‘I have hope’: Milwaukee tenants speak out after lawsuits filed against landlord
By Megan Carpenter, Spectrum News 1
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MILWAUKEE — The City of Milwaukee filed two lawsuits Thursday to hold out-of-state rental company Highgrove Holdings Management LLC, and its related LLCs, accountable for its run-down properties and unpaid money.
What You Need To Know
- The City of Milwaukee filed two lawsuits Thursday against out-of-state rental company Highgrove Holdings Management LLC
- The City Attorney’s Office collaborated with nonprofit Common Ground in this effort
- Leaders say it’s the largest public nuisance action against a landlord in at least a decade
- Highgrove Holdings Management LLC manages more than 200 properties primarily on Milwaukee’s North Side
Highgrove Holdings owner, David Tomblin, told Spectrum News over the phone that he would not comment on the lawsuits, nor the conditions that his tenants are living in until he has reviewed the legal documents.
The City Attorney’s Office collaborated with nonprofit Common Ground in this effort, though Common Ground is not named as a plaintiff.
“Something of this scale has never happened in Milwaukee, with the last closest effort being about a decade ago,” said Common Ground’s Kevin Solomon. “We’re in the lawsuit declaring everything we saw, with 65 trained canvassers going door-to-door for months.”
Common Ground first gained recognition for taking on The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee in 2023, an effort that lasted more than a year.
“Major corporate landlords, you need to shape up, or we’re coming for you,” Solomon said.“Major corporate landlords, you need to shape up, or we’re coming for you,” Solomon said.
City Attorney Evan Goyke said the two different lawsuits contain 51 and 87 properties, respectively. The suits allege that those properties are a nuisance and ask a judge to declare them as such.
“We are also asking the court to declare the business operations of Highgrove Holdings as a nuisance in the City of Milwaukee,” Goyke said. “The third filing is a brief in support of appointing a receiver in a separate lawsuit, filed against Highgrove by U.S. Bank.”
Goyke further states that U.S. Bank lent Highgrove more than $6 million, which Highgrove has not paid back. The bank filed a mortgage foreclosure action against the company, with 85 properties subject to it.
“We are asking a court to declare Highgrove a nuisance and appoint a receiver,” Goyke said. “A receiver can be appointed to step in the shoes of the property owner and abate the nuisances.”
The properties that Tomblin owns are primarily on Milwaukee’s North Side. Samantha Gamble and her son, Ishon Arnold, live in one of them.
When walking into the home, part of the ceiling is visibly collapsing in the living room. Buckets are in different rooms of the house, which the family uses to catch rain that they said leaks through the roof.
The living room ceiling is visibly collapsing in Samantha Gamble’s home. (Spectrum News 1/Megan Carpenter)
“There’s mold growing in the house,” Arnold said.
He and his mother spoke publicly about their living conditions for the first time on Thursday. Other tenants living in Highgrove Holdings properties joined them.
“This is my mom’s room,” Arnold said, holding up a picture of a bedroom with a collapsed roof and a bucket underneath it filled with dirty water. “We have to collect rainwater and take it downstairs.”
Bucket catches dirty water leaking into the house. (Spectrum News 1/Megan Carpenter)
Gamble and Arnold showed Spectrum News their home on Thursday. The hole in the roof of Gamble’s old bedroom is big enough to see the outside. The room is filled with a rancid smell.
Arnold estimates that he and his mother have alerted the property manager to these issues dozens of times over the last six years.
“They don’t fix anything around here,” Gamble said. “They tell me I’m number seven to get my roof fixed.”
Hole in the roof of Gamble’s old bedroom. (Spectrum News 1/Megan Carpenter)
“They say they are going to send someone out and tell someone to call me back, but no one calls me back or comes out to fix anything,” Gamble added.
Arnold said his mom recently had a stroke that the doctor deemed was from stress.
“On her neck, she had a blood clot, and I feel really bad because she’s been doing her best,” he said. “And I’ve been doing my best to support her.”
Goyke said it shouldn’t come to this.
(Spectrum News 1/Megan Carpenter)
“These property owners should do the right thing, become code compliant, and not wait years or wait for the government to bring a lawsuit against them,” he said. “But if that’s what it takes, so be it.”
Common Ground and Goyke reported that Tomblin owns more than 200 properties, with more than 400 units. They said his buildings have had hundreds of code violations with Milwaukee’s Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) and the lawsuits say he owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city.
Goyke added that DNS has been called out to investigate Highgrove properties more than 1,600 times in the last five years.