Tenants caught in legal tangle get evicted

Briana Shipp is caught in a legal whirlpool that won’t stop swirling.

Shipp, a 29-year-old single mother, says in the past year she lost her home and possessions when she was evicted on the orders of Elijah Mohammad Rashaed, long one of Milwaukee's most notorious central-city landlords. Her possessions, she said, were either thrown out or stolen when she was locked out of her house on N. 41st St.

The August eviction — which Shipp argues was illegal — stems from a bedazzling set of circumstances that left Shipp and a group of other Rashaed tenants unsure of whom to pay their rent. As a result, several ended up in eviction court, which has hampered their ability to find new places because many landlords won't rent to people with evictions on their record.

"It matters quite a lot," said Matthew Desmond, a Harvard University professor who studied and wrote a book about evictions in Milwaukee. "One of the top screening mechanisms (by landlords) is 'Do you have an eviction in the last two to three years?' That can really prevent you from moving into decent housing in a decent neighborhood."

In Shipp's case, a judge removed her name as the defendant in a Rashaed company eviction because the eviction action against her was dismissed. Still, Shipp said that for more than two months the eviction citation haunted her.

"It looked like I had a fresh eviction," she said.

She and her three young children —  including an infant son with serious medical issues — spent more than three months living in hotels or with relatives. The baby, Ja’khi Markel Shipp, died in November, less than four months after he was born.

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Properties in receivership

The housing controversy began in the summer of 2015 when more than a dozen Rashaed properties were placed in receivership when North Milwaukee Bank said two of Rashaed's companies defaulted on mortgage loans.

Things became more complicated a year later, in May 2016, when the bank was shut down by regulators. One month later, court records show, Rashaed reached an agreement with the lender and regained control of the properties.

According to interviews, court records and transcripts of hearings, some tenants were unsure of whom to pay their rent. Even after the foreclosure and receivership, two tenants said, Rashaed's company tried to collect rent.

"I (briefly) paid both" the bank and the Rashaed company, said Meoceanian Toles, 33, who rented a house at 4741 N. 34th St. "I had to borrow money from people so I wouldn't get evicted."

Others paid nobody.

“I got my money orders ready, but I didn’t know who to pay,” said Robin Jordan, 52, a former tenant of a Rashaed company who also was evicted. She said she tried to pay the bank but nobody there would take her rent money and she refused to pay Rashaed because she was told that he no longer controlled the property.

Jordan said she lived rent free for several months, though that meant she paid for several repairs in the house she rented. She said she was unable to use her washer and dryer because there was no hookup in the house.

"I just wanted a landlord," she said.

Rashaed's lawyer, David Halbrooks, said he has "never heard" any allegation that Rashaed tried to collect rent after the properties were placed in receivership.

After Rashaed regained control, confusion continued in June 2016. Rashaed or his employees told some tenants to pay rent to them, according to Toles and Jordan. Both women said they were not shown any evidence Rashaed's companies were back in control.

"I didn't feel like I should give him money," Toles said. "He came back and said he owns the property and he had no paper."

During an August hearing, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen Brostrom asked Toles whether she stopped paying rent because she “didn’t know where to send it.”

Toles’ response: “Yes. And I don’t feel like I should have gotten an eviction for that ... I pay my rent. ... Never missed paying rent ever in my life."

Brostrom did not blame tenants for not paying their rent, though court transcripts show she consistently said the back rent needed to be paid.

Even Halbrooks agreed tenants had a right to be suspicious or confused.

“The tenants had no way of knowing (the bank) was out,” Halbrooks said, adding that all the tenants knew was “somebody knocked on their door and said start paying your rent to me.”

'Who is Horizon?'

In some cases, Rashaed's companies sued tenants for eviction and back rent. Jordan filed her own lawsuit this month in which she argues "at no time between July 1, 2015, and August 5, 2016, did North Milwaukee State Bank give notice to pay rent to Second Property Development LLC or any other entity."

In August, Jordan had agreed to make payments on back rent, but she told the Journal Sentinel she balked because the company did not make needed repairs. Halbrooks and Rashaed's son, Dennis Bell, had both said in an August court hearing the company would visit the house, located at 2732 N. 35th St., the following week and make the repairs, according to a transcript of the hearing. Jordan moved out in September.

Meanwhile, Shipp said she stopped paying rent last summer when she said she was told to "pay Horizon."

Her reaction: "Who is Horizon?"

Horizon Management is at the heart of Rashaed's real estate operation and Horizon Mgt. & Construction LLC is one of more than 50 limited liability companies owned by Rashaed or linked to him. The city Department of Neighborhood Services' special enforcement division tracks a list of 187 properties linked to Rashaed or his companies. Rashaed companies owe more than $70,000 in municipal court fines for building code violations.

“I knew something was not right," Shipp said. "There were too many people owning this house.”

As part of an ongoing investigation, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year exposed how some landlords, including Rashaed, use networks of LLCs that often confuse city officials, tenants and attorneys, while shielding their personal assets from collection efforts.

Rashaed's business and rental practices are now under investigation by the city attorney's office and the Milwaukee County district attorney's office, sources told the Journal Sentinel.

Halbrooks has acknowledged Rashaed's organizational structure is confusing, in part because some companies have been listed as being headquartered at addresses that have no existing links to Rashaed. Halbrooks said new steps — including creating about 20 new limited liability companies — will make the organization more transparent.

Others disagree.

"The Rashaed business model consists of a purposeful confusion about who is the landlord who is responsible for making repairs ... who is the contact person," said Jeffery Myer, an attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin, which is representing Shipp and Jordan. "The receivership adds another layer on top of that confusion."

The start of troubles

For Shipp, the eviction was just the start of troubles for her family.

During an Aug. 5 court hearing, Shipp agreed to move out of the Rashaed property — a house she said she seldom stayed in because it lacked electricity — by Aug. 15.

In an interview, Shipp said she planned to move out that day, even though she was in the hospital for treatment of high blood pressure. Before she could, her mother called her and told her to rush over to the house at 4563 N. 41st St.

Shipp said men were in her house moving — actually throwing — her belongings out.

“They were throwing all of it into the backyard, or … into the garage,” Shipp said.

“This is illegal, this is illegal — you can’t do that,” Shipp said she shouted to the workers. She said they called Rashaed and that she heard him say he wanted her out immediately.

Shipp said the men did not show her a court order, known as a writ of restitution, which is required before a landlord can evict a tenant. No writ of restitution was issued, according to a Journal Sentinel check of Circuit Court and Sheriff’s Office records.

“ I’m a woman who just had a baby and I had 10 guys in my house,” Shipp said.

Shipp left to get a rental truck. By the time she returned, her possessions were gone.

“Everything," she said, "my bigger appliances, stove, refrigerator — everything was gone.”

According to her lawsuit against Rashaed's Second Property Development LLC, belongings that were removed included furniture, air conditioners, pictures, art, beds, dishes, curtains, a crib, diapers and books.

Halbrooks declined comment because the matter is in litigation, except to say a former employee of Horizon Mgt. provided a version of events that was "opposite of what Shipp claimed."

It wasn't until Dec. 1 that Shipp said she was able to move into a new home with her children.

It wasn't the money that kept her and her family homeless, Shipp said.

“I had more than enough income,” said Shipp, who works at the state Department of Workforce Development. “But they put an eviction on my name.”

Landlords, judges, tenant advocates and academics agree that people are followed by their evictions. In some cases, judges will order their names not be listed on CCAP, the state's online court record system.

Desmond, the Harvard professor, said studies in Milwaukee have shown that “eviction pushes families into worse housing … in poorer neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a higher level of crime." The impact from an eviction is often felt even if the eviction is dismissed.

Shipp's name was removed from online court records at the end of October  — more than two months after she was booted from the house.

Shipp was particularly anxious to have her name removed from the eviction case because she had two small children with her and a newborn son who had recently been released from Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Joseph Hospital.

Ja'khi Markel Shipp weighed just 2 pounds, 3 ounces when he was born July 29. He suffered from serious medical issues, including a pulmonary hemorrhage, breathing problems and a brain bleed while still in the hospital, according to a report by the Milwaukee County medical examiner.

He was released from the hospital in late October, though he still needed oxygen and other medical treatment. At the time, Shipp said she was nervous because of her housing situation, which meant she and her other two children, ages 2 and 7, were living in hotels and at the homes of family members.

“I’m about to bring my son home on Tuesday to no home," Shipp said days before Ja'khi was released.

On Nov. 23 — one month after his release from the hospital — Ja’khi’s grandmother, who was caring for him that day, found the baby motionless in a car seat in her house. She had placed the baby in the car seat so he could take a nap. Efforts by her and paramedics could not revive the baby.

The medical examiner's office concluded Ja'khi died of bronchopneumonia and listed his premature birth as a contributing factor to his death.

His mother, however, is convinced the constant moving played a role in his death at the age of 3 months, 25 days.

“It wasn’t a sanitary environment — we were in and out of cars, in and out of places,” Shipp said. “His body was just tired.”

Cary Spivak can be reached at cspivak@jrn.com and twitter.com/cspivak.

Read the investigation

To read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Landlord Games" investigation, into Milwaukee landlords who game the system to avoid paying fines and taxes, go to jsonline.com/landlordgames.