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Two years ago, we checked in with the mayor of La Crosse, who was painfully confronting

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surging numbers of people experiencing homelessness and living in encampments.

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In response to the problem, the city, county, and local organizations banded together in

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a concerted effort to get people into housing.

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The five-year Pathways Home Plan launched in 2024, when 300 people were counted as unhoused

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in La Crosse.

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Today, that number is under 200, the goal to get to a functional zero homeless population

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by 2029.

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We're joined now by Jim Dries, the La Crosse County Homeless Response Systems Manager,

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and co-lead of Pathways Home.

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And thanks very much for being here.

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You bet.

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So what stands out about how the Pathways Home Plan is moving the needle on homelessness

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in La Crosse?

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I think we've always had a dozen plus organizations here in nonprofits supporting this community.

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What was really critical was just getting alignment.

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And so really sharing common information, a by-name list of anyone experiencing homelessness,

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easy ways to get into our system, and then weekly coordination, where we have a dozen

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plus agencies really working together.

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I think just achieving that alignment was really important in terms of making a lot

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of progress.

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What are the greatest needs and greatest barriers to getting people into housing?

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Yeah, one of the things we look at with folks is we want to place them into housing that's

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appropriate for their level of need.

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So we'll categorize folks that need anywhere from a light need to moderate, which we consider

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once a week, intensive, which is daily support.

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And really in our system, a lot of our reductions in homelessness count have been with those

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light and moderate needs, easier to place, easier to house.

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Our biggest challenge right now is folks that have intensive support needs.

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So daily support, sometimes overnight monitoring, typically related to mental health trauma,

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sometimes substance use, and that's just as shortage in our system.

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These tend to be the folks that have been unhoused the longest.

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I get categorized as chronically homeless.

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And the longer someone's unhoused, the higher their level of need is usually.

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And so the Pathways Home Program includes these kind of wraparound services.

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Yeah, so really our goal is developing a wide range of housing and a wide range of support

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services.

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Part of our challenge is a lot of our really good programs helping folks with mental health

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substance use, housing stability issues require a level of stability that often the unhoused

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population doesn't have.

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So we've really extended our outreach into the community.

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People don't have to come into our building or into an agency.

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We are out almost daily in terms of both general and targeted outreach because it really takes

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building trust and connection to help people, you know, get involved in the right programs

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that lead them to the appropriate housing.

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What does functional zero mean as stated as a goal by 2029?

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Yeah, it recognizes that we won't always be able to prevent someone from becoming unhoused.

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But when they do, it's critically important that we get them re-housed quickly.

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And so there's two measures that we think about with functional zero.

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One, that number of unhoused people in our community should be lower than our ability,

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our proven ability to house people in a given month.

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So right now we're housing about nine people a month.

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So we need our count to be under nine.

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That would say our system's capable of rehousing them.

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And so the target is to rehouse everyone within 30 days.

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Well, what kind of success have you had in eliminating people living in winter and camp

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months?

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Yeah.

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So really that's where the city and county collaboration comes in because this is an

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issue that affects police, it affects parks, it affects fire department, emergency response,

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it affects community services.

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So the city of La Crosse created a camping ban, which really became the catalyst for

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clearing out encampments.

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We are really trying to focus on everyone having a shelter option.

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Right now we don't have enough emergency shelter beds on there.

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But we do have extra overnight capacity during the winter, recognizing how critical that people

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have a place to stay overnight when it's cold.

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What are kind of the benchmark goals between now and 2029?

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Yeah, it really is reaching functional zero and that's taking our count, which is a little

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under 200 right now, down to say under 10 in terms of doing that.

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Average duration of homelessness, taking that down to under 30 days up there.

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The other thing we had to really adjust in our system was it's not just about getting

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folks housed.

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Once folks are housed, historically in our system unaddressed issues would lead to evictions

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falling behind on rent, other issues there.

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And so really we've started this housing stability tracker where when people are moved

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in, we're staying connected.

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Who's staying connected?

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How are we checking in?

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And so really that housing stability tracker would say, you know, the best systems in our

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country right now are tracking at 70 to 80 percent housing retention after two years.

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So it doesn't always work for everyone, but again, we want to place them in places

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where they can retain housing, get the support they need.

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How fulfilling is it to see this movement toward finding this sustainable or stable housing

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for the unhoused?

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Yes, it's a mixed bag.

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It's hard to celebrate a milestone of going under 200 when you still have people unsheltered

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in your community on there.

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The team is super dedicated in terms of connecting with people.

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So I do think we take success with each move in.

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I remind folks all the time that every number we put out there on our dashboard is connected

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to a person with a name and a story.

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And so we have good days that we celebrate move-ins.

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We have tough days where there's a remission or someone lost housing.

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And so we try to stay steady.

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We see ourselves as the backbone of this system, providing consistent options and resources

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for housing and supportive services.

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All right, we leave it there.

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Jim Dries, La Crosse, thanks so much.

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You're welcome.

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I do have one other question, and that is, is Pathways Home in La Crosse considered a

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model or did you model it off other programs around the country?

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Yeah, I think it was a hybrid of that.

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So built for zero is a nonprofit that often is looking at best practices on addressing

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homelessness.

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There were certainly discussions with Milwaukee, Rockford, other places that were further

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along in there.

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So I would say we looked at evidence-based practices, and probably one thing that stood

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out for us, especially for medium-sized community, or let's say La Crosse-sized communities,

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is having local government involvement.

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I think bigger systems, you see a lot of studies on New York City and Los Angeles, where the

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numbers are quite different, and they can host entire departments and nonprofits that

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are well-structured for that.

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Our collection's a little bit smaller.

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So I would say, built for zero and community import, built out the plan.

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Great.

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So interesting.

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And thank you for your time on this.

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Oh, thanks for publicizing this.

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I think we try to do our best to tell the numbers as they are.

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We talk about transparency and accountability on there.

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That's the good days and bad days on there.

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People maybe sometimes think the number's too high or too low, and it is our best understanding

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of a complex dynamic system.

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Yeah.

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I appreciate that.

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All right.

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All right.

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Thank you.

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You too.

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Bye-bye.

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Happy and great.

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Bye-bye.