"In Madison, we have huge racial disparities with the criminal justice system, so a lot of the impacts of that law fall on people of color -- people who have that disproportionate contact with the criminal justice system," she said.

The Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin, based in Madison, lobbied for the act, seeking statewide consistency in housing rules, said Executive Director Nancy Jensen.

"Tenants move around a lot, investors are all over the place," she said. "Having different pockets of regulations, some of them with technicalities, created both loopholes and liabilities."

Madison was an outlier compared to the rest of the state, she said. "The balance was out of sync."

Balancing rights, safety

When analyzing a prospective tenant's criminal record, the apartment association urges landlords to be open to the possibility of rehabilitation, Jensen said. Yet landlords need the legal latitude to reject certain applicants if they believe there's a potential safety issue involved, she said.

"As much as we have concern for the applicant, the property owner has to weigh that concern with the liability and the safety of everyone else who lives in that property," she said.