TRC Moves to Next Chapter of Housing Justice
For Immediate Release by Tenant Resource Center on 11-6-2025
On October 1, 2025, the Tenant Resource Center entered a new chapter in its mission of promoting housing justice for all. In the wake of expired federal emergency rental assistance, TRC is pivoting its eviction court-related services to support tenants with more in-depth housing support and will be providing a limited amount of rental assistance to accompany those services in 2026.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, TRC has been on the front lines of distributing nearly $62,000,000 in emergency rental assistance to thousands of low-income families in Dane County. More than 7,600 evictions have been prevented, and over 1,700 households have been represented by an attorney through our Eviction Diversion & Defense Partnership.
The federal government provided this COVID-related emergency funding to Dane County and the City of Madison, both of which contracted with TRC and other organizations to provide direct assistance to tenants facing a potential eviction or housing insecurity. This emergency rental assistance (ERA) kept thousands of households stably housed during challenging financial times. The federal government set an expiration date of September 30, 2025 for spending these funds. Our final ERA checks were sent out on that date.
Over the past 5 years, TRC has expanded and innovated to meet the needs of our neighbors. TRC immediately responded when Dane County and the City of Madison asked us to create a system for administering the ERA program. We quickly set up programs and hired and trained staff through a pandemic, a funding crisis at the federal and local level, and the personal strains each of us has felt in our daily lives over these years. As a result of the dedicated, remarkable work, eviction judgments have decreased dramatically. Since 2023, over 80% of eviction cases in Dane County have been dismissed due to the efforts of TRC and our legal partners through the Eviction Diversion & Defense Partnership.
This is not the end of our journey, merely the next chapter in our mission. The City of Madison, Dane County, and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development have provided crucial funding that prevented an immediate break in services for individuals facing an eviction in our community. Our work continues to be supported by them, along with tremendous funders and partners such as Community Shares of Wisconsin, Roots & Wings, Attic Angel Association, the SASY Neighborhood Association, UW Madison ASM, UW Medicine, and United Way of Dane County - along with a community support system of individual donations. With this funding, we can continue our partnerships with experienced, dedicated housing attorneys and paralegals at Legal Action of Wisconsin, Community Justice Inc, H.R. Watson Law, and the University of Wisconsin Law School. And we are collaborating with Ascendium Education Group to provide transformational change against justice inequity.
The Tenant Resource Center will continue to work tirelessly to provide accessible information on tenant rights, guidance for court attendance, individual case management services, and advocate for a future of housing justice for all.