauk, Dodge, and Columbia to name a few), the TRC does not receive any funding directly from the state legislature to provide housing counseling services.
We are both saddened and disappointed that we can not provide these valuable services to all residents of Wisconsin, as we have done for decades. We truly want to do the work to help people with their rental housing issues and questions, but we simply cannot do it for free. It takes time, effort, and money to learn the laws, be familiar with other agencies and services to make useful referrals for our clients and to adequately compensate the TRC staff who are doing this work as they must also be able to feed, cloth, and house themselves and their families.
If you feel that this service is as valuable and necessary as we do, please visit our website (www.tenantresourcecenter.org) for information about how you can help us get the funding we need. We would also encourage you to contact your local elected officials (https://myvote.wi.gov/en-US/
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Contact Your Elected Officials
As of October 1st, 2019, the Tenant Resource Center no longer has the funding necessary to respond to calls outside of Dane County regarding questions about tenant-landlord rights and responsibilities. This means that for the first time in decades we have to disregard the 1,500+ calls in our call logs from individuals outside of Dane County as we can not pay staff to return these calls. This means that we cannot answer questions of people who walk through our doors who reside outside of Dane County. This means that both our staff and the individuals in need of our services are placed in awful situations. This menas we need you help right away!
Ways You Can Help:
- Please contact your local elected officials and express your concern and support for these valuable services to be funded immediately.
Find your elected officials here by entering your address: https://myvote.wi.gov/en-US/MyElectedOfficials
- Share our story through social media:
- Make a donation or become a Sustainer.
