10 years ago, the leading reason cited for why landlords shouldn’t have to take Section 8 tenants was that they are criminals. We know better than that, and with some public education and the support of the Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin, I thought that discussion was put to bed.
Nope . . . joining with the Town of Madison biases against the poor, it looks like Middleton and Sun Prairie believe poor people are criminals. Not only are the homeless to be assumed to be drug dealers, now we can add the disabled and elderly folks that recieve those Section 8 vouchers.
I nominate the following for the most obnoxious, uniformed comments:
Middleton Alderman/landlord Jon DiPiazza
“If that tenant is of a lesser quality than someone else and then they skip out, the landlord is stuck,” DiPiazza continued. “The county’s ordinance requires landlords to accept them.”
Sun Prairie Alderman/Chair of City Council Zach Weber and their Chief of Police
“We were appalled that the county board would pass legislation like this that essentially ties the hands of a landlord,” Weber said. “We wanted something with more teeth to deal with some of these criminals. The conversation itself was fairly brief and it passed by a unanimous 8-0 vote.”
Weber said Sun Prairie’s chief of police was a proponent of the ordinance, adding that it ties in with the community’s push to hold landlords more accountable for what goes on in their buildings.
Luckily, County Board Chair Scott McDonell set the record straight:
“Let’s make this clear,” McDonnell said. “Our ordinance says you can’t discriminate against someone simply because they use Section 8; it doesn’t say you have to take someone who uses it. There are plenty of reasons to turn away a bad tenant, but using Section 8 has nothing to do with being a bad tenant.”
And its not just section 8 tenants, apparently there are other issues of concern to DiPiazza:
“I want someone with an ID card and rental and criminal history,” DiPiazza stated.
and
“With a sexual deviant you could easily say that person is a menace, but do you say the same for a pickpocket? Maybe not. That conversation will need to take place.”
It sounds like DiPiazza also doesn’t understand the protections in the County Ordinance for people with convictions – you can only deny people if their crimes fall within a certain time period and are related to safety concerns of the staff and tenants.
The most absurd part of all of this is:
“Sun Prairie can’t override a county ordinance on this and neither can Middleton – period,” McDonnell said. “If we get any complaints about discrimination going on [in Sun Prairie] we’ll look into it.”
and worse yet . . .
Said McDonnell, “All that’s going to do is force the county to use resources to establish that the city’s ordinance can’t override one passed by the county. That’s all it will accomplish.”
How is it that we, as a society, even here in progressive leaning Dane County, are becoming less tolerant? How is it that it has become so acceptable to hate people based on stereotypes? Instead of working to blend our melting pot it seems some are hellbent on drawing lines in the sand and using stereotypes to judge others and put them, or keep them, down.
