SLUMLORD SEEKS PROSPECT AVE OFFICE APPROVAL

Tim Brophy, Jr., the Milwaukee slumlord who buys and sells properties like they are used cars, is asking the Board of Zoning Appeals to approve his request to occupy the property at 1681 N. Prospect Avenue as offices, in part.
The building had been placarded by Brophy's nemesis, the Department of Neighborhood Services, the source of the comments about Brophy's real estate trading habits.
Brophy's empire is generally considered to be crumbling. He has been sued, forclosed, fined, and jailed for his real estate shenanigans, including famously breaking into a tenant's apartment and hiding under her bed when the Man came looking for him last year.
Brophy's appeal is scheduled for a 5 p.m. hearing tomorrow, Thursday, April 27th in room 301-B of Milwaukee's City Hall, 200 E. Wells St.
The public is invited to comment on Brophy's plans for the Prospect avenue property, familiar to many as the "Elizabeth House," on the southwest corner of N. Prospect Av. and E. Brady St. The mansion had been a rooming house for many years. Tell your friends and show up to contest this application.
The building is in the district of Ald. Michael S. D'Amato, who has frequently challenged Brophy, and who considers him to be the worst landlord in the city.
What kind of landlord is Brophy? I spoke to a tenant of his who lives in a five-family building in Riverwest. The building is in need of structural repair, according to city records that document the need for the north wall of the building to be reconstructed and other horrors.
The tenant, with a newly-born infant, was without heat for much of the winter. Brophy demanded an additional $75 monthly rent for utility bills for the building, although there was nothing in the lease to authorize this extortion. The gas account is in Brophy's name, according to the tenant, and the meter has been locked, and gas service disconnected, due to Brophy's failure to pay what the tenant characterized as a $5,000 bill. The gas remains out, and the family is unable to bathe with hot water or to use the gas stove. The Department of Neighborhood Services has received a complaint about the building from the tenant.
--Michael Horne