More than 20% of Milwaukee employees live outside city, and most are police and firefighters

Five years after state lawmakers undid Milwaukee's strict residency requirements, 37% of firefighters and 33% of police officers do not live in the city.

For 75 years, all city employees with few exceptions had to live within Milwaukee boundaries.

In 2013, the state Legislature passed a law that removed those requirements. It did allow for cities to require certain employees, including police and firefighters, to live within 15 miles of city limits.

Overall, 21% of the city's 6,530 employees now live outside Milwaukee, according to a recent memo from the city Legislative Reference Bureau.

Those employees, who include recent hires who never moved to the city, represent nearly $92.5 million in salaries — money that is now supporting suburban housing and tax base, the study says.

Milwaukee Ald. Michael Murphy said the study shows eliminating the strict residency requirement has had "a negative impact" on the city.

"Employees spend a good 25% of their money on housing," he said Wednesday. "That's significant dollars no longer being spent here in the local market."

Although people are moving into the houses vacated by officers and firefighters, Murphy said he views it as "substitution effect." If those homes weren't available, the potential home-buyers would be purchasing other property in the city, he said.

The new memo trends closely with what was predicted in a 2013 report by SB Friedman

Development Advisors on the estimated effects of getting rid of residency. The earlier report estimated 4,070 employees, or almost two-thirds of all city employees, would live outside Milwaukee by 2024.

The same report also predicted reduced housing construction, less retail activity and reduced tax base of about $649 million.

The Milwaukee Police Association, the union representing rank-and-file officers, said any city employee should be able to choose where to live and shop. The union advocated for the lifting of residency requirements.

In a statement posted on its website, the union accused city leaders of trying to distract from other problems, such as the recent upheaval in the Health Department, with the residency study.

"Endeavor to foster a safe, attractive city with great schools and you will not have to compel anybody to live within its boundaries," the union said.

Murphy said the majority of officers who moved left the far southwest side of Milwaukee, which is a very safe area, and had many public and private options for education.

When the residency requirement was in effect, it was part of the contract.

"They chose to apply for those jobs in the city of Milwaukee with the conditions that were set," Murphy said.

The memo references how some cities also give financial incentives for employees to live where they work. For example, Champaign, Ill., gives $3,000 annual incentive payments to resident employees, while Toledo, Ohio, pays resident-employees stipends ranging form $100 to $300 and offers low-interest housing loans.

Murphy said he was not in favor of such incentives.

"I don't know if I feel real good about paying someone to live in my city," he said.

The city's Fire and Police Commission, responsible for hiring in both departments, does offer preference points for applicants who are city residents. In the past, the commission has expressed concern about police officers living outside the city and how that could impact police-community relations — an idea Murphy echoed Wednesday.

"Community members feel like you don't pay taxes, you don't live in our city and people generally don't think you care as much," Murphy said. "Whether that's true or not, that is the perception that a lot will have."

Police union officials have pushed back on that, saying where officers live does not affect the quality of the job they do in city neighborhoods or the relationships they build on their beats.

RELATED: Capt. Alfonso Morales is appointed interim police chief in Milwaukee

During the search for an interim new police chief, residents clearly said they wanted a chief who lived in the city, and both finalists, Alfonso Morales and Michael Brunson, emphasized that they were raising families in Milwaukee. The Fire and Police Commission appointed Morales to the post and he was sworn in last month.