It's, this is a very unusual year.
We are not, even the low lying areas are not flooding.
Oh, good news, bad news there.
Okay, standby.
Good.
Turning to Western Wisconsin, in March,
the city of La Crosse cleared 130 tons of abandoned items
at long-term overnight camping sites
along the Black River shoreline.
The campsites and others are where people
experiencing homelessness in La Crosse
had taken up residence.
As part of a five-year plan to end long-term homelessness,
bans on camping on city property are already in place,
but with nowhere to go, campers pop up on other sites.
It's been a thorny problem for the city
between trying to help the increasing number
of unsheltered people in the aftermath of COVID
and being responsive to community calls for action.
La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds joins us now
and thanks for being here.
I appreciate you having me on, thanks so much.
So your pathways home plan states
that encampments will no longer be tolerated
once your new homeless response system is up and running.
Is that system up and running?
No, no, it's not.
And just to be clear, the removal of items
from along the Black River was not associated
with the pathway's home plan
and that future ban on encampments,
what that was back in February, our emergency manager,
response manager identified a threat
of potential flooding in the area where people were settled.
And last year when we had really high water,
there was a need to rescue folks from that area
when the water came up.
So we decided that it would be,
it would mitigate those risks this year
by cleaning that area out,
not only removing all the debris and items
that would, you know,
slow down the river during a flood system,
but also removing people from harm's way.
As it turns out, this year is a particularly low water year
and that area may or may not flood in the next couple of weeks.
So, but we felt back in February
that it was judicious of us to move forward
with moving all these stuff out of that area
and having people vacate that as well.
But it was not specifically related to pathway's home.
So as to pathway's home,
I know that one prong of it says that to relocate campers,
there would be surge placement in shelters or other housing.
Is that surge placement happening?
We don't have that yet.
Now, implementation of pathway's home plan began in January.
And at this point what we're doing is data collection,
making sure that we know who everyone is,
where everyone is, what their specific needs are,
how we can fit them into the support services
that are going to be provided by the county
and other service agencies,
as well as what are the availability
of some of the housing options that we have in our community.
And frankly, that's a big step
in getting that data put together
of the individuals that we're dealing with
and being able to share that data.
And there's some legal steps that have to happen there as well,
because it's not a coordinated entry list
that typically exists within the COC,
but more it's a list that is part of the pathway's home plan
that is driven by the county and the city.
So it's a little bit of a little bit inside baseball there,
but it's a significant amount of work
just to get that list together.
So that's the first part.
And then we move on to the other parts
that include where we identify the surge housing,
how much we need our surge emergency shelter,
how much we need,
because we don't really want shelters,
we want to move people directly from being on shelter
to a housing option immediately.
According to the city's documentation,
there are about 200 individuals and 20 families
experiencing chronic homelessness in La Crosse,
described kind of the three prongs
of the pathway's home program
to try to get people into permanent housing.
Well, there's, well, okay,
there's a number of in three prongs.
There's, it's complicated, frankly,
but, and just to be clear,
not everybody who is chronically homeless
is living, again, a tent in the marsh right now.
We do have dozens of people who are living
in various places throughout the city
who are in, you know, in various spots,
like in our, in the marsh and the forest areas
and places that are not in La Crosse.
A lot of people, and this is typical,
we have people in our community who are not,
they are, you know,
they may have temporary shelter with a friend
or in, you know, in a relative's spare bedroom
or on a couch or something along those lines.
We have families that are,
we've had a lot of issues with children
who are homeless in the city of La Crosse
for a really long time.
I mean, part of this is really just
in one of these areas of Pathways Home Plan
is just trying to create more housing options
in the city and this work that we're doing
all the time and frankly,
that's the most critical part of the Pathways Home Plan
is that providing adequate supportive services
is another absolutely critical part.
But the most important part of Pathways Home
is having the city and the county
be the ones who are driving the bus,
being the ones who are managing the homeless response.
This is just, it's almost exactly
what the city and county Milwaukee did as,
and in fact, I just talked to Hector Colone this morning,
who is now head of Lutheran Social Services
and was the Executive Director of Milwaukee County Health
Human Services and they orchestrated that a path
to almost functional zero in Milwaukee County
by doing this very same thing.
And from my perspective, that's the most critical part
is that the city and the county are for the first time ever,
getting together and really managing the response
to homelessness and we're not leaving it
to private service agencies,
we're directing traffic on this one.
And I think that accountability for me,
that that's the most critical part of it.
But certainly the providing supportive services
and then providing adequate housing,
finding that adequate housing,
that is an absolutely essential part of this.
Because how hard is it for you as mayor
to see this enduring problem?
Feels like failure every single day.
That's how it feels.
It's constant work, it's exhausting,
but I'm not gonna quit.
It is absolutely critical for our community
to address the needs of the most vulnerable.
For those individuals
and for our community as well.
We have to be able to believe
that we are a kind of community
that looks out for those who are living on the edge of the abyss.
It's critical work and it's something I've completely dedicated to.
But yeah, Frederica, it feels like failure every single day.
Does the city and county of La Crosse have the capacity and resources
to meet your goal of eliminating long-term homelessness by 2029?
We do. We need more.
I mean, when I was speaking of New York alone this morning,
we were talking about the need for there
to be community support through various donations,
support through business, community organizations,
individuals, that type of thing. It's gonna take money.
And I think that that's something that we'll be working on.
But we have resources,
but the county has personnel resources that they can utilize.
They just had to shift focus away from homelessness
and more towards the needs of the homeless individuals,
their mental health needs,
their the addiction issues that they face, that type of thing.
And I think that they're more than willing to do that.
But also because there is coordination between the city and the county.
So there's definitely going to be some financial resources that we need.
And there's definitely going to be a need to create more housing options
within the city of La Crosse.
We leave it there, Mayor Mitch Reynolds. Thanks very much.
I appreciate you having me on. Thank you so much.
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 Vreiberg.
Have a good weekend.
Thank you.
There's nothing in statute that requires them to do that.
There's no obligation for counties to do it.
It just, it takes, it takes a dedication of almost individuals of a county board,
of a county administration.
There's nothing in statute that requires them to do that.
There's no obligation for counties to do it.
It just, it takes, it takes a dedication of almost individuals of a county board,
of a county administration.