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• Measles was once declared eliminated in the U.S., but it’s spreading again. And now it has reached Wisconsin. State health officials on Saturday announced nine cases in Oconto County — the first infections confirmed in the state this year.
• Older Wisconsin residents recall painful and disruptive bouts with childhood measles during the pre-vaccine era. Some are still affected, such as those who lost their hearing as a result. 
• Of the estimated 3 to 4 million Americans infected each year before vaccinations, an estimated 48,000 were hospitalized and 400 to 500 died.
• Health professionals are preparing to recognize the signs of a disease they’ve rarely, if ever, treated — and to respond to potential outbreaks.

The measles started like a typical childhood illness for Dorothy Thompson — with just a runny nose. But she soon developed itchy red blotches across her skin and a fever so high doctors feared it could cause brain damage. She was just 5 years old, but decades later, some of her memories remain vivid.

“It was so horrible,” recalled Thompson, 72, of Richland Center. “I would never wish it on anyone.”

In the years before a measles vaccine became widely available in the 1960s, Thompson’s experience was not uncommon. Nearly every child in the United States caught measles before age 15. What many considered a normal part of childhood was disruptive and even deadly. It wasn’t unusual for students to go home from school sick. In hundreds of cases each year, they never returned. 

After vaccine advances eliminated the virus in the U.S., measles is spreading again. More than 1,300 measles cases have been confirmed across 41 states, the latest being Wisconsin. 

The state Department of Health Services on Saturday announced it confirmed nine measles infections in Oconto County — the first in Wisconsin this year. 

To understand what the reemergence of measles might look like, Wisconsin Watch spoke with residents who contracted the disease decades ago as children, including some who still live with complications today. They described high fevers and days of bed-ridden isolation during the infections, as well as lasting damage to their bodies — like the hearing loss some live with now.

Health professionals across the state told Wisconsin Watch they’re preparing to recognize the signs of a disease they’ve rarely, if ever, treated — and to respond to potential outbreaks.

When nothing stopped measles

In the days when measles ran rampant, medical treatment was limited. Families largely cared for sick children at home, relying on home remedies and passed-down knowledge, or the occasional house call from a doctor.

Thompson remembers her days sick at home. Her mother applied calamine lotion to relieve itching around her rashes, and Thompson was required to stay in a dark room wearing sunglasses for fear that the disease would damage her eyes. The worst part, she recalled, was being packed in ice to manage her over 100-degree fever.

Other common treatments in decades past included isolating to prevent spreading the virus to others and spending days in bed until symptoms wore off. 

With no vaccine to block infections, some officials advised parents to have their children catch measles early — particularly for daughters, so they would be less likely to contract it later during a pregnancy. 

Newspaper accounts in the 1950s and 1960s described the phenomenon of “measles parties,” in which children were deliberately exposed to others infected with the virus.

Those also applied to German measles, or rubella, a milder virus linked to severe birth defects during pregnancy. 

Kathleen Cooper of Rhinelander remembers those parties. When she ultimately caught measles at age 6, she was confined to a darkened room and prevented from watching television due to fears that bright light might cause blindness — similar to what Thompson recalled.

Cooper was supposed to attend a birthday party that weekend. Instead, the party came to her.

“That’s how they treated it back then,” said Cooper, now 73. “If one kid in the neighborhood got the chickenpox or the measles, everybody went over to their house so the mothers could just get it over with, because it was just something that you had to get through.”

Lasting toll from measles

But measles parties did not protect people from the misery of the disease. Infections only spread. 

“I was ill and bedridden for weeks. When I was finally able to get up I was a skeleton. My pants couldn’t stay up and my clothes hung on me,” Door County resident Pam Goodlet recalled of a measles bout in 1963 as a 13-year-old. 

Delirious with fever and unable to eat or drink water, Goodlet stayed hydrated by sucking on ice cubes. She recalled being visited by a doctor just once and was never taken to a hospital or clinic.

Goodlet ultimately recovered without long-term health consequences, but many others weren’t so lucky.

Of the estimated 3 to 4 million Americans infected each year before vaccinations, an estimated 48,000 were hospitalized and 400 to 500 died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

In 1967, a column published in the Waukesha Daily Freeman described the stories of children whose lives were permanently altered by the disease. 

They included a Watertown toddler who was hospitalized and diagnosed with a cognitive impairment after an infection that occurred one year before vaccines became widely available in 1963. 

“Too late for Valerie,” the toddler’s mother reportedly lamented.

Another child was described as healthy until developing encephalitis — a dangerous inflammation of the brain — at the age of 2 due to measles. The condition left her mentally impaired and also deaf, the newspaper reported. An estimated 1,000 children annually suffered encephalitis from measles in the pre-vaccination era.

Leslie Fedorchuk of Milwaukee still lives with the effects of her measles infection.

She was about 6 years old when she realized something wasn’t right with her hearing. As her mother’s friend kept dialing her home’s wall-mounted phone, Fedorchuk, perched on a chair to reach it, would answer, hear nothing and hang up.

It took her mother picking up to realize her friend was speaking each time, but Fedorchuk couldn’t hear from her right ear. The episode happened shortly after Fedorchuk contracted measles and mumps simultaneously.

“I’m in my 70s, and I’ve lived with it my whole life,” Fedorchuk said. “When I hear people say, ‘Oh, nothing can happen if you don’t get a vaccination,’ I think, ‘Oh, yeah, something can definitely happen.’”

Peggy Haas, 69, a registered nurse in Waukesha County, became a firm believer in vaccines after witnessing the damage measles could inflict.

While finishing her master’s degree at Marquette University in 1987, she taught undergraduate students in the pediatrics ward at St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee. One day she assigned a student to care for a woman in her 20s who, due to measles complications, had the developmental capacity of an infant.

“She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t feed herself, she couldn’t even walk,” Haas said. “That was the first time I’d seen anybody who had failed to vaccinate their child and what it could do.”

Potential measles complications run the gamut from ear infections and diarrhea to more serious issues like pneumonia and encephalitis. Such brain swelling can cause permanent tissue damage, leading to hearing loss or other serious neurological complications.

Some potential effects aren’t immediately visible. Measles can disrupt the part of the immune system that remembers previous infections, a phenomenon known as immunity amnesia. That leaves people more vulnerable to future viruses for two to three years after a measles infection.

“For example, if you’ve been immunized for polio, and then you get a measles infection, the immunity you had to polio could be wiped out or reduced,” said Malia Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology. “You wouldn’t even know that you’re susceptible to some of this stuff.”

The mortality rate for measles is just 1 in 1,000, but the risk of a weakened immune system makes the toll of measles higher, Jones noted. And while medical care has dramatically improved since the 1960s, no specific treatment exists for measles today.

“We just offer supportive care — in the hospital for those who become very sick — and hope for the best,” Jones said.

Vaccine was ‘a turning point in public health’ 

By the 1960s, vaccine breakthroughs showed that cases of measles were preventable. 

The first measles vaccine was licensed in the U.S. in 1963. By 1971 it was combined with vaccines for mumps and rubella, paving the way for the MMR vaccine used today. 

Early uptake was limited, and in 1983, the MMR vaccine was only routinely recommended for 1-year-olds.

But it soon became clear that a single dose fell short of offering full long-term protection. A second dose was added in 1989 to the routine schedule for children before starting school. Taking two vaccine doses is about 97% effective at preventing measles, the CDC says, compared to 93% for one dose.

The two-dose regimen initiated more regular contact between young children and health care providers. That led to more early developmental checks, including hearing, vision and behavioral assessments now standard in pediatric care. It also paved the way for childhood vaccination schedules to prevent other diseases, said Dr. Jim Conway, a UW-Madison professor in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Global Pediatrics.

“The MMR vaccine was a really major turning point in public health,” he said.

By the early 2000s, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it wasn’t continuously spreading for a period longer than a year. 

How health officials are responding

But the virus is back, with the U.S. seeing more than four times as many infections in 2025 than in all of 2024. And it has now been detected in Wisconsin. 

In Oconto County, “all of the cases were exposed to a common source during out-of-state travel,” the state health department said in a statement Saturday.

“DHS, in coordination with the Oconto County Public Health, is working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed to the measles virus,” the statement said. “At this time no public points of exposure have been identified and the risk to the community remains low.”  

Wisconsin is vulnerable to an outbreak due to its relatively low childhood vaccination rates. It is one of just 15 states that allow vaccine exemptions for medical, religious and personal belief reasons. No Wisconsin county comes close to reaching the vaccination rate of 95% that is considered the benchmark for herd immunity protection. 

Public health officials are bracing themselves to respond.

Jennifer Weitzel, director for public health in Sauk County, said her department began closely monitoring measles this year after a Texas outbreak resulted in hundreds of infections and killed two unvaccinated school children. The department is being attentive as popular destinations like Wisconsin Dells and Devil’s Lake draw out-of-state visitors this summer. Just 70% of Sauk County’s kindergarten-aged children received two doses of the vaccine in 2024, down from 76% in 2019. 

The health department is working with providers and doctors to communicate the important protections vaccines bring. 

“I think that’s part of the challenge … no one sees these diseases anymore, so we forget just how effective vaccines have been and how awful these diseases really are,” Weitzel said.

Her colleagues coordinate tabletop exercises with other health departments, including those in Richland County and the Ho-Chunk Nation, practicing communication and response protocols in worst-case scenarios.

Health officials say they are trying to build trust in an era of misinformation surrounding viruses and vaccines. 

“Public health also took a big hit during COVID,” Weitzel said. “Folks are leery of government overreach, of recommendations, so we’re trying to build back that trust at a time where it’s critical, because measles is spreading, and we know that we could prevent it.”

But Holly Neri, a public health nurse in Door County, sees some positives from the COVID-19 pandemic: It prompted public health professionals to better prepare for virus outbreaks.

Door County nurses have sought to make sure patients are up to date on vaccinations. A state immunization grant for purchasing vaccines has helped, Neri said. The goal is for at least 78% of Door County children to be current on their vaccines by age 2, including MMR.

Their department is sharing information with local medical providers about identifying and responding to measles. 

Some groups, such as pregnant women and very young infants, cannot be safely vaccinated. That makes it particularly important for others to do so — aiming to get as close to herd immunity as possible, said Rebecca Wold, public health supervisor for the Oneida County Health Department. 

“If you’re not sure of your immunity or vaccination status, you don’t have any record of having a measles vaccine or having had measles as a child, it is safe to get a measles vaccine, and we would recommend it,” Wold said.

Want more information about measles? 

See this guide from Wisconsin Watch that rounds up medical professionals’ recommendations for protecting yourself and others. 

Door County Knock reporter Emily Small contributed to this report. 

‘I would never wish it on anyone:’ Measles resurgence spurs memories of past toll in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Before the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Americans faced measles infections each year. The advent of vaccination eliminated the disease in the United States by 2000. But outbreaks have returned to some U.S. communities as trust in vaccines wanes in many communities.

More than 1,300 measles cases have been confirmed this year across 41 states, the latest being Wisconsin. That’s after the state Department of Health Services on Saturday announced it confirmed nine measles infections in Oconto County — the first in Wisconsin this year. 

Each Oconto County infection involved exposure to a “common source during out-of-state travel,” the state health department said in a statement. 

“DHS, in coordination with the Oconto County Public Health, is working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed to the measles virus,” the statement said. “At this time no public points of exposure have been identified and the risk to the community remains low.”  

What should Wisconsin families know about measles? 

Wisconsin Watch spoke with two University of Wisconsin-Madison experts: Dr. Jim Conway, a professor in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Global Pediatrics; and Malia Jones, an assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health.

We gathered additional information from officials at multiple rural public health departments across Wisconsin and reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Below are some takeaways. 

When and where am I most susceptible to measles?

That depends on individual health and vaccination status. Very young people (especially infants too young to be vaccinated), older adults and people with compromised immune systems face higher risks for contracting measles and developing severe complications.

Measles tends to spread more easily in crowded urban environments and during travel. However, it can spread anywhere, as evidenced by recent rural outbreaks, including those in Texas, where hundreds of infections have been confirmed and two school children have died. All it really takes is exposure to an infected person. Measles is one of the most highly contagious known diseases. It can remain infectious in the air or on surfaces even after an infected person leaves the area.

To put it in perspective, measles is often reported to have an R nought value — the number used to describe contagiousness — between 12 and 18. That means if one person with measles walked into a room of vulnerable people, odds are they would infect 12 to 18 others in the room. 

What should I do if I start having measles symptoms?

Measles often starts with general cold-like symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes, making it hard to immediately recognize. The rash typically appears a few days after infection — and after a contagious person may have exposed others. 

If you think you might have measles or have been exposed to it, contact your local health department or healthcare provider immediately — especially if you’re unvaccinated or traveled to an area where cases were reported.  Suspected cases can be reported to local health departments even before confirmation, allowing officials to respond more quickly. Experts recommend staying home while waiting for test results to avoid spreading the virus.

What are the risks of measles?

While some think of measles as a mild childhood illness that everyone used to get, it can be dangerous. The disease can lead to a range of complications, from ear infections and diarrhea to more severe pneumonia or brain-swelling encephalitis. Such brain inflammation can affect multiple parts of the body and even cause permanent damage, especially to the brain and hearing. 

Meanwhile, a  rare but fatal long-term brain disease called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis can develop years after the initial infection. 

Some people infected by measles may experience neurological issues or nerve damage later in life.

One lesser-known risk factor: Measles can disrupt the part of the immune system that remembers previous infections, a phenomenon known as immunity amnesia. That leaves people more vulnerable to future viruses for two to three years after a measles infection.

In higher-income countries measles kills 1 to 3 of every 1,000 people infected, 10% to 20% of infections requiring hospitalization — often due to pneumonia, dehydration or severe diarrhea. Encephalitis occurs in about 1 in 1,000 cases, and pneumonia occurs in about 5% of infections. Children who are malnourished or have limited access to medical care face significantly greater risks. 

U.S. health officials have confirmed three measles-related deaths this year. 

What if I’m unsure whether I’ve had measles or the vaccine?

If you were born before 1957, you’re generally considered immune to measles because the virus was so widespread during the pre-vaccine era. Many adults born in the 1960s and 1970s may assume they’re protected when, in fact, they were never fully vaccinated, or even vaccinated at all. A second dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine wasn’t added to routine childhood immunization schedules until 1989, so many adults missed one or both recommended doses. 

The bottom-line is if there’s any uncertainty around your vaccination status, it’s safe to get vaccinated again. There’s no harm in receiving an additional dose of the MMR vaccine. In fact, an extra dose is both safe and more practical — quicker and more cost-effective than getting a blood test to check your immunity.

“More is better,” Conway said. “This is not one of the vaccines that has particularly tough side effects.”

Staying up to date not only protects you from serious illness but also helps safeguard others in your community who may be more vulnerable to complications from measles.

What can I do to protect myself and others?

Vaccination is your best defense. The MMR vaccine is the most effective way to protect yourself and those around you from measles. Make sure you’ve received both recommended doses, and stay informed about outbreaks in your community, especially if you’re traveling or belong to a vulnerable group.

Visit these resources for more information

• About measles (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• How to protect your children during a measles outbreak (American Academy of Pediatrics)
• Measles cases are rising—here’s how to protect your family (Public Good News)
• How are routine vaccines tested for safety? (Public Good News)
• No, vitamin A does not prevent measles (Public Good News)

Measles has made it to Wisconsin. Here’s what to know about the virus. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Rent Smart, a free, six-module course developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, educates people about the essentials of renting. It aims to serve people from high school students and incarcerated individuals to people in homeless shelters.
  
• Completion of the course earns renters a certificate that could make their applications more desirable to landlords.
  
• The interactive classes are accessible online, and they include “Train the Trainer” opportunities for professionals who want to educate renters in their own communities. Educators in Brown County are offering additional in-person training.

In an increasingly tough housing market, a University of Wisconsin program seeks to give renters a leg up in their search for safe, affordable housing by educating them about the process and improving their standing with landlords. 

Rent Smart, a free, six-module course developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, covers the essentials of renting — everything from what’s affordable, what to look for during an apartment inspection and what to ask a landlord while applying. 

“How do we create a really good business relationship between tenants and landlords? I think Rent Smart can help with that,” said Todd Wenzel, a UW-Madison Extension human development and relationships educator in Winnebago County and one of two state co-chairs of the program.

The program aims to serve a variety of people, from high school students and incarcerated individuals to people in homeless shelters. The interactive classes are accessible online, and they include “Train the Trainer” opportunities for professionals who want to educate renters in their own communities.

Successful participants receive a certificate outlining the modules they’ve completed. It can help renters stand out in cases when landlords receive dozens of applications for a single unit, Wenzel said.

Out of 462 people who completed the program and took a survey, 98% said they believed it “will or might help them obtain appropriate housing.” Meanwhile, 84% of those who moved after completing the course said their new housing was safe, more affordable and/or better quality.

For many participants — particularly those facing access issues, Rent Smart is their introduction to how the rental system works.

“Rent Smart (is) helping create potentially a better applicant pool of individuals,” Wenzel said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or you’re 80, or you’ve had an eviction, or you’ve been incarcerated — you have that knowledge that not only is going to help you as a tenant, but it is actually going to help the landlord.”

Patrick Leifker, executive director of the Brown County Housing Authority, said the hope is that landlords who see an applicant’s Rent Smart completion certificate will recognize the effort they’ve put in, whether that means overlooking past evictions or other challenges that might otherwise disadvantage the renter.

Rent Smart offers classes on Zoom 10 months out of the year. The remaining two months are dedicated to teaching people to administer the program locally, expanding the program’s reach. 

That’s what’s happening in Brown County, where Rent Smart trainers are working on making the curriculum more accessible. Previously, most Brown County trainers offered training only within their own organizations, Leifker said. Now, trainers are offering the classes to the broader public.

Rent Smart: just part of the housing solution 

Leifker believes programs like Rent Smart can promote housing stability for Brown County residents who most need it. 

Brown County, like many Wisconsin communities, is seeing housing prices and homelessness rise. 

Wisconsin’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment reached $1,204 this year, an increase of nearly 7% from 2024, according to a National Low Income Housing Coalition report released in July. Fair Market Rents estimate a typical amount a household moving today would pay for a “modest, decent-quality rental home,” according to the report.

Brown County residents must earn $22.06 per hour to afford Fair Market Rent, the report found. It’s the ninth highest wage among counties in Wisconsin, up from 12th highest in 2024.

Meanwhile, Brown County’s annual summer point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness on a single night on July 23 identified 123 unsheltered people on the streets, a preliminary figure that does not include people in homeless shelters. That was up from 31 people counted in July 2019, according to the nonprofit Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care. The figures are widely viewed as an undercount of the true homeless population.

Worsening housing challenges have prompted several Brown County organizations to step in, with some turning to renter education and landlord engagement.

Efforts to educate landlords, too 

The outreach includes making sure landlords understand what to expect when renting to housing assistance recipients.

Much of this work traces back to the formation of a landlord engagement work group as part of a broader plan to tackle homelessness in the region. The workgroup is now part of the Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition. It allows landlords to share real-time feedback on what’s working and what isn’t. 

“For a long time … we knew that we needed each other,” Leifker said. “They needed us to help their tenants ensure that the rent was being paid on time. We knew we needed them for places for our renters to live, but it was really kind of almost on two parallel lines and we never intersected.”

Bill Paape, city of Green Bay inspection supervisor, brings his guidance to the work group, helping answer questions about inspection processes and procedures. 

The city, in partnership with the police department, hosts regular landlord training sessions that bring together speakers from various departments to support both new and experienced landlords. These sessions aim to address issues created by what he described as evolving housing needs and economic shifts.

“Housing is very tough to come by in certain areas, depending on the housing types and the affordability part of it,” Paape said. “So it’s trying to brainstorm what we can do together to make it easier on everybody.”

Still, more is needed to help renters and landlords stay afloat, starting with addressing the root causes of the housing crisis, said Rick Van Der Leest, president of the Apartment Association of Northeast Wisconsin and Fox Valley Apartment Association. Programs are needed that help tenants pay their rent, rather than just delay eviction. 

“Owners cannot be successful without our residents also being successful,” Van Der Leest said.

How to access Rent Smart

Brown County is offering in-person Rent Smart sessions on Thursdays throughout August, with details about September sessions to be later made available. Those interested in registering can find more information on the Brown County UW Extension website or call 920-391-4610. 

People across Wisconsin can find more information about online Rent Smart courses by visiting the UW Extension website.

Rent Smart training helps tenants navigate Wisconsin’s housing crunch is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Wisconsin’s state budget doesn’t include $24 million that Gov. Tony Evers proposed to address homelessness in the state.

• At the same time, the Trump administration is looking to pull back on resources that address housing, including consolidating a grant for permanent housing solutions into one that can only be used to provide up to two years of temporary housing.

• Rural service providers are looking to philanthropic sources and others across the state to address the growing homeless population in their local communities.

At a recent gathering of social service organizations in Brown County, participants contended with a double gut punch to their efforts to reverse Wisconsin’s recent rise in rural homelessness: almost no new support in the state budget and federal funding cuts.

The Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition, which focuses its efforts not only on the urban growth around Green Bay but also on the rural towns along the outskirts of the county, consists of at least 45 partner and supporting member organizations — representing the vast complexity of the issue they’re attempting to fix.

Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal gave them reason for hope. It included over $24 million of new funding to address homelessness.

The funding would have increased support for programs, including the Housing Assistance Program that provides support services for those experiencing homelessness and the State Shelter Subsidy Grant Program that funds shelter operations. 

But after the Republican-controlled budget committee cut Evers’ proposal, organizations were left with the same state resources they had last year, despite increasing homelessness across the state and looming cuts in federal support.

Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, who both represent mostly rural districts in Wisconsin, did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

Sen. Romaine Robert Quinn, R-Birchwood, a JFC member who represents the rural northwestern corner of Wisconsin, including the city of Shell Lake where Wisconsin Watch reported on a father and daughter experiencing homelessness, declined an interview request. Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, who represents the western part of Brown County, did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

Federal cuts coming for homeless services

President Donald Trump’s proposed federal budget reductions would cut funding for key programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including grants that many local organizations depend on to provide housing and supportive services. 

The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal funding began with a Jan. 27 executive order that temporarily paused many federal grants and financial assistance programs — including those supporting homelessness services — causing immediate disruptions for organizations like RAYS Youth Services in Green Bay.

Josh Benti, program coordinator for RAYS and homeless initiative project director for the Brown County coalition, recalled how his organization’s basic services were abruptly halted, leaving it unable to support a child in need.

Benti’s organization provides services designed to promote stability and independence for youth up to age 24. They include placement in licensed foster homes, similar to emergency shelter stays.

Shortly after Trump signed the order in January, Benti received a text from his boss saying the organization could no longer move forward with placing a child in a host home. He had to inform the child it was uncertain whether the program would be funded. 

Even after federal funds were reinstated weeks later, disbursement delays further affected how employees were paid. Benti’s role, originally salaried, was switched to hourly so that he and his colleagues could maintain their positions.

Benti explained that because RAYS’ federal funds are matched by private grants, the organization’s development staff has begun applying for grants across the state. The organization seeks to expand its services and collaborate with statewide partners to become “too big to fail.” 

“We can’t do it all by ourselves,” Benti said. “We need those funds to take care of those pieces we do every day.”  

Trump’s big bill brought new limitations to RAYS through changes to social safety net programs, such as provisions introducing new work requirements for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which limited eligibility and access of certain recipients. 

These policy shifts have raised additional concerns about the potential losses to critical areas of the organization, especially Medicaid. Reductions to the federal health care program for low-income people threaten a large portion of Foundations Health and Wholeness, a nonprofit that provides mental health care to uninsured and underinsured individuals, many of whom rely on Medicaid as a source of health coverage.

Carrie Poser, executive director of Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care — a nonprofit committed to ending homelessness — pointed out that Medicaid cuts, along with restrictions on food stamps, won’t only affect people experiencing homelessness directly. 

“It will impact those living in poverty who are maybe just … a paycheck away from becoming homeless, and now you’ve just hit them with the potential of losing their health insurance, or losing access to food,” Poser said.

The organization manages a variety of federal grants, including funding for Coordinated Entry Systems that prioritize housing resources based on need, as well as a large federal Rapid Re-housing project of more than $5 million focused on domestic violence survivors.

Trump calls for shift from permanent to temporary housing

Trump’s budget proposal could eliminate federal funding for the Continuum of Care program, funneling those resources into state grants for up to two years of housing assistance. The shift would eliminate Permanent Supportive Housing, which is geared toward homeless individuals with disabilities. Under current law, those temporary housing grants can’t be used for permanent housing.

Trump’s budget also would zero out the funding for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program.

“The top-line takeaway is that rural and suburban communities are going to suffer the most loss,” said Mary Frances Kenion, chief equity officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

About 48% of Wisconsin’s permanent supportive housing is currently funded through Continuum of Care dollars. Areas served by the outstate organization rely on federal funding for roughly 41% of their homelessness services budget.

The outstate organization also receives Housing Assistance Program grants, which it subgrants to organizations aiming to address specific gaps in their communities and offers them support that may not be available through federal funding.

Without added state support, the organization can’t expand its efforts to end homelessness, though it can maintain current levels. Currently, Housing Assistance Program funds support half a dozen projects outside Milwaukee, Dane and Racine counties, a limited reach that additional funding would have broadened for the organization.

Additionally, more state funding for shelter operations could have helped shelters pay more staff and reopen after many closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Poser said.

Now, as the demand for shelter continues to rise, other service providers also face limited resources to expand their services.

The shelter funds provide support to the Northwest Wisconsin Community Services Agency for operating its shelters. However, CEO Millie Rounsville said the funding has remained flat for years, despite growing demand for services.

“As you’re trying to create additional projects … there’s no additional resources to be able to support those and actually would take away resources from other communities because the pot is the same size and the programs are expanding, which means that there’s less money to go around, and no new money to address any of the increase in the unsheltered,” Rounsville said.

With no increases in funding, expanding programs or launching new initiatives to meet rising homelessness has become increasingly difficult.

As several housing assistance organizations face limitations to state and federal funding to maintain many of their day-to-day programs and services, Kenion urges them to take stock of existing resources and make contingency plans.

Kenion advised communities to map out what services they currently offer, whether that’s through permanent supportive housing or homelessness programs, and to clearly understand where their funding may come from. She added that rural communities, in particular, should begin having difficult conversations about their funding landscape and work to broaden partnerships such as those with faith-based groups, clinics, small businesses, victim service providers and philanthropies.

Rural areas face challenges accessing support

Don Cramer, a researcher for the Wisconsin Policy Forum, points to some of the difficulty rural areas might face in obtaining funding to address homelessness. 

In rural parts of the state, limited staff capacity could mean that local agencies miss out on some of the state and federal funding opportunities that their urban counterparts are able to obtain. Cramer suggested that larger cities with high homeless populations, like Milwaukee, typically have more staff and time to dedicate to pursuing grants, while smaller counties, even those with higher homeless populations, often don’t have the employees who focus their time exclusively on applying for these funds.

Cramer also pointed out that rural communities often struggle not only to secure funding, but to capture the scope of homelessness in their areas, making it even harder to recognize and address the issue.

As Wisconsin Watch previously reported following the winter “point in time” count, one of two annual nights in the year that portray the number of people experiencing homelessness across the country, the state’s mostly rural homeless population reached 3,201 last year, its highest number since 2017.

The reported number of homeless students in Wisconsin last year reached its highest number since 2019, with 20,195 students experiencing homelessness, according to a report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Last year was the third consecutive year the number of reported homeless students has increased after hitting its lowest level in 2021 during the pandemic. 

The sheer difference in the number of students experiencing homelessness and individuals experiencing homelessness further highlights how the methodology for quantifying homelessness across the state, which is used to determine a community’s level of need, “doesn’t make sense for those who don’t know the differences in the methodologies,” Cramer said. 

The standards of counting between Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI), which would count a student who may be sleeping on a relative’s couch in its homeless count, and HUD, which wouldn’t, illustrate the strict guidelines that likely don’t come close to representing the full picture of homelessness in the state. 

“When you think of the (homeless counts), many assume those are undercounts,” Cramer said. “But I think the students would be pretty accurate — because schools are working with a majority of the state’s student population, and kindergartners aren’t hiding that information.”

‘We need to take into account our increasing need’

Katie Van Groll sees this issue firsthand through her work as the director of Home Base, an arm of the Boys and Girls Club of the Fox Valley that specifically works with youth up to age 21 who are experiencing challenges related to housing insecurity. 

Van Groll added that the difference between the HUD and DPI counts contributes to a systemic misunderstanding of what homelessness looks like for young people. For example, couch surfing is much more common in young people experiencing homelessness than it is for adults, but because the HUD count doesn’t include that frequent circumstance, the difference between being sheltered and being homeless “almost gets forgotten,” Van Groll said. 

“What that does is it makes them ineligible for other funding and other resources because they don’t meet the HUD definition until they are literally on the street, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid,” Van Groll said. “The sooner that we can intervene, the quicker we can disrupt that cycle and change those generational experiences of homelessness.”

While the number of youth experiencing homelessness in the state continues to rise, Evers’ budget proposal to increase funding for the Runaway and Homeless Youth program, which already operates on a difficult-to-obtain regional lottery system that Home Base competes for each year alongside other youth-oriented programs, was denied an increase in funding. 

Only one program serving runaway and homeless youth per region receives funding by the state, which in itself “is a disservice,” Van Groll said. “Right now, we’re lucky in that we are in a current federal grant so we are not looking at reapplying to the (state) funding that was just released, but we expect that other programs may not be in the same situation.” 

“Many people are going to be like, ‘well, what are you complaining about? You’re not losing any money,’” Van Groll said. “But you kind of are because we need to take into account the state of our economy, we need to take into account our increasing need, we need to take into account the fact that losing those decreases likely impacts those programs just like it does ours, which means it continues to be largely competitive across the state, inhibiting some programs from accessing those fundings.”

Meaghan Gleason, who leads the Brown County count, announced during the Brown County coalition meeting on July 9 that the current number of volunteers signed up for the summer homeless count is lower than the last two counts. She asked attendees to contribute in any way they can. 

“I would encourage you to contact your friends, family, community members, board members, funders — anyone who may be interested in going out and helping and seeing the work that we do in action,” Gleason said. 

In a phone interview on July 16, Gleason said that after reaching out to the coalition for more volunteers, involvement for the July 23-24 overnight summer count in Brown County will now see the highest number of volunteers she’s directed since taking on the role two years ago.

Homeless advocates added that there’s been an increase in encampments, with people experiencing homelessness moving deeper into the woods as the summer goes on. 

Amid the wet and hot season lately, Peter Silski, Green Bay homeless outreach case coordinator, explained that many of the people he encounters have no other choice than to build simple tents and shelters. 

Through conversations with people experiencing homelessness and connecting them with local, grassroots programs, Silski said the goal is “to empower individuals to become self-sufficient, but we want to make sure we’re there for them for as long as they need us.”

Wisconsin Watch reporter Margaret Shreiner contributed to this report.

‘We can’t do it all by ourselves’: As rural homelessness grows in Wisconsin, Republicans balk at boosting support is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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As we continue to report on Wisconsin’s readiness for potential measles outbreaks, we have spoken to several people who have shared their memories of having measles before a vaccines were widely available. We’d love to hear from more of you. 

Before the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Americans faced measles infections each year. The advent of vaccination eliminated the disease in the United States by 2000. But outbreaks have returned to some U.S. communities as trust in vaccines wanes in many communities.

We’re following whether measles will return to Wisconsin, which has some of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates for children.

If you have a story to share, whether it’s your own experience with measles or your observations of what it was like at the time, please take a moment to fill out this short form. Your submissions will shape the direction of our reporting and will not be shared publicly. But we may follow up with those who indicate they are comfortable with us doing so. 

Thanks to those who have already shared their perspectives and questions. 

Here are the stories your feedback has inspired so far: 

• Wisconsin, once a leader in childhood vaccinations, now a leader in vaccine skepticism
• DataWatch: Measles will likely arrive in Wisconsin. Here’s where vaccination rates are trending

Did you witness measles outbreaks decades ago? Share your experience  is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.