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A bill with bipartisan support scheduled for a committee vote on Tuesday could restore funding for Wisconsin veterans homes in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls that closed in September due to funding cuts in the 2025-27 state budget.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers told Wisconsin Watch he would sign the Republican-sponsored bill, even though it includes additional items that are not part of a Democratic “clean” proposal that only funds the veterans homes. But it’s unclear if the bill will pass the Republican-controlled Assembly.

Senate Bill 411, from Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, would provide the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs $1.95 million over the biennium to increase funding for the costs of running the agency’s Veterans Housing and Recovery Program, which supports veterans at risk of homelessness. The dollars would also cover costs for leasing a new facility in Chippewa Falls. Klein Hall, which housed VHRP veterans there, was nearly 50 years old and needed repairs, staff told Wisconsin Watch this summer. 

Veterans organizations, Republicans and Democrats spoke in favor of the bill at a public hearing in September, and no one spoke against it. The bill also requires the Universities of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to fund the Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project and reduces the disability rating threshold for veterans or their surviving spouses to claim property tax credits. 

But the bill’s path beyond Tuesday’s executive session vote in the Senate’s Committee on Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs, which Jacque leads, remains unclear at this point. 

Even if Jacque’s bill makes it to Evers’ desk for his signature, it would still take “a few months” to reopen the Green Bay facility and at least a year for a site to reopen in Chippewa Falls, said Colleen Flaherty, a spokesperson for the WDVA. The Chippewa Falls timeline is longer because the WDVA would have to apply for a new round of federal grants, Flaherty said.

Still, Jacque said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch that he was “heartened” by the support for SB 411 so far. 

“I look forward to continuing discussions with the Department of Veterans Affairs and fellow committee members to get this legislation to the governor as quickly as possible,” he said. 

How we got here

SB 411 is one of several legislative proposals brought forward after the state’s two-year budget passed without additional funds to cover the rising costs of running veterans homes across the state. 

Evers originally proposed $1.9 million in new funding for the low-cost housing option, but the Legislature’s Republican-led budget writing committee removed those dollars during the legislative process.  

Political finger-pointing followed as the state prepared to close the Green Bay and Chippewa Falls facilities. Evers placed the blame on the Republicans in the Legislature. Republican lawmakers, such as Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, argued Evers and the WDVA already had funding to keep the veterans homes open. 

According to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the WDVA receives an appropriation for “general program administration,” which has been underspent its funding by $600,000 to $2 million in each of the last six fiscal years. The agency has broad enough stipulations that it could use extra funds to support the veterans housing program. 

But it’s possible the WDVA believes the Legislature did not intend to continue to support the veterans homes when it did not approve the specific funding proposed during the budget process, the LFB said. Flaherty, with the WDVA, said the agency “needs legislative approval for the funding.”

Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said the governor is “hopeful” the Legislature will “work quickly” and pass SB 411 in its current form, which he would sign into law.

“While it’s great to see that Republicans have now decided they support Gov. Evers’ budget requests, it’s disappointing they chose not to approve these investments months ago when they had the chance, which could have prevented two facilities serving homeless veterans from closing,” Cudaback said. 

Wimberger, in a statement to Wisconsin Watch, continued to place the blame on Evers.

“I’m not opposed to Senator Jacque’s bill,” Wimberger said. “However, Governor Evers is extorting the Legislature since the program already has funding. If paying twice makes Governor Evers stop sending veterans out on the streets, maybe we do that.” 

What’s next for SB 411?

Should SB 411 move beyond the Senate’s committee, it would then go to the full Senate for consideration. The chamber has not met since early July. 

It’s also unclear how far SB 411 would go in the Assembly. State Rep. William Penterman, R-Hustisford, who leads the Assembly Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs, did not respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch on if he would hold a hearing on Jacque’s bill. 

Two Assembly bills that also seek to restore veterans home funding, one from Democrats and another from Republicans, have not received any public hearings yet. Nor has another Senate Democratic-sponsored bill, which would only provide funding for veterans homes. 

In the meantime, the WDVA found new placements for all of the veterans who previously called the Green Bay and Chippewa Falls sites home. The last veteran left Chippewa Falls on Sept. 9 and Green Bay on Sept. 12, Flaherty said. 

Can Wisconsin’s split government pass a bill to support homeless veterans? 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.

Gov. Tony Evers and Veterans Affairs Sec. James Bond spoke an event for veterans in the state Capitol on April 22, 2025. (Photo via Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Facebook page)

A Republican bill that would provide funding for the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program received a hearing in the state Senate on Thursday, advancing a potential solution to the cuts the program is facing even as it appears too late to stop the closures. 

Sen. André Jacque (R-New Franken), the lead author on the proposal, told the Senate Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs committee that it is the responsibility of lawmakers to ensure that Wisconsin “properly honors the sacrifices made by our brave men and women of the armed services” and his bill would help do that. He also serves as the chair of the committee.

“I know that there’s been a lot of confusion and contentious finger pointing over responsibility for the interruption of service at these sites. Ideally, these issues would have already been resolved but finger pointing accomplishes nothing,” Jacque said. 

The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP) has been a source of back-and-forth between Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic lawmakers and Republican lawmakers since the closure of two sites, one in Chippewa Falls and the other in the Green Bay area, was announced in July. 

The program, operated by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, has focused on providing support to veterans on the verge of or experiencing homelessness, including those who have experienced incarceration, unemployment or physical and mental health problems. Veterans in the program are able to participate for a maximum of 24 months, but the average length of stay is six to 10 months.

Evers announced in July that the sites would close on Sept. 30 due to a lack of state funding in the budget. He had requested an additional $2 million from lawmakers to help sustain the program, but that request wasn’t heeded and Democratic attempts to put the funding back in the budget were rejected by Republicans — apart from Jacque, who voted with Democrats. 

Gov. Tony Evers’ administration announced shortly after the end of the budget process in July that the two facilities would be closing. 

Evers blamed the closures on lawmakers for not providing the additional funds, while lawmakers said Evers didn’t try to negotiate for the funding.

Then some Republican lawmakers who represent areas surrounding the facilities started claiming that money should be available for the administration to use. In a 16-page letter on Sept. 10, a handful of Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) and Jesse James (R-Thorp) and Reps. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) and Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere), claimed that the Evers administration should have access to funds to help support the program. That letter pointed to the balance that the WDVA returns at the end of the year, though an agency spokesperson has noted that the agency cannot spend funds on whatever the administration chooses, and is “only allowed to spend the money they tell us to spend.”

Evers had also denied the claim, saying “the money is not there.” He noted that a paper from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau to the Joint Finance Committee warned lawmakers that additional funds were needed for the program. 

“Without additional funding, the Department [of Veterans Affairs] would not have sufficient resources to maintain the program’s three sites,” the paper stated.

Senate Bill 411 would provide $900,000 in 2025-26 and $1,050,000 in 2026-27 for the program and for costs associated with the Chippewa Falls site. Jacque’s bill also includes two other policy changes that he said veterans have been requesting. One would require the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin system to provide funding to the UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project to support missions to recover and identify Wisconsin veterans who are missing, and the other would lower the eligibility threshold for veterans and surviving spouses to claim the veterans and surviving spouses property tax credit.

“We have the opportunity to achieve a proactive, bipartisan solution to the funding problem, and I encourage my committee members to join me in approving this funding package,” Jacque said. “Supporting our veterans has not been and must not be a partisan fight. I truly believe there’s enough support and good will on both sides of the aisle to accomplish each of these priorities.” 

The bill does currently has only nine Republican sponsors and no Democratic sponsors. Democratic lawmakers had proposed their own bill with Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) saying at a press conference that she preferred “clean legislation.” That bill is unlikely to advance in the Republican-led Legislature even as Democrats call for a bill hearing on it. 

Jacque said legislators are also discussing  the potential for the Joint Finance Committee to reallocate funds for the program, and that his conversations about his bill have been productive on both sides of the aisle. 

“That was my goal in bringing it forward immediately after the budget was done, to have a vehicle to continue that conversation and make sure that we get some additional progress done on these issues beyond budget,” Jacque said. 

The VHRP has been funded through three revenue streams: trust fund payments, payments made by program participants and per diem payments, which are made to the agency by the federal government at a current rate of about $71 per resident per day. 

Growing staffing and maintenance costs have strained those funds. A contract with Lutheran Social Services, which staffs the facilities, makes up about 70% of the costs. The Evers administration had postponed some of the looming financial hardship by allocating American Rescue Plan Act funding to the program in 2023-24, but those funds have been expended. 

WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey said in testimony that it is too late to stop the closure of the facilities at least for a time.

Hoey said that when the budget passed on July 3, the three VHRP sites were in their fourth year of the federal VA’s Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program with the option to renew for a fifth and final year starting October 1, 2025.

The agency was forced to consolidate the facilities to the Union Grove location, the site in best physical condition, without dedicated state funding for the program. The agency also had to notify the USDVA that it would not be renewing its grant agreement for Chippewa Falls. It asked to renew and change the scope of the grant agreement that covers both Union Grove and Green Bay, reducing the total number of beds from 57 to 40 to reflect the closure of the Green Bay facility. 

“Being forced to close our facilities in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls was gut wrenching for the veterans and for staff,” Hoey said. “I want to assure everyone in this room that with the help of veteran advocates, our partners at Lutheran Social Services and others, we were able to provide all the veterans in our care at Green Bay and Chippewa Falls with alternative options. As of last week, neither facility has any veterans still at the facility. All those residents have been successfully placed either in other treatment programs for veterans, other treatment programs that are not veteran centered, some have moved to Minneapolis, some moved to Michigan, a good amount have moved to our facility in Union Grove, but no veterans were kicked out on the street.” 

Hoey said even if the state were to pass the bill before the end of September, the state agency cannot rescind the notification for Chippewa Falls. It would only be able to apply for the next round of grants, which wouldn’t be available until October 2026.

“The earliest we could resume the program in Chippewa Falls would be sometime after October 1, 2026,” Hoey said. “If this bill passes, we stand ready to ask the USDVA to change the scope of our agreement covering Union Grove and Green Bay to go back up to the 57 beds included in the original grant. We believe that the USDVA would approve that change, meaning we could resume the program in Green Bay relatively quickly, provided that the landlord has not rented out the facility we were using and that we can sign a contract with Lutheran Social Services.”

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