Code Violations

Code violation data comes from the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services. A code violation can cover a wide range of issues, from minor garbage violations to more serious structural issues. At this time our website simply shows the total number (and rate) of violations, so we encourage readers to use the DNS website to look up specific code violations for properties of interest.

DNS inspectors are not allowed to enter properties to conduct random inspections. Instead, they usually conduct interior inspections after receiving tenant complaints. Eviction orders correspond to a single visit, and each order can (and often does) include multiple violations requiring specific abatement.

Our records currently cover 2017-01-01 to 2024-03-31.

code violation rate calculations

Here is how we calculate code enforcement rates for each ownership network.

For each property, we count the number of days during which the current owner held the property and DNS records are available. We determine when the period of current ownership began using the CONVEY_DATE variable provided by the city assessor.
We divide the days of ownership (during the DNS-covered period) by 365.25, then multiply by the number of housing units at the property. The product is the number of housing-unit-years.
We add up all the housing-unit-years for each property in the network to calculate the network’s total housing-unit-years.
We assign code violations to a property’s current owner if the eviction was filed after the current owner bought the property, judging by the CONVEY_DATE field.
For each owner network, we count the total number of violations (and orders) and divide by the total number of housing-unit-years. Then, we multiply the quotient by 100. The result is the network’s annual rate of code violations (or orders) per 100 units.

citywide rates

To calculate citywide rates, we limit the numerator to just code violations occuring at rental properties.

Annual DNS code enforcement totals in the City of Milwaukee
	at rental properties		rental units¹	per 100 units
	violations	orders	rental units¹	violations	orders
2017	53,110	12,021	146,552	36.2	8.2
2018	48,399	12,312	148,028	32.7	8.3
2019	41,305	11,300	149,032	27.7	7.6
2020	29,614	8,495	148,725	19.9	5.7
2021	34,892	10,395	147,734	23.6	7.0
2022	32,896	9,665	147,407	22.3	6.6
2023	37,166	11,806	147,190	25.3	8.0
¹ Calculated from city parcel records.

aldermanic rates

Annual DNS code enforcement totals in the City of Milwaukee
by Aldermanic district
	2017		2018		2019		2020		2021¹		2022¹		2023
	violations	orders	violations	orders	violations	orders	violations	orders	violations	orders	violations	orders	violations	orders
first	61.7	11.6	45.6	9.3	38.5	8.6	29.0	6.7	39.8	9.0	27.9	6.8	31.6	8.9
second	18.9	6.2	22.1	7.8	21.2	6.5	20.0	6.1	24.3	9.3	26.2	8.2	24.2	8.6
third	12.6	3.8	6.5	2.6	8.6	4.0	4.3	2.2	6.9	3.1	7.6	3.5	7.9	4.1
fourth	12.0	3.0	11.2	2.9	11.5	3.4	6.4	2.0	6.9	2.4	9.2	3.2	7.1	3.3
fifth	13.3	4.9	22.1	10.1	9.7	4.0	13.3	5.8	20.5	8.3	20.6	7.6	24.2	10.6
sixth	94.1	13.3	77.9	11.9	48.5	8.8	34.4	7.0	43.0	9.0	37.5	8.2	48.6	11.4
seventh	56.8	10.9	50.1	9.7	47.2	9.5	37.9	8.4	42.9	10.2	41.7	9.8	50.1	11.9
eighth	34.9	10.6	33.2	10.1	37.2	13.2	19.4	8.0	29.3	10.3	28.7	8.7	38.1	11.6
ninth	14.9	4.9	11.5	4.2	10.9	3.4	9.7	4.1	9.5	3.8	12.6	4.0	13.4	4.6
tenth	32.5	8.6	35.1	10.1	34.4	10.6	24.5	6.6	26.5	9.1	29.8	9.9	24.2	9.0
eleventh	15.3	5.7	27.3	10.6	19.7	6.8	22.2	7.4	19.1	8.5	16.6	7.1	19.3	9.1
twelfth	48.1	12.7	45.4	12.9	44.2	15.2	23.3	8.8	24.0	8.3	21.4	6.9	29.5	9.7
thirteenth	14.7	5.6	21.8	9.4	19.5	7.5	21.2	7.2	18.6	7.8	13.9	5.7	19.0	8.7
fourteenth	27.0	12.3	25.0	10.9	16.1	5.9	11.6	5.1	14.3	6.0	11.5	4.8	15.9	7.2
fifteenth	76.9	13.1	63.5	12.2	57.6	11.6	38.6	7.8	45.8	9.5	43.5	10.1	46.1	10.8
¹ Various pandemic-era policy interventions, including moratoriums, reduced evictions during these years