The bill would require any registered sex offender in Wisconsin to wear a GPS ankle monitor unless they can provide a permanent address.
The post Sex offenders who are homeless would have to wear GPS monitors under Republican bill appeared first on WPR.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced steep changes to federal funding for homeless assistance programs last month, cutting support for permanent housing programs by more than half. Milwaukee advocates say the changes risk putting people on the street.
The post Wisconsin shelters could be hit by proposed cuts to federal funding for homeless housing appeared first on WPR.
The Trump administration suddenly withdrew its federal policy change reducing funding for permanent supportive housing on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (Photo by Nadia Engenheiro, Half Street Group)
An hour before a scheduled court hearing on two federal lawsuits over recent changes to a key federal homelessness and housing funding program, the Trump administration withdrew the funding notice that prompted the litigation.
The move came as a surprise to the attorneys for plaintiffs who were initially scheduled to make their case for a temporary restraining order before Rhode Island Judge Mary S. McElroy.
“It feels like intentional chaos,” McElroy said.
In a message to Continuum of Care networks, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced Monday afternoon that officials rescinded its Nov. 13 Notice of Funding Opportunity for federal fiscal 2025 grants to “make appropriate revisions.” The notice had set Jan. 14 as the deadline for applications for Continuum of Care funds, which address homelessness.
Rhode Island’s Continuum of Care gave the state’s homeless care a deadline of Dec. 12 to get their applications done to give to HUD, according to one of the lawsuits.
“We received notice first through our providers and [electronic filing], not through opposing counsel,” Zane Muller, assistant attorney general for the state of Washington, said during the 25-minute virtual hearing that began at 3:30 p.m.
HUD’s policy rescission too was news for McElroy, who called it a “haphazard approach to administrative law.”
“There’s a process and procedure that’s laid out,” said McElroy, a first-term Trump appointee. “It’s not by tweets or by last-minute orders or last-minute withdrawals.”
Pardis Gheibi, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney representing HUD, told McElroy the notice was filed with the court as soon as it was published. She did not have the answer when McElroy wanted to know who at HUD made the decision to rescind the funding notice and when.
“We didn’t have the chance to confer with plaintiffs’ counsel — but the rescission happened this afternoon,” Gheibi said.
The Trump administration had planned to slash the amount of grant funds that can be spent on permanent housing — subsidized units that provide a stable residence for formerly homeless people, often those who have experienced mental illness or spent years on the streets — and instead focus on transitional housing.
There’s a process and procedure that’s laid out. It’s not by tweets or by last-minute orders or last-minute withdrawals.
– Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy
Grant rules also would have eliminated funding for diversity and inclusion efforts, support of transgender clients and use of “harm reduction” strategies that seek to reduce overdose deaths by helping people in active addiction use drugs more safely.
HUD wrote in its update that it still intends to make changes to the policy for awarding funds for addressing homelessness.
A coalition of states co-led by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha filed suit over HUD’s latest Notice of Funding Opportunity on Nov. 25. On Dec. 1, a group of cities and nonprofits led by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition filed a separate 85-page lawsuit.
Both complaints had similar requests for the court to declare the new conditions unlawful and reinstate language from prior funding notices, which is why McElroy opted to combine them into one hearing.
But with the funding notice now withdrawn, Gheibi argued there was no need for immediate relief.
Kristin Bateman, an attorney representing local communities and nonprofits and a senior counsel with Democracy Forward, argued court action is still needed. She said HUD’s rescission still leaves a critical funding gap for homeless services starting early next year since most federal fiscal 2024 grants start to expire in January.
“Those gaps in funding mean that they will not have the money to continue supporting the permanent housing that they fund for people to live in,” Bateman said. “People are going to be displaced, put back into homelessness in the middle of winter and face all the harms that come with that.”
McElroy scheduled the next hearing for 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 19. She also tasked HUD with producing the administrative record on the grant funding policy, ideally within a week — though Gheibi had asked if it could wait until after the holidays.
McElroy said if the administration could work quickly to rescind the funding notice, they can work quickly to give the court the documents she requested.
“People can work overtime if they need to,” McElroy said. “I do, they do, I’m sure you do.”
This story was originally produced by Rhode Island Current, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters. (Photo by HUD Office of Public Affairs)
Update: On Monday, Dec. 8, the federal government withdrew the funding notice cutting Continuum of Care funds. A proposed budget from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that cuts funds which have meant the difference between shelter and homelessness for about 170,000 people nationwide has left communities scrambling. In Wisconsin, the cuts are projected to cause the loss of permanent housing for 2,379 people according to a report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The loss of funds would hit early in the new year, leaving local governments to absorb the fallout in the middle of winter. Korey Lundin, senior staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project and former staff attorney with Legal Action of Wisconsin, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the grants that HUD cut — known as Continuum of Care (CoC) funds — “help thousands of people. That includes folks who have been recently unhoused.” In Wisconsin, 52% of permanent housing funding is covered by the CoC program. The people the CoC program serves, Ludin said, include “families, children, seniors, veterans, those who are survivors of domestic violence,” and others who are “not just the stereotypical image that people get when they think of a homeless person.” In Milwaukee County, over $12 million in CoC funds covers direct rent payments to help provide housing for vulnerable county residents. The investments help support thousands of people across more than 20 housing programs. CoC funding in Milwaukee County supports housing for: HUD has also proposed capping permanent housing support at 30%. In Milwaukee County 89% of CoC funds are dedicated to permanent housing beds. The picture isn’t much different for Dane County (where 78% of CoC funding goes to permanent beds), or Racine County (where 80% of CoC funding supports permanent beds). HUD announced the cuts saying they will help fulfill President Donald Trump’s “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” executive order. HUD claimed that cutting support for permanent housing beds across the country will restore “accountability to homelessness programs” while promoting “self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans.” The Trump administration has been criticized for policies that essentially criminalize homelessness, jailing and displacing unhoused people in an effort to beautify cities. Lundin sees the HUD cuts as part of that effort. He told the Wisconsin Examiner, “They want to round up and warehouse the unhoused. They want to incarcerate the unhoused. The solutions they’re talking about are solutions that exacerbate homelessness.” HUD Secretary Scott Turner has said that restricting and cutting permanent bed funding is “ending the status quo that perpetuated homelessness through a self-sustaining slush fund.” In a press release announcing the cuts, HUD criticized “the failed ‘Housing First’ ideology, which encourages dependence on endless government handouts while neglecting to address the root causes of homelessness, including illicit drugs and mental illnesses.” Housing First is an approach to addressing homelessness that prioritizes placing individuals in permanent and stable housing. One 2022 study — which noted that chronic homelessness in the U.S. costs up to $3.4 billion — found that the economic benefits of implementing Housing First programs outweigh the costs of the programs. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs published a research brief highlighting that “strong evidence exists that the Housing First model leads to quicker exits from homelessness and greater housing stability over time compared with treatment as usual.” It also stated that studies on the Housing First Model — four of which were reviewed to compile the research brief — show that the model “results in greater improvements in housing outcomes for homeless adult populations in North America.” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who credits the county’s Housing First approach for a sharp reduction in homelessness, told the Examiner, “I am deeply concerned about the Trump administration’s move to slash permanent housing funding. This decision will destabilize housing for people across the country and it threatens the real progress we have made in Milwaukee County through our Housing First program.” Crowley noted that Milwaukee County has been recognized for having the lowest number of unsheltered homeless residents count per capita in the country, “and we are looked at as a national leader in this space. As someone who knows what housing insecurity feels like, I will pull every lever I can to protect working families and expand access to permanent housing so we can keep our state moving forward.” Especially in the winter, the HUD cuts could have troubling consequences. “We don’t have any state protection that prohibits people from being evicted in winter,” said Lundin, who lives in Wisconsin. “If this goes through it would be happening in the worst time here in Wisconsin in the middle of the winter.” Lawsuits are already being filed by cities, states and nonprofits. Lundin also said that Congress could intervene by appropriating funding for the HUD programs the administration plans to cut in 2026. In a statement to the Examiner, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) called CoC funding and homeless programs “vital to many organizations in Wisconsin and in Milwaukee who help the unhoused and keep people housed.” Moore said in the statement, “as per usual with this administration, it is the most vulnerable, like domestic violence survivors and LGBTQ youth, who would be hit the hardest. The Trump Administration’s proposal disregards Congress’s intent and would be catastrophic, putting 170,000 Americans at risk of homelessness. I am pleased to have joined my colleagues on several letters opposing these changes. House and Senate Members on both sides of the aisle have also pushed back because they recognize what it would do: Move us backward in the fight to end homelessness.” Advocates are urging members of Congress to support a final HUD spending bill that increases funding for housing vouchers and protects CoC funds for permanent housing. The House and Senate version of a bill to fund HUD’s affordable housing, community development, and homelessness services programs differ by billions of dollars as the two chambers work to hammer out a year-end spending deal. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Federal fallout
As federal funding and systems dwindle, states are left to decide how and
whether to make up the difference.
A homeless man sits in his tent in Washington, D.C., this summer. New rules from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will sharply restrict how $3 billion in homelessness aid will be spent, allowing no more than 30% of federal grants to be used for permanent housing. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
As the housing shortage pushes more Americans into homelessness for the first time, the Trump administration wants to focus federal housing aid on mental health treatment and enforcement against street homelessness, rather than on finding people permanent homes as quickly as possible.
The administration’s new plan to tie federal housing aid to work requirements and drug treatment could be a boon to states such as Alabama, Florida and Wyoming that already are pursuing that strategy. But for many other states — and nonprofit providers across the country — the rules represent a sudden pivot from past expectations. In California, the new federal funding priorities face a direct conflict with state law.
Under new rules announced last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will place new restrictions on $3 billion in homelessness aid, allowing no more than 30% of federal grants to be used for permanent housing. That approach, known as Housing First, prioritizes getting people into safe, stable housing ahead of other treatment and enforcement, and had been a key focus for the federal government’s Continuum of Care Program for homelessness.
Now, HUD’s new rules — a shift to Treatment First policies — could result in a major reprioritization of who gets funding and for what purpose. Backlash from many nonprofits and homelessness service providers across the country has been swift, and 20 states and Washington, D.C., have filed suit to stop the rules, arguing they violate federal law. Several cities and counties across the country also have joined a lawsuit against the department.
While service providers point to success stories from permanent supportive housing, the Trump administration points to rising homelessness — and a perception of violent crime — as a reason to shift funding away from the long-standing approach.
But Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, said the Trump administration is putting the onus on nonprofits and service providers to fix a homelessness crisis that is propelled by a lack of housing that people can afford.
“If homelessness numbers go up, some assume the homeless-response system doesn’t work. But the real driver is the housing market, not the interventions,” Are said. “HUD is penalizing communities for following the rules they set in previous years. I’ve never seen them say, ‘You complied with our guidance, and now you lose points for it.’”
An analysis of publicly available federal data by the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that 88% of federal Continuum of Care dollars flow to permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing, the models with the strongest evidence of reducing chronic homelessness. The new HUD rules would force cuts large enough to cause roughly 170,000 people to lose that housing, according to the advocacy group’s projections.
But a handful of Continuum of Care programs already devote far less to permanent housing. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, that includes that includes certain county or state programs in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.
These programs operate closer to HUD’s new funding requirements and are unlikely to face major disruption. Some even may become more competitive for federal funding, especially in states where policymakers have already adopted enforcement-heavy approaches to homelessness.
Such states — including Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — may be better positioned under HUD’s new grant-funding criteria, which prioritize jurisdictions that criminalize public camping, expand law enforcement involvement or restrict low-barrier shelters, which may have more flexible policies than traditional shelters.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s City of Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling in June 2024 allowing localities to ban outdoor camping even if there is no homeless shelter space available, roughly 150 cities in 32 states have passed or strengthened such ordinances.
The annual point-in-time count of people sleeping outside reported that homelessness reached an all-time high in 2024, the most recent data available from HUD. The count, taken during the last 10 days of January 2024, found that 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness, an 18% increase over the previous year and the largest one-year jump in the history of the count.
HUD told Stateline the administration is shifting its approach to emphasize “long-term self-sufficiency and recovery” rather than the number of housing units funded or filled.
The agency rejected advocates’ claims that the new rules will increase homelessness, arguing instead that “failed” Housing First policies have contributed to rising numbers. HUD said it hopes communities will convert many permanent supportive housing programs into transitional housing with stronger requirements around addiction and mental-health services.
The impact of these cuts won’t be evenly distributed.
Some areas with the deepest investments in the Housing First approach — including Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles; and New York City — stand to lose thousands of units that currently serve older adults, those leaving domestic violence situations, people with disabilities, veterans and families.
Those in favor of HUD’s funding shift argue that long-standing as it may be, Housing First has failed to reduce homelessness.
HUD’s annual counts show national homelessness rising for most of the past decade, and the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service notes that while Housing First stabilizes individuals, it has not reduced the number of people experiencing homelessness.
A 2021 Harvard University study found that while most people in permanent supportive housing remained housed in the first year, retention dropped sharply over time — with only about 12% still housed after 10 years.
Conservative think tanks such as the Cicero Institute, American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute suggest that Housing First undervalues mental health and substance use treatment. They point to Oregon’s homelessness struggles after drug decriminalization as evidence that voluntary services alone cannot stabilize the most vulnerable residents.
They further argue that permanent housing grants crowd out shelter, detox and transitional programs, and that many nonprofits defending the model are financially invested in maintaining the status quo.
At a moment when tight housing markets are pushing record numbers of people into first-time homelessness, local providers, who stand to lose grants, warn that HUD’s policy reversal will function more like a mass eviction than a funding shift — sending tens of thousands of people back into shelters, onto waiting lists, or directly onto the streets.
In Orlando, Florida, many residents are experiencing homelessness for the first time. Shelters are full and a recent law in Florida allows police to arrest people for sleeping outdoors.
Are, of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, said the proposed HUD changes would eliminate more than 500 permanent housing subsidies that her organization offers in the Orlando area alone.
For providers, these subsidies cover the rent for units where people already live. If HUD defunds them, tenants would lose support, landlords would stop receiving payments and people would be evicted unless local governments backfill the funds, she said. And most local governments can’t afford to, she added.
Central Florida has built a system that uses data to focus on high-need individuals and keep them housed — in long-term rental units paired with voluntary support services — at a lower cost than mandated hospitalizations or treatment, Are said. HUD’s abrupt policy reversal would unravel years of progress and leave communities with “no place to put people.”
“Our permanent supportive housing costs about one-twentieth of what inpatient institutional programs cost in this region, and the outcomes are far better,” she said.
Nashville, Tennessee, had expected stable homelessness funding until HUD overhauled the rules “out of [the] blue” and at a time when it would be hard for providers to plan for sudden changes, said Wally Dietz, legal director for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
When Congress approved a two-year cycle for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, localities were told they wouldn’t have to reapply for money, he said. That changed this fall.
“Nashville was given 60 days, spanning Thanksgiving and Christmas, to rewrite and resubmit its entire homelessness funding application, which is something the city typically prepares for a full year,” Dietz said.
If the changes to Nashville’s funding go through, not only will people lose their housing, he said, but a 20-year infrastructure will crumble and the164 landlords who partnered with the city will lose faith once rent aid stops flowing.
“Once evicted, people will not reengage with the system, and trust will be impossible to rebuild,” Dietz said.
Nashville is among a handful of localities, including Boston, San Francisco and Tucson, Arizona, that filed a joint lawsuit Monday to block the rule changes, accusing HUD of bypassing Congress. The suit, whose plaintiffs also include the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.
“If the administration wants to overhaul homelessness policy, it has to go through Congress,” Dietz said. “That gives cities time to prepare, to testify, to budget. But we didn’t get that chance.”
Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Milwaukee Public Schools is offering a van service to help homeless students get to school.
The post Milwaukee Public Schools offering alternative transportation for homeless students appeared first on WPR.
At 4:31 a.m. the first slivers of light peeked through dark clouds over Green Bay’s waters.
Along the edge of Point Comfort in the town of Scott, a pair of volunteers surveyed the landscape for people experiencing homelessness as the summer “point-in-time” (PIT) count wound down in Brown County.
One was Cody Oberhuber, a county economic support specialist. He has missed just one count since January 2022, initially working as part of his former job at the anti-poverty agency Newcap, Inc. His passion for talking to the people behind the numbers prompted him to return this year as a volunteer after switching jobs.
“It gives you a fresh perspective of being boots on the ground talking to these individuals, you’re kind of looking at the humanity side of things,” Oberhuber said. “That’s what drives me, that’s my mission.”
Oberhuber joined 66 other volunteers between 11:30 p.m. to nearly 6 a.m. beginning on July 23, hitting spots where the group previously encountered people experiencing homelessness.
The PIT count serves as a one-night snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness in communities across the United States, including Wisconsin. Wisconsin Watch in January followed the annual winter count in Jefferson County — examining why the data recorded in the process underestimate the true levels of homelessness in communities, especially rural ones. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates such winter counts.
Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care, which covers all 69 counties in Wisconsin besides Milwaukee, Dane and Racine, requires each county to also count during the summer, when the tally is typically far higher than winter, when freezing weather pushes more people to shelters.
The majority of Brown County volunteers most years work with direct housing providers or other housing-related programs, according to Meaghan Gleason, Newcap’s funder expert and the Brown County PIT count lead.
But this year, almost half of volunteers had no association with housing providers, a record number of unaffiliated folks. Thirteen volunteers shared that they previously experienced homelessness in their life. That’s a point of pride for Gleason.
To address the problem of homelessness, she said, “we need to include the people who know what that experience is.”
The Brown County volunteers broke into groups to cover more ground. In the county’s northwest corner, a group searched for people sleeping in cars in the rural village of Pulaski. In the county’s urban center, volunteers counted people camping in Green Bay’s downtown parks.
PIT counts often happen at night, when people settle into the places they sleep, Oberhuber said. This approach, he explained, prevents volunteers from simply assuming where someone stays.
Volunteers usually see the most unsheltered people on downtown Green Bay’s east side, and that was the case this year. Several people sheltered in open spaces and under hooded structures, often surrounded by their belongings: bikes, coolers, wheelchairs, bags and blankets. Some slept on church steps or on park benches. Bugs swarmed in the humidity following recent rain.
A volunteer asked a man where he had gone earlier to stay dry.
“Nowhere,” he replied. “I’m wet. I’m still wet.”
Others asked volunteers for food or dry tarps. Volunteers handed out gift cards and asked people to take a brief survey to shed light on what resources might help.
The surveys included questions such as: Have you served in the active duty or other armed forces of the U.S.? Are you fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence or stalking? Have you ever been in the foster care system? Is this the first time you’ve been homeless?
Some people answered questions they were comfortable with. Others thanked the volunteers and declined to participate.
“I’m going through enough as it is,” one person told the volunteers.
When people are found sleeping, decline to participate in the survey or are in locations volunteers can’t safely access, their presence is documented through observation forms. Although the official count tally excludes those observations, they paint a broader picture of the unhoused landscape. Outreach workers sometimes later follow up to verify their status and connect them with services.
Brown County’s official tally this year: 179 people experiencing homelessness. That included 100 single individuals and 25 households with children. The official unsheltered count has increased each year since at least 2022, when 89 people were counted in July.
Northwest of Brown County, Newcap’s Northeast Coalition counts unsheltered people in mostly rural Florence, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto and Shawano counties. The summer count recorded 36 people.
“That may not sound like much,” Gleason later wrote in an email. “But it is the highest count I have seen out of the last eight counts.”
In Brown County, volunteers tallied zero people in the rural areas Wisconsin Watch observed. But Oberhuber knows people are experiencing homelessness in communities like Pulaski, based on previous counts and conversations with police. Those people might not want to be found, Oberhuber said. They might intentionally set up camp outside of town or in the woods, where PIT count volunteers won’t look.
“That’s the difficulty with the rural count,” Oberhuber said. “There’s people out there, we just struggle to find them.”
Gleason said a “happy accident” prompted her to work in housing services after having volunteered at a shelter in college. She wouldn’t give up her position as the PIT count lead for Brown County even if someone told her to.
She knows it’s impossible to count every person. But that’s what drives her to improve each count. Yes, homelessness is increasing, she said.
“But if we can also increase our efficiency and our ability to capture that data and connect with those people, then that’s the best we can do in that moment.”
To learn more about your local Wisconsin PIT count, visit the Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care website. The nonprofit serves all counties except Dane, Milwaukee and Racine.
In Dane County, visit the Homeless Services Consortium of Dane County. In Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee Coalition on Housing and Homelessness has information. The Racine Continuum of Care serves Racine County.
Gleason suggests starting with your local county’s coalition, but asking staff at shelters, drop-in centers or outreach centers how you can help.
“I don’t think there’s anyone doing this work who would turn down a genuine offer for help,” Gleason said.
Dial 211 or 877‑947‑2211 from any phone in Wisconsin to be connected to 211 Wisconsin’s referral specialists. Or text your ZIP code to 898211.
In Brown County, the Homeless and Housing Coalition offers this Places to Go guide for people experiencing homelessness.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Homelessness is increasing in Brown County. These volunteers traded a night’s sleep to document the challenge 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.
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.
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’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.
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.”
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.”
Resources for people experiencing homelessness in Wisconsin from organizations included in this story:
Wisconsin Watch reporter Margaret Shreiner contributed to this report.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
‘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.
Login