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Over one night this week Wisconsin volunteers

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Fanned out to find the number of people

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Experiencing homelessness in what's called

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A point in time count.

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There are some 5,000 people without shelter in the state and

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Now 10 counties in northeast Wisconsin are scrambling to

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Find places for people to stay after a nonprofit provider

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Of homeless services abruptly closed due to bankruptcy.

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An organization called the balance of state continuum of

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Care which covers 69 counties in Wisconsin is rushing

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In to respond along with state agencies and other programs.

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Balance of state homeless systems manager Ryan Graham joins us

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Now.

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Ryan thanks very much for being here.

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Yeah thank you for having me.

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So how many people served by the bankrupt provider of

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Services are at risk of homelessness in those 10

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Counties?

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Well you know I think

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There was 134 households that were served in

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The direct homeless housing programs that we were

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We were able to

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Maintain housing for it but there's a significant amount of

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Homeless folks still in that community that are in need of

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Housing and

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You know that lack of

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Services and that closing of that agency

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Really creates a gap in institutional knowledge that creates

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A gap in process and systems and

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All the things that were established there

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You know and looking for resources and re-establishing

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That is going to take

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A considerable amount of effort

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Just stepping back at the whole picture is the number of

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People in Wisconsin experiencing homelessness on the rise?

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I would say yes.

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You know we just did our point in time count Wednesday

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We are in the process of our post pit count

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Meaning we still up for a week after our point in time count

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We are still looking to engage and

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Identify those folks who are connecting with

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Services in that week prior to the council

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We can include those folks

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And so the data is not out yet

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But you know

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We haven't fixed the housing problem

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We haven't fixed the lack of

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Services problems so

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An affordability of living

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Just in general has not gotten any better

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So yeah I do expect

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The housing problem to increase

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Not decrease

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Because how important is that kind of point in time count

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Toward understanding the needs out there

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It's very important

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You know it's really our only data point that includes

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Folks that we are engaging with that are sleeping on

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Outside so unsheltered

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Our place is not meant for habitation

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Folks that are sheltered engage with housing programs

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But also our DV population

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And so while

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We

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Obviously do not locate everybody

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Who's experiencing homelessness in that night or the week prior

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We're really comfortable saying it's at minimum

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This is what our homeless problem is

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And it's a good place to see

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See trends right because of the structure and the way that's been set up consistently for years

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It's a really good data point to look at trends and how

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Homelessness is and how we're responding to homelessness in Wisconsin

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Is there enough state federal and other funding to cover resources needed for this work?

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Not even remote

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We are really working hard to do as much as we can

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With pennies of what we need to do the work

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And that takes a collaborative effort

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So we work hard in all of our counties

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You know really to build that collaboration

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And work together to try and problem solve and figure out solutions

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For people experiencing homelessness

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As to federal funding

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That point in time count I understand is used to apply for federal grants

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For housing services

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What kind of uncertainty in that federal funding is there right now?

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Yeah, I mean I think there's a significant amount of uncertainty

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You know I think you know looking at the federal COC program

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Through HUD you know they're looking at making significant changes

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Away from permanent supportive housing programs

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That we know to be affected

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And moving more towards transitional

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Non-permanent supportive housing

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Permanent housing or permanent housing efforts

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You know so I think that's a significant change

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Without protecting the folks that were already housed in these programs

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And so there's a significant shift

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That is going to provide I think a lot of housing and security

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For folks who were previously homeless

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Now are securely housed

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And we don't know what that's going to look like

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Here moving forward

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So there's a lot of uncertainty that way

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We leave it there Ryan Graham

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Thanks very much

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Yeah, happy soon

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For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin

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Visit our website at pbswisconsin.org

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And then click on the news tab

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That's our program for tonight

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I'm Frederica Fryberg, have a good weekend

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Thank you

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It's too bad

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Yeah, well thank you for your work