City’s Own Study Recommends Against Rental Licensing
“Would Cause More Problems Than It Would Solve”
A very detailed feasibility study of Rental Unit Licensing was prepared for the City of Milwaukee by the LaFollette Institute in 2003. It’s conclusions:
The City of Milwaukee should not create a rental unit licensing program because it would not be an effective regulatory or revenue mechanism. We take this position based on the projected high administrative costs, political opposition, possible effects on low-income housing, and uncertain benefits.
The study found that both property owners and tenants would be adversely affected by rental licensing:
Our analysis finds that rental unit licensing has very uncertain benefits and can create negative effects on housing markets and the availability of affordable housing. Those negative effects would be likely to occur were rental unit licensing implemented in Milwaukee. We conclude that Milwaukee should not implement licensing because the policy would be expensive, meet strong political opposition, and cause more problems for Milwaukee’s rental markets than it would solve.
