“Just don’t do it,” Mayor Tom Barrett said. “The few bucks that can be made or saved are not worth it.”

A month ago, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sophomore Chad Shihata lived in a house with seven roommates on the 2900 block of N Cramer St. Shihata still lives there, but the number of total residents is down from eight to three.

Shihata and his fellow roommates were violating the city ordinance that permits no more than three unrelated people from living together, and they got caught.

Now the three remaining tenants are possibly left paying $2,500 a month for rent between the three of them, and their landlord, Steven M. Simon, is facing fines of up to $27,971.

In the past, minimum fines for landlords were $500 for each property caught in violation, but July 1, the minimum penalty want up to $2,500 per property and can go up to $5,000 for each violation.

Mayor Tom Barrett was at UWM Oct.5 to announce the increase in penalties and used Simon as an example.

“Just don’t do it,” Barrett said. “The few bucks that can be made or saved are not worth it.”

Ironically, Simon purchased the properties from previous owner Mazin J. Hamdan of Greendale, who sold the properties to Simon after he was charged with overcrowding in those exact same properties.

Now Simon is charged with 12 citations for fire code violations and renting his properties to too many unrelated people on the East Side. The minimum fine Simon faces is $16,801 and could go up to $27,971.

In Barrett’s speech in front of the UWM Klotsche Center, he stressed that safety was his main concern.

“When parents send their kids to college, they expect their kids to be safe,” Barrett said.

Milwaukee Fire Chief, Doug Holton, backed the mayor and said that attics and basements with only one stairway are not safe to be living in.

“To go up the stairway is the equivalent of going up a chimney,” Holton said about climbing down the stairs from an attic during a fire. Likewise in the basement, Holton said carbon monoxide given off from old gas stoves in the basement is a concern along with potential mildew problems.

While both Holton and Barrett cited multiple safety concerns, Shihata and other students argue that the supposed safety concerns for students is no different than for families, and yet more than three people can live together if they are related.

Ron Roberts, Milwaukee Zoning Enforcement Supervisor, said that the city is concerned that students living with eight people may not know each other very well and wouldn’t look out for each other in an emergency situation. A family, on the other hand, may be more apt to know exactly where each family member is at the time of the emergency.

Shihata said, however, that he wasn’t just living with random people; he knew each of his seven roommates.

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