Sam Powell didn’t always carry a Smith and Wesson to open his front door. But after living on the first floor of Fifth Street School Apartments for nearly three years, he’d seen too much not to take precautions.

Earlier this year, when he and his wife, Jo Powell, stepped out of their unit, the couple saw a naked, unconscious man slumped outside their door. They were meeting their daughter, Piper Thomas, 58, who also lives in the building and often drives them to their doctor appointments.

It was Thomas’ idea to move her 82-year-old parents into the same building as her, so they could live closer to her and experience connection, comfort and dignity in their twilight years.

Now, her parents are too afraid to leave their apartment. They say seeing people like the naked man deep in a drug daze was not out of the ordinary.

“They are basically being held hostage in their apartment,” Thomas said. “I feel like we are being terrorized in this building.”

The tenants at Fifth Street School in the Harambee neighborhood have felt unsafe since at least 2023 due to rampant drug use in common areas and other illegal activity inside their building.

Six of them sat down with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in Margaret Calvin’s apartment to air their grievances about problems within and around the property.

During the discussion, several told the Journal Sentinel they have reached out to the property owner, Gorman and Company, as well as to the police and elected officials, but have yet to see any resolution or assistance.

Tenants like Thomas have sent Gorman and Company scores of photos and videos showing people in the hallways fornicating, using drugs, sleeping and fighting, among other unsavory activities. Other photos showed human feces dripping down a wall in a hallway in July, a mess residents said management didn’t clean-up for over a month.

All the tenants agreed that they do not want to leave their homes because of others’ behavior.

The tenants are asking for one thing: a security guard.

Gorman and Company told residents it would investigate the matter and consider hiring security, but two years of pleading for change through calls, emails and texts reviewed by the Journal Sentinel have left tenants feeling no closer to living in a safe building.

Instead of waiting on Gorman to act, tenants like Thomas have put together a lookout system, akin to a neighborhood watch group, to warn their neighbors when danger is near.

Piper Thomas poses for a portrait at Fifth Street School, an apartment complex for seniors, on Oct. 17, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Thomas and other tenants are frustrated with people entering the building and sleeping and doing drugs in the hallways.

“We’ve been begging and pleading with Gorman,” Thomas said. “Why should I have to move out of my nice apartment? I can’t move my parents again. They won’t survive another move.”

Beatings, theft and drug use in the halls of Fifth Street School

Fifth Street School Apartments are intended for people 55 and older who qualify for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, or Section 8, which helps low- and moderate-income residents afford rent.

The building and its luxury amenities, like the gym and community center, appealed to Thomas when she moved there in 2023.

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It didn’t take long for Thomas to see the building’s darker side.

Since 2020, there have been 501 police calls to the Fifth Street School. The building has one of the highest call volumes for senior apartments in Harambee, according to data from the Milwaukee Police Department.

There have been 15 battery calls for service at the property in the past five years, according to MPD data.

After moving in, Thomas said she learned of an attack where someone not associated with the building beat up a woman who worked in the office as she was leaving. The staffer never returned, Thomas said.

In another incident, an older tenant was “beaten to near death” and hospitalized around two weeks after opening the door to three non-tenants, Thomas said.

While non-tenants are routinely let into the building, a closed door is not enough to stop some. Laura Hall, who lives in the building, told the Journal Sentinel that trespassers once entered the building through a disabled tenant’s window while she and her daughter were home.

“They busted in her house, kicked her window in and they knew she was in the house,” Hall said. “They didn’t care.”

Tenants’ pleas to their building manager and directly to Gorman and Company have not kept trespassers out. Instead, management has taken away tenants’ access to the storage area and the community room, but that hasn’t stopped trespassers from getting into those areas, according to Thomas.

Margaret Calvin poses for a portrait at Fifth Street School, an apartment complex for seniors, on Oct. 17, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Calvin and other tenants are frustrated with non-residents entering the building and sleeping and doing drugs in the hallways.

According to Calvin, some of the other renters are letting trespassers into the building. They’ll ring the doorbell until they’re let in or jam objects into the entryways to prevent doors from locking shut.

Norman Parker, another concerned tenant, said his medication was stolen from the mailroom.

Police data show there have been 14 theft calls since 2020; however, tenants said their neighbors don’t always call the police because authorities do not often help.

In addition to theft, some trespassers consume illicit substances in apartments with other tenants or consume substances in the hallways and shared spaces.

Extensive substance use is not uncommon in senior apartments across the city, especially at night. As one tenant in a different senior apartment building described it to Vincent Mcclelland, an outreach worker on the opioid prevention team for Milwaukee County, senior tenants in the city are “under siege after dark.”

“You’ve got tenants with family members that deal drugs and use their apartment as a place to hide out,” said Mcclelland. “By us going into those buildings, we’re giving tenants the ability to speak up. … This is a vulnerable population who live in this building, and we want to try and protect them as much as we can.”

The problem is so persistent the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services is currently operating a canvassing campaign targeting seniors to distribute Narcan ― the opioid-reversing nasal spray used to combat overdoses ― and information on treatment facilities.

Ricky Person, who runs Milwaukee County’s opioid prevention team, is working with other agencies to create a dashboard that tracks opioid use and addiction in senior apartments.

(From left) Vincent Mcclelland and Ricky Person of Milwaukee County DHHS Aging and Disabilities Services talk about drug use among seniors before giving away opioid harm reduction kits on West Mt. Vernon Avenue Oct. 22, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Gorman and Company says it’s enhanced security measures. Residents call it ineffective.

After about two years of complaints, the building’s managers held a meeting to address tenants’ concerns over pizza and bingo, according to Thomas. But in the end, tenants felt the meeting was only meant to pacify them, as they have yet to see an added security presence at the building.

In an emailed statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Melissa Badini, marketing strategist for Gorman and Company, said the company already implemented “enhanced security measures,” referring to things like camera installation and key fobs to get into the building.

The keys and cameras have not prevented the disturbances from happening, according to tenants.

“They don’t hardly look at (the cameras), even when you ask them,” said Parker.

Badini did not respond when asked if a security guard would be hired to protect the residents.

According to Thomas, there was a security guard at the building when she first moved in, but shortly after, they stopped showing up, and tenants were not given notice or an explanation as to why.

Badini said the company has plans of reaching out to local organizations like Community Advocates, Milwaukee County Housing First and Street Angels. But an organization like Street Angels works with homeless individuals and doesn’t have programming for issues like the ones happening inside of Fifth Street School, according to Street Angels co-founder and director Eva Welch.

Community Advocates hasn’t had communications with Gorman and Company so far, although the nonprofit does have programs in place to assist with Fifth Street School tenants’ concerns, including a helpline for rent abatement.

The goal, Badini said, is to “create a community that is both safe and welcoming — a place Fifth Street School residents are proud to call home.”

Since 2020, however, the company, which owns 12 properties in Milwaukee, has garnered 57 complaints for properties across the state, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, which oversees landlord reports.

Calvin and Thomas have been at the forefront of the effort to add security to the building. When reaching out to management and Gorman and Company failed, they tried to contact Ald. Milele Coggs, who represents their district.

According to Thomas, they have tried to get in touch with Coggs’ office, but have not gotten a response back that will help them with their request. Calvin said she attended an October budget town hall to bring up her grievances to Coggs in person.

“They can’t say they don’t know,“ Thomas said of Coggs’ office.

The Journal Sentinel reached out to Coggs’ office on multiple occasions. Coggs could not be reached for comment.

What legal options do tenants at Fifth Street School have?

Fifth Street School tenant Laura Hall said she is fed up. And she’s far from the only one.

The lack of security at the property has left the tenants to consider whether they should withhold their rent.

“I’m paying $1,000 a month over here, so I’m going to do whatever the hell it takes,” Hall said. “I told (management) this, I’m not going to pay.”

Laura Hall poses for a portrait at Fifth Street School, an apartment complex for seniors, on Oct. 17, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hall and other tenants are frustrated with people entering the building and sleeping and doing drugs in the hallways.

However, Wisconsin law doesn’t allow tenants to completely withhold rent. Instead, it requires a series of steps, involving the property management, the city and a third party to hold onto the portion of rent being withheld, called an escrow agent.

The process of withholding some funds until the landlord resolves a complaint is called abatement, according to Kali Murray, professor of law at Marquette University.

Landlords have a legal responsibility to ensure the safety of their residents in common areas like the hallways and community rooms – especially if there are “no trespassing and loitering” signs posted. People doing drugs and other behaviors in the hallways, Murray said, would certainly create a safety concern.

Arranging housing inspections in Wisconsin has become tricky in the wake of a 2017 law that prohibits cities from requesting housing inspections. Inspections can be triggered when a city creates an inspection program for an area where there is evidence of blight, high rates of building code violations or a deterioration of property value. In such cases, the city can create an inspection program designated for the area.

In order to request a housing inspection for a Section 8 property, first, tenants will need to contact the agency administering the housing voucher.

“The housing agency that issues the Section 8 can undertake an investigation,” Murray said. “That’s when a Section 8 voucher can begin rent abatement.”

Once a tenant initiates the rent abatement process, it is important to reach out to the property management company in writing to let them know rent will be partially withheld and the reasons why. Otherwise, the tenant can be accused of failure to pay rent, which can lead to eviction.

Murray said sending a copy of the letter to the renter’s alderperson is helpful in preventing retaliatory eviction ― where the landlord evicts a tenant for not paying rent without fixing problems in the building.

If the landlord or the management company does not fix the issues, it could be fined by the Department of Neighborhood Services. There are additional fines for repeat offenses.

It is not recommended to stop paying rent without notifying the proper authorities and putting a portion of the rent in escrow.

For advice on specific issues and how to navigate problems with your apartment building, here are some resources.

Mediate Milwaukee offers mediation services between landlords and tenants.

Natalie Eilbert covers mental health across Wisconsin with a focus on treatment access, disability rights, stigma reduction and suicide prevention. Reach her at NEilbert@gannett.com.

Everett Eaton covers Harambee, just north of downtown Milwaukee, for the Journal Sentinel’s Neighborhood Dispatch. Reach him at ejeaton@gannett.com. As part of the newsroom, all of Everett’s work and coverage decisions are overseen solely by Journal Sentinel editors.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Senior tenants fearful for safety; landlord makes no promises for change