Thank you.
Over one night this week,
Wisconsin volunteers fanned out to
find the number of people
experiencing homelessness in
what's called a point-in-time
count.
There are some 5,000 people without
shelter in the state, and now 10
counties in northeast Wisconsin
are scrambling to find places
for people to stay after
a nonprofit provider of homeless
services abruptly closed
due to bankruptcy.
An organization called
the Balance of State Continuum
of Care.
Which covers 69 counties
in Wisconsin, is rushing in
to respond, along with
state agencies and other programs.
Balance of State Homeless Systems
Manager, Ryan Graham, joins
us now.
And Ryan, thanks very much for being
here.
No, thank you for having me.
So how many people served by the
bankrupt provider of services are
at risk of homelessness in those
10 counties?
Well, you know, I think there
was 134 households that were
served in the direct homeless
housing programs that we were able
to maintain
housing for, but there's a
significant amount of homeless folks
still in that community that
are in need of housing
and you know that
lack of services
and the closing of that agency
really creates a gap in
institutional knowledge, it creates
a gap in process and systems
and all the things that were
established there, you know, and
looking for resources and
reestablishing that is going to take
a considerable amount of effort.
Just stepping back at
the whole picture, is the number
of people in Wisconsin experiencing
homelessness on the rise?
I would say yes, we just did our
point in time count Wednesday.
We are in the process
of our post pit count,
meaning we still up for a week after
our point in time counted.
We are still looking to engage and
identify those folks who are
connecting with services in that
week prior to the count so we can
include those folks.
And so the data is not out yet,
but we haven't
fixed the housing problem.
We haven't fix the lack of
services problem. So.
Um, and affordability of living
just in general has not
gotten any better.
So yeah, I do expect, um,
the housing problem to increase now.
Because how important is that
kind of point in time count
toward understanding the
needs out there.
It's very important.
You know, it's really our only data
point that includes folks
that we are engaging with that are
sleeping outside, so unsheltered
or places not meant for habitation,
folks that are sheltered, engaged
with housing programs, but also
our DV population.
And so while we
obviously do not
locate everybody who's experiencing
homelessness in that night or the
week prior,
we're really comfortable saying it's
at minimum, this is what our
homeless problem is.
Um, and it's a good place to see,
see trends, right?
Because of the structure and the way
that's been set up consistently for
years, it's really good data
point to look at trends and, and
how, uh, homelessness is
and how we're responding to
homelessness, uh in Wisconsin.
Is there enough state, federal and
other funding to cover resources
needed for this work?
Not even remote.
We are really working hard
to do as much as we can with
pennies of what we need to do the
work.
And that takes a collaborative
effort. So we work hard in
all of our counties, really to
build that collaboration
and work together to try and
problem solve and figure out
solutions for people experiencing
homelessness.
As to federal funding, that
point-in-time count, I understand,
is used to apply for federal grants
for housing services.
What kind of uncertainty in
that federal funding is there right
now?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a
significant amount of uncertainty.
You know, I think, you know, looking
at the federal C O C program,
uh, through HUD, you know,
they're looking at making
significant changes away from
permanent supportive housing, uh
programs that we know to be
effective and moving more towards
transitional, uh non permanent
supportive, uh permanent supportive
housing or permanent housing
efforts.
Um, You know, so
I think that's a significant
change without protecting the folks
that were already housed in
these programs. And so there's
a, a significant shift
that is gonna provide, I think a lot
of housing insecurity for
folks who were
previously homeless, now are
securely housed.
And we don't know what that's gonna
look like here moving forward.
So there's lot of uncertainty that
way.
We leave it there, Ryan Graham.
Thanks very much.
Yeah, happy.
For more on this and other issues
facing Wisconsin, visit our website
at pbswisconsin.org
and then click on the news tab.
That's our program for tonight.
I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a good weekend.
Thank you.
That's too bad.
Yeah. Well, thank you for your work.
It's unfortunate.