New Ordinance Expands Safety and Protections for Renters and Local Accountability for Some Negligent Landlords

Last week, after nearly two years of organizing, research, and community conversations, the Menomonie City Council voted on February 2 to pass a proactive renter protection ordinance designed to improve housing safety and accountability across the city.

The ordinance restores regular rental inspections, protects tenants from landlord retaliation, and establishes a rent abatement process when serious habitability violations go unaddressed. It is one of the first renter protection measures in Wisconsin advanced and won through grassroots organizing.

The victory was led by Menomonie members of GROWW—GrassRoots Organizing of Western Wisconsin—who began the campaign in April 2024 with a simple question: how can we improve housing conditions in Menomonie?

“We began all this that summer. We went doorknocking, held listening sessions,  hosted an online survey, and sat down in one-to-one meetings; all told we heard from two hundred and fifty community members.Through those hundreds of conversations, we heard the same concerns again and again: unsafe conditions, fear of retaliation, and little recourse when landlords failed to make repairs.,” said Monica Berrier, a GROWW member and Menomonie homeowner.

The team also conducted research meetings with local elected officials, city and county employees, UW-Stout administrators and business leaders. After researching what other Wisconsin communities have done and gathering feedback from stakeholders, the team began work on a proactive rental inspections ordinance for the City of Menomonie. “Our proposal took inspiration from existing ordinances in Racine, Eau Claire, and Oshkosh,”  said Cody Gentz, GROWW member and Menomonie Alderperson. “The main idea is to help bring rentals up to minimum standards of health and safety, while giving tenants tools to hold their landlords accountable, if needed.”

In 2017, the Wisconsin Legislature passed Act 317, limiting local governments’ authority to carry out proactive rental inspections. The law restricted communities like Menomonie from identifying unsafe housing conditions before they became serious problems, weakening local control and reducing renter protections. For many residents, this shift meant fewer inspections, less accountability, and greater risk for tenants living in substandard housing, making local action to restore these tools essential.

On February 2, the Menomonie City Council passed the proposed renter protection ordinance after nearly two years of work by GROWW to build consensus among renters, homeowners, University and business leaders, and city officials. “This is the first time in Wisconsin that a rental protection ordinance like this has been won by a grassroots group of citizens,” said Bill Hogseth, Co-Director and Lead Organizer of GROWW. “In a system stacked in favor of powerful landlord interests and real estate lobbyists over working families, this win proves that people can shape local policy when they are organized, strategic, and disciplined.”