As uncertainty surrounds Wisconsin’s SNAP program, also known as FoodShare, some community members are finding ways to support others in their time of need.
Wisconsin’s FoodShare program serves more than 700,000 Wisconsin residents. FoodShare is funded through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. SNAP benefits across the country are at risk during the government shutdown.
After the Trump administration said it planned to to freeze payments to SNAP on Nov. 1, two federal judges on Friday ruled the administration must draw from contingency funds to keep aid flowing during the shutdown.
But those rulings may be appealed and benefits may be delayed.
Here are some things you can do if you live in Milwaukee and want to support anyone who might become impacted by FoodShare delays.
What you should know
The Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee is in a position to provide resources to those impacted, according to Reno Wright, advocacy director for the nonprofit.
“We do know that November payments are going to be delayed, but that eventually they will have access to those November benefits,” he said.
People can go to HungerTaskForce.org and access the “Get Help” page, and from there they will be able to find the nearest meal site or food pantry to them and their families, Wright said.
You can also follow the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ FoodShare update page.
What’s being done
Food drive
The city of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee Public Schools and other partners launched a citywide food drive to help residents impacted by the federal shutdown and a pause of FoodShare benefits.
Collaboration to support food pantries
Feeding America of Eastern Wisconsin and Nourish MKE are collaborating with the groups to collect nonperishable food and monetary donations to support Milwaukee food pantries.
Metcalfe Park Community Bridges has been organizing around food needs and access through advocacy and opening community fridges.
To keep up with or support Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, you can follow the group’s Facebook page.
Advocacy efforts
The Hunger Task Force’s Voices Against Hunger is encouraging people to urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, into helping.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture has the authority and the resources to prevent an interruption in benefits by using SNAP contingency funds, transferring funds from other departments and issuing clear guidance to state agencies. The tools to make sure families do not go hungry during this holiday season are available, and what is needed now is immediate administrative action and political will,” an email blast from the group stated.
Wright said the Hunger Task Force’s Voices Against Hunger is a statewide platform where information is sent out to let people know about things that are going on at the state and federal level, including federal nutrition programs like FoodShare.
“We are all deeply concerned about the millions of families who will be impacted by the possible delays in SNAP benefits,” she said. “In times like these, community becomes crucial.”
Sisson’s tips on how you can help your neighbors:
Reach out to your local food bank to see if it is accepting donations of time, food or money. All are going to be crucial.
Share your favorite low-cost meal plans and recipes.
Share a simple list of free hot meal sites, pantry hours and community fridges in your city. Keep it updated and easy to reshare.
Stock and restock community fridges and neighborhood pantry boxes.
If you own or manage a business, create a pantry shelf or offer shift meals and grocery stipends.
Others advocates said you can:
Keep up with your neighbors and help where you can.
Offer rides to pick up food for those in need.
Volunteer at your neighborhood food pantries.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin resumed scheduling abortions on Monday after a nearly monthlong pause due to federal Medicaid funding cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill that took effect at the beginning of October.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said it was able to resume scheduling abortions as of noon on Monday because it no longer fits the definition of a “prohibited entity” under the new federal law that took effect this month and can receive Medicaid funds.
The organization said it dropped its designation as an “essential community provider” as defined under the Affordable Care Act. Dropping the designation will not result in changes to the cost for abortions or other services or affect the organization’s funding, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin President and CEO Tanya Atkinson said.
“At this point, in all of our research and analysis, we really shouldn’t see much of an impact on patient access,” she said. “If relinquishing this does ultimately impact our bottom line, then we will have to understand what that path forward is.”
A national fight over abortion funding
Abortion funding has been under attack across the U.S., particularly for affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the biggest provider. The abortion landscape has shifted frequently since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that allowed states to ban abortion. Currently, 12 states do not allow it at any stage of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four more ban it after about six weeks’ gestation.
Planned Parenthood has warned that about half its clinics that provide abortion could be closed nationwide due to the ban in the new federal law on Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood for services other than abortion.
Wisconsin, where abortion is legal but the Republican-controlled Legislature has passed numerous laws limiting access, was the only state where Planned Parenthood paused all abortions because of the new federal law, Atkinson said.
Because of the complexities and varieties of state abortion laws, Planned Parenthood affiliates are responding to the new federal law in a variety of ways, Atkinson said. In Arizona, for example, Planned Parenthood stopped accepting Medicaid but continued to provide abortions.
The move in Wisconsin is “clearly aimed at sidestepping” the federal law, Wisconsin Right to Life said.
“Planned Parenthood’s abortion-first business model underscores why taxpayer funding should never support organizations that make abortion a priority,” said Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life. “Women in difficult circumstances deserve compassionate, life-affirming care — the kind of support the pro-life movement is committed to offering.”
Impact on Wisconsin abortion clinics
In Wisconsin, pausing abortions for the past 26 days meant that women who would normally go to clinics in the southeastern corner of the state instead had to look for other options, including traveling to Chicago, which is within a three-hour drive of the Planned Parenthood facilities.
Affiliated Medical Services and Care for All also provide abortions at clinics in Milwaukee.
Atkinson said it was “really, really difficult to say” how many women were affected by the pause in services. She did not have numbers on how many women who wanted to have an abortion since the pause went into effect had to seek services elsewhere.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin serves about 50,000 people, and about 60% of them are covered by Medicaid, the organization said.
Given those numbers, the priority was on finding a way to continue receiving Medicaid funding and dropping the “essential community provider” status, Atkinson said.
Wisconsin is part of a multistate federal lawsuit challenging the provision in the law. A federal appeals court in September said the government could halt the payments while a court challenge to the provision moves ahead.
Ramifications for Medicaid
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin cited a Sept. 29 court filing on behalf of U.S. Health and Human Services that said family planning organizations could continue billing Medicaid if they gave up either their tax-exempt status or the “essential community provider” designation.
By giving up that designation, it no longer fits the definition of “prohibited entity” under the federal law and can continue to receive federal Medicaid funds, the organization said. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is not giving up its tax-exempt status.
The “essential community provider” designation was originally given to organizations to help make it easier for them to be considered in-network for billing with private health insurers, Planned Parenthood said.
Atkinson called it a “nuanced provision” of the law and she does not anticipate that giving it up will affect Planned Parenthood’s ability to continue providing abortions and other services.
Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of services including cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. Federal Medicaid money was already not paying for abortion, but affiliates relied on Medicaid to stay afloat. Services other than abortion are expected to expand in light of the new law.
Planned Parenthood performed 3,727 abortions in Wisconsin between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, the group said.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
As October comes to an end, the threat of missing FoodShare and WIC benefits looms for people across Wisconsin and across the nation.
In an Oct. 10 letter, Sasha Gersten-Paal, director of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s development division, said: “SNAP has funding available for benefits and operations through the month of October. However, if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the nation.”
Nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites receive food and nutrition assistance through FoodShare.
Here are some things you can do if you live in Milwaukee and may be impacted by a lack of food resources in November.
Food resources
If you or someone you know needs emergency food, call 2-1-1, or visit the IMPACT 211 website here.
Hunger Task Forces’ Mobile Market : Operating as a grocery store on wheels, the Mobile Market provides healthy and affordable food options to families. The Mobile Market offers 25% off all items beyond Piggly Wiggly’s prices.
Community-powered fridges: In September, Tricklebee Café, One MKE and Metcalfe Park Community Bridges opened a community-powered fridge. Several more are planned to open.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
For over 30 years, Ruby Johnson-Harden and her husband fostered Milwaukee youths in need of temporary homes.
Though fostering is time-consuming and sometimes challenging, Johnson-Harden said she understood the need for children to have a safe place to go and for their parents to get the support they need.
“It is definitely hard to give children back even when you know the intention is to give them back,” she said. “But you think about it, and there is always another kid that needs somewhere to go.”
Though the number of children being removed from their homes is decreasing, the foster care system in Milwaukee, and in Wisconsin in general, is under growing strain.
Advocates say the problem isn’t strictly a shortage of foster homes, but a mismatch between the needs of many children entering care and the level of support, training and resources that foster families have to provide what’s needed.
Few feel equipped enough or are willing to take on teens and children coping with trauma, behavioral health challenges or emotional dysregulation, according to foster care advocates.
Shortage of proper placements
“In Milwaukee, we have enough foster homes and other placement providers for children. Everybody is placed,” said Jill Collins, ongoing services section manager for the Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services. “But we don’t necessarily always have the right match for children.”
She said that because youths with mental health or behavioral needs are harder to place, some children are placed in group homes or residential care facilities where professionals are better equipped to meet their needs.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families’ data dashboard, 7,000 children are placed in out-of-home care annually. That includes kinship care, foster care and other residential facilities.
According to the dashboard, the older a child is when entering the system, the less likely it is for the child to be placed in a home.
In 2024, there was an average of 515 children aged 12 years or older in out-of-home care. Of these older children, 275 (53%) were placed in a family-like setting, 146 (28%) were placed in congregate care, and 94 (18%) were in other care.
Ninety percent of children aged 12 and under were placed in family-like care.
“I had few teens,” Johnson-Harden said. “Usually they’ve already been through so much that they are kind of set in their ways. It’s harder for them to open up.”
Ruby Johnson-Harden has been fostering for three decades. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
DeShanda Williams-Clark, chief program officer at Pathfinders, works with many young people who are already a part of the child welfare system.
“They’ll come in if they don’t feel safe in their placements,” Williams-Clark said.
She said the young people Pathfinders serves can have a number of nuanced concerns that can fall through the cracks. Some are experiencing homelessness or are survivors of trafficking and exploitation, she said.
“(The youths) have given feedback and say, well, I don’t feel safe being at my group home because my group home is publicly listed,” she said. “Or we’ve had children say, ‘I know this family is receiving a check for me because they’re reporting that I have worse behaviors or that I need medication.’ ”
What’s being done
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families is working to reduce the number of children in out-of-home care through its Putting Families First initiative.
The initiative focuses on keeping families together by supporting them in-home with resources and services. In situations where families can’t stay together, the initiative emphasizes relying on people already in the child’s or children’s network before resorting to foster care.
As a result of this approach, there has been a decline in the number of children who are removed from their homes and taken into foster care, said Emily Erickson, director of the Bureau of Permanence and Out-of-Home Care at the agency.
“We have been focusing on solutions that are community-based, that can support parents in healing and growing while they continue to parent their children in their homes safely,” Erickson said.
She said the program utilizes a mix of formal and informal support networks to help provide safety but allows children to stay in their homes because research shows a lasting negative impact once relationships are severed.
Additionally, DCF funds the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness program for youths who have aged out of foster care.
According to Williams-Clark, the program not only helps young people who have aged out of the child welfare system find housing, but it also supports them through the entire process.
The program gives young people a choice regarding independent living, she said.
“Then we give them wraparound care and support by making sure they have access to socially integrate into the communities that they want to live in, helping them to set goals for education and their academics, getting them connected to income and employment programs, and then just really working on those life skills,” Williams-Clark said.
How you can help
Advocates suggest several ways you can help.
One way is to consider fostering.
“The need is great. Especially for teens and siblings,” said Jane Halpin, a recruitment consultant with Community Care Resources, a private foster care agency.
She said it can become difficult because it’s time-consuming, but you won’t be alone. Community Care Resources offers around-the-clock support to those who foster through the agency.
Williams-Clark said people need more education around fostering to help destigmatize the work of the child welfare system.
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families officials suggested being a support system for family and friends who may be in need and considering specialized training to become a foster parent who can care for older youths or children with higher needs.
They also encourage local organizations, churches and individuals to support foster families and children, not just through financial means but also by offering practical help and emotional support. They also encourage the use of community resources to support families before involving the child welfare system, to minimize trauma.
Johnson-Harden said the rewards of fostering are immense.
“Fostering kids, to me, is about the joy of showing up for children in your community,” she said. “It’s about supporting a family and doing your best to lessen any trauma they’ve already experienced.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
This story was originally published by ProPublica.
Following public outcry, the U.S. Department of Education has restored funding for students who have both hearing and vision loss, about a month after cutting it.
But rather than sending the money directly to the four programs that are part of a national network helping students who are deaf and blind, a condition known as deafblindness, the department has instead rerouted the grants to a different organization that will provide funding for those vulnerable students.
The Trump administration targeted the programs in its attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion; a department spokesperson had cited concerns about “divisive concepts” and “fairness” in explaining the decision to withhold the funding.
ProPublica and other news organizations reported last month on the canceled grants to agencies that serve these students in Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as in five states that are part of a New England consortium.
Programs then appealed to the Education Department to retain their funding, but the appeals were denied. Last week, the National Center on Deafblindness, the parent organization of the agencies that were denied, told the four programs that the Education Department had provided it with additional grant money and the center was passing it on to them.
“This will enable families, schools, and early intervention programs to continue to … meet the unique needs of children who are deafblind,” according to the letter from the organization to the agencies, which was provided to ProPublica. Education Department officials did not respond to questions from ProPublica; automatic email replies cited the government shutdown.
When the funding was canceled, the programs were in the middle of a five-year grant that was expected to continue through September 2028. The funding from the center is only for one year.
“We don’t know what will happen” in future years, said Lisa McConachie of the Oregon DeafBlind Project, which serves 114 students in the state. McConachie said that with uncertain funding, her agency had to cancel a retreat this fall that had been organized for parents to swap medical equipment, share resources and learn about services to help students when they get older. She hopes to reschedule it for the spring.
“It is still a disruption to families,’’ she said. “It creates this mistrust, that you are gone and back and gone and back.”
Oregon’s grant application for its deafblind program, submitted in 2023, included a statement about its commitment to address “inequities, racism, bias” and the marginalization of disability groups, language that was encouraged by the Biden administration. It also attached the strategic plan for Portland Public Schools, where the Oregon DeafBlind Project is headquartered, that mentioned the establishment of a Center for Black Student Excellence — which is unrelated to the deafblind project. The Education Department’s letter said that those initiatives were “in conflict with agency policy and priorities.”
An advocate for deafblind students said he was happy to see the funding restored but called the department’s decision-making “amateurish” and disruptive to students and families. “It is mean-spirited to do this to families and kids and school systems at the beginning of the year when all of these things should be so smooth,” said Maurice Belote, co-chair of the National DeafBlind Coalition, which advocates for legislation that supports deafblind children and young adults.
Grants to the four agencies total about $1 million a year. The department started funding state-level programs to help deafblind students more than 40 years ago in response to the rubella epidemic in the late 1960s. Nationally, there are about 10,000 children and young adults, from infants to 21-year-olds, who are deafblind and more than 1,000 in the eight affected states, according to the National Center on Deafblindness.
While the population is small, it is among the most complex to serve; educators rely on the deafblindness programs for support and training.
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Looming sales of manufactured housing parks can cause anxiety among residents who own their homes but rent the land they sit on — especially as profit-maximizing private equity companies increasingly make purchases.
In some communities, residents have purchased parks themselves and run them as cooperatives. Converting into a cooperative often initially increases monthly fees, but residents typically see smaller increases over time when compared to commercially owned parks.
Wisconsin’s relative lack of consumer protections and incentives for co-op sales doesn’t make the process easy. Minnesota offers more resources to make co-op purchases more viable.
Listen to Addie Costello’s story from WPR.
Standing on her porch, Vikki Braker pointed out her favorite lawn cutouts, arranged in a colorful scene: Silhouettes of two children smelled pink flowers as a line of googly-eyed red ants marched beneath their feet. A tree stretching over them wore a Green Bay Packers hat.
The decorations were among many Braker inherited during nearly half a century at Cedar Falls Acres mobile home park near Menomonie, Wisconsin. She figures more people get to enjoy her outdoor display than anything she keeps inside.
Neat rows of brick bordered each decorative scene atop grass her son had trimmed. Even as she slows down in her yardwork, the 67-year-old can’t imagine giving it up.
But Braker does not own her yard, only the home that sits on top of it. She worries about who will soon control her well-manicured lot.
Like thousands of Wisconsinites, Braker lives in a manufactured home, the more accurate name for what many call mobile homes or trailers — structures that make up the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing.
Braker has rented her lot since she was 18. It’s where she raised three children, battled cancer and took care of her dying husband.
She paid rent to the same owner for most of those years: Vince Hague, 81. But he’s retiring and selling the lot. Braker and her neighbors are nervous about what’s next, especially as profit-maximizing private equity companies are buying manufactured home communities nationwide.
Some of Braker’s neighbors have discussed buying the park themselves and running it as a cooperative. Many view the model as a way to keep communities well-maintained and affordable. But forming a resident-owned cooperative can be difficult — especially in Wisconsin.
Might Braker want to join a cooperative if she gets the option? She’s not sure. She wants more information to feel more comfortable about her future.
Co-op conversions aren’t easy
Braker and her husband, Roger, bought a mobile home in Cedar Falls Acres 49 years ago, seeing it as an affordable way to move out of Roger’s parents’ house. They planned to buy land of their own and build a home when they got older. But as decades passed by, they remained happy enough in their peaceful community.
“We never did buy a house,” Braker said. “We were always very comfortable here.”
Roger worked as a school bus driver. Braker worked in education before managing a Walmart and a gas station. Even when the couple could have afforded a down payment on a traditional home, they worried money would later get tight, she said.
The looming sale of Cedar Falls Acres — and the anxiety that comes with it — makes her wonder whether they should have tried to make traditional ownership work. Or if she should give up her home and yard and consider an apartment.
“But I just can’t make myself do it,” Braker said. “I love being outside.”
Decorations cover Vikki Braker’s manufactured home at Cedar Falls Acres mobile home park near Menomonie, Wis., on Oct. 2, 2025. (Addie Costello / Wisconsin Watch / Wisconsin Public Radio)
(Addie Costello / Wisconsin Watch / Wisconsin Public Radio)
(Addie Costello / Wisconsin Watch / Wisconsin Public Radio)
In an ideal world, Braker said, Hague would find another local buyer to step in to keep the park peaceful and affordable. But such “mom-and-pop” owners are increasingly rare. Large corporations are taking their place, often raising lot rents and sometimes neglecting conditions.
Braker attended multiple resident-led meetings to explore whether a cooperative might preserve a semblance of the status quo. She left “really confused.”
Converting a manufactured home community into a resident-owned cooperative isn’t easy.
In this case, Cedar Falls Acres homeowners and those at a neighboring park Hague owns would likely form a limited equity co-op. Residents would pay little up front but would not profit from their ownership over time.
Residents of limited equity co-ops pay a small fee to join, usually between $100 and $1,000, and simply get that fee back if they leave, even if the co-op’s land increases in value.
Cooperatives need large loans to cover the land purchase and any overdue maintenance.
Residents pay monthly fees to pay down park debt over time and cover routine maintenance. When major projects pop up, like fixing septic system issues, residents may vote to increase lot rent or refinance the debt.
Manufactured homes at Countryside Park Cooperative on May 7, 2025, in Cumberland, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
What would a co-op mean for Braker’s pocketbook?
When they first moved in, Braker and her husband paid $60 in monthly rent. That gradually increased to the $360 she pays today, slightly above the rate of inflation since the 1970s. Braker now lives on a fixed income from Social Security and can’t afford to pay much more.
Converting into a cooperative often initially increases monthly fees, said Victoria Clark-West, executive director of CoNorth, a nonprofit focused on developing manufactured home co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin. But residents typically see smaller rate increases over time when compared to commercially owned parks.
CoNorth is part of a nationwide network called ROC USA. The organization has reached out to Hague about a resident purchase of his Menomonie parks, Clark-West said.
Co-ops allow community residents to control what happens to the equity their land builds over time, Clark-West said.
“Manufactured home communities are uniquely positioned to be really successfully, cooperatively owned,” she said. “You have an existing constituency of folks that already own their home, and they have the land in common.”
Morris Bussewitz, a resident at Countryside Park Cooperative, looks at a schematic of the neighborhood’s sewer and electrical layout that hangs on a cork board in the park office, May 7, 2025, in Cumberland, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
But like a business, co-ops can fail. For instance, a ROC USA co-op in Colorado faced foreclosure earlier this year. While residents are not liable when a co-op defaults on a loan, they lose their say in what happens to the land.
None of the co-ops CoNorth has supported since 2004 have defaulted on their debt, Clark-West said. Only one has voted to dissolve. Typically, co-ops’ loan agreements specify that if a co-op decides to sell its land, the profits go to a nonprofit.
CoNorth has answers to Braker’s questions, but the organization does not start fully engaging residents until a park owner agrees to sell to a co-op.
Hague said he’s open to selling to any qualified buyer. He’s ready for someone else to take over. The Menomonie resident has enjoyed interacting with residents during his decades running Cedar Falls Acres.
But it’s getting harder for residents to compete with commercial buyers as investors increasingly eye park sales, Clark-West said.
Wisconsin’s relative lack of consumer protections and incentives for co-op sales doesn’t help.
CoNorth assists 13 co-ops in Minnesota but just three in Wisconsin. That’s partly because of the nonprofit’s St. Paul headquarters, but it’s also because Minnesota offers resources to make co-op purchases more viable, Clark-West said.
“There’s definitely more scrapping it in Wisconsin.”
Evening sunlight shines on manufactured homes at Countryside Park Cooperative, a resident-owned manufactured housing community, May 7, 2025, in Cumberland, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
The Minnesota Legislature in 2023 enacted a 5% tax incentive for park owners who sell to resident-owned co-ops or nonprofits — along with expanded requirements that owners notify residents about potential sales.
Wisconsin has no such incentive or requirement. Legislation last session would have required such notification and “good faith” negotiation with co-ops, but it failed alongside a proposed grant and loan program to fund park improvements.
Policies interfering in the sales of communities could have unintended consequences, said Lesli Gooch, the CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute, national trade group for the manufactured home industry.
“If this market is stifled, you are going to see more community closures,” Gooch said.
Signs are posted at the driveway entrance of Countryside Park Cooperative on May 8, 2025, in Cumberland, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Morris Bussewitz, a resident at Countryside Park Cooperative, prepares a lease for a new tenant moving into the neighborhood, May 8, 2025, in Cumberland, Wis. Countryside Park Cooperative, where Bussewitz and his wife have lived for 20 years, is a resident-owned manufactured housing park. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Private owners often increase rents to cover the costs of deferred maintenance. Those increases are necessary to preserve communities that remain more affordable than other forms of housing, she said.
When residents form co-ops, they are taking on the maintenance responsibilities without the property management experience of many for-profit owners, she said.
Expensive maintenance costs can challenge any owner. That’s why Minnesota’s grant dollars for park infrastructure projects have been transformative for the state’s co-ops, Clark-West said.
The neighboring state has allocated millions of dollars to help manufactured home park owners make major repairs. That allows co-ops to avoid taking on more debt and bolsters lender confidence, Clark-West said.
Two decades of community ownership
Steve Parliament has observed the anxiety a pending manufactured housing park sale can bring — like when he learned 20 years ago that Countryside Park in Cumberland, Wisconsin, was set to close and residents were being evicted. The news sent him door knocking.
The details are now fuzzy, but he remembers the tears. Residents felt helpless, with many of their homes too old to survive a move.
Parliament had organized co-ops in Minnesota and San Francisco before starting at West Central Wisconsin Community Action Agency, a quasi-governmental agency created to fight poverty. He told one park resident to invite his neighbors over for coffee and a discussion about trying to buy their community.
“That was the easiest organizing job I ever did,” Parliament recalled.
Steve Parliament, who helped form Countryside Park into a cooperative, poses for a portrait along Beaver Dam Lake on May 7, 2025, in Cumberland, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Financing the purchase was more difficult. After working with the city to address the park’s sewage issues, Parliament’s employer, WestCap, stepped in to help. The organization lined up loans and grants to purchase the community before the co-op was ready to take ownership.
The cooperative is still running today.
Replicating the Countryside sale today would be difficult, Parliament said, adding that the rise of private equity has only bolstered the need for co-ops.
That was his motivation to co-found the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance late last year. The nonprofit aims to keep manufactured home communities viable by pushing for stronger legal protections and helping residents organize.
An antidote to loneliness
Co-ops are not the solution for every community, said Arica Young, director for housing access and affordability at the nonprofit Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which researches issues related to land use.
“They are a lot of work. There’s a lot of expense entailed,” Young said.
But co-ops may deliver benefits beyond housing stability, Young said, such as a sense of community that can counteract the loneliness epidemic.
Morris Bussewitz jokes that the friendliness of his neighbors at Countryside has become a problem. More than a decade after he and his wife moved in, he can’t finish a lap around his home without getting stopped for a chat, interfering with his exercise.
He started walking in the cemetery across the street to get his steps in uninterrupted.
“My friends there, they don’t want to stop and talk to me. They let me walk right by,” he said.
Priscilla Bussewitz, a resident at Countryside Park Cooperative, left, serves breakfast for herself and her husband, Morris, right, on May 8, 2025, in Cumberland, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Countryside had just become a co-op as Bussewitz and his wife were looking for a permanent place to retire. Community ownership was a draw.
Monthly fees for their lot started around $140 and have since increased to just $230. They are able to keep fees low by volunteering to finish park maintenance, Bussewitz said.
“It has worked out really good,” he said.
Members attend multiple meetings each year to vote on significant spending items or changes. Residents volunteer as leaders. Bussewitz has spent years on the co-op’s board. Others take turns mowing the grass. One resident makes bird houses that decorate yards throughout the small park.
“People own part of the park,” Bussewitz said, “and they take care of it.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
No matter what kind of home you live in, challenges will pop up.
If you own your home and a pipe starts leaking, you might call a plumber. If you rent, you call your landlord. But what if you own your home and rent the land underneath it?
Thousands of Wisconsin residents own manufactured homes and pay to anchor their homes in communities, often called mobile home or trailer parks. Owners of manufactured homes are responsible for repairs to their homes but rely on park owners to maintain things like roads, water drainage and sewage.
And if landlords don’t respond and conditions deteriorate? A patchwork of laws and regulations governing manufactured housing leaves residents unsure of where to turn.
Here’s a list of options:
Those with issues surrounding park maintenance should file a complaint with the Department of Safety and Professional Services using its online form. DSPS licenses manufactured home communities and determines if complaints warrant inspection and potential discipline. The agency accepts anonymous complaints. Find more information here. In 16 counties, the DSPS has delegated inspection authority to local health departments. Find a list of delegated counties here.
If the issue involves eviction, lease agreements or other landlord-tenant issues, contact the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Residents can submit an online complaint here. Complainants can leave identifying information off of the form, but it may limit DATCP’s ability to help address the issue. The agency contacts businesses on behalf of tenants to try to mediate problems, although the agency lacks the power to force mediation. Complaints — resolved or not — help the agency track potentially unfair business practices.
County health officials have jurisdiction over complaints related to health and safety. Find contact information for your local agency here.
City, town and village officials can also adopt their own regulations on manufactured housing communities. Consider asking local officials about requirements in your community and who enforces them.
Need help paying for repairs?
Tomorrow’s Home Foundation, partially funded by the state, grants low-income manufactured home owners up to $3,000 for repairs or modifications or up to $1,500 to dispose of uninhabitable homes. Learn more about eligibility here, and download an application here.
Have a question or know of a resource we should add to this list? Contact Addie Costello at acostello@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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A year ago more than 80 people were sickened by pizza from Famous Yeti’s Pizza in Stoughton. Officials determined the pizza was contaminated with THC-infused oil. Since then one of them has filed a lawsuit against the pizzeria.
Wisconsin is one of six states that don’t regulate or have plans to regulate THC, the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana, which is why incidents like Famous Yeti’s haven’t resulted in fines or penalties against the company.
Efforts to regulate THC have been included in bills seeking to legalize marijuana, but while marijuana remains illegal, legal hemp-derived THC is being used in more and more products without additional consumer protections.
On Oct. 23, 2024, Samuel Hoffland stopped by Famous Yeti’s Pizza in Stoughton on his lunch break. What happened next is detailed in a previously unreported lawsuit he filed in May in Dane County claiming the restaurant was negligent when it contaminated his pizza with THC.
The lawsuit describes how Hoffland endured a multiple-hour ordeal to get home after feeling “abnormal symptoms associated with THC intoxication.” He crashed his car and ended up in the emergency room. His injuries led to lost work time and ongoing medical issues, according to the complaint.
Two tests a day apart confirmed Hoffland was experiencing THC intoxication. Over 80 people experienced similar symptoms, including 27 who went to the emergency room, some of whom reported concerns it was carbon monoxide poisoning, according to responses to Public Health Madison and Dane County’s final report obtained under the open records law.
In the weeks and months after the incident, the contamination created a stir online with a range of reactions. Some blamed Famous Yeti’s and expressed concern while other comments said “even more reason to eat them” and “who is complaining?” But for Hoffland, the experience was no joke, leading him to file a civil lawsuit against Famous Yeti’s and the owner of Turtle Crossing Cannabis, a company that shared kitchen space with the pizzeria.
Public Health Madison and Dane County investigated the incident and determined the food was mistakenly contaminated with THC oil from a bulk container (though the report doesn’t mention Turtle Crossing Cannabis). But the agency determined there was nothing it could do because Delta-9 THC, the chemical derived from hemp and used to make edible THC products, is not regulated in Wisconsin.
In other words, there are no laws or regulations prohibiting the preparation of THC and non-THC products in the same industrial kitchen.
Nearly a year later, that remains the case.
In Wisconsin, regulatory laws surrounding hemp-derived cannabis are lacking, creating gray areas that make it difficult to enforce any standards surrounding the production and distribution of THC-related products. Wisconsin is one of only six states, along with Alabama, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina and West Virginia, that neither ban nor regulate or aren’t attempting to regulate Delta-8 THC.
The lack of regulation has put consumer safety at risk. The Famous Yeti’s Pizza incident is one example, but not the only incident. In June, two children in Milwaukee went to the hospital after their mother mistakenly purchased 600 mg of THC gummies from a convenience store. The shop owner received a warning letter, but didn’t receive a citation because the sale wasn’t illegal.
THC derived from hemp plant
Under the 2018 Farm Bill, the U.S. government authorized commercial hemp production and made it eligible for federal crop insurance. The intended purpose was to provide additional support for people in the agriculture industry.
Hemp under the Farm Bill was defined as cannabis with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration of below 0.3% on a dry weight basis. THC is the psychoactive compound present in both hemp-derived and marijuana-derived cannabis. But marijuana-derived cannabis has a higher presence of THC and is federally illegal.
“Cannabis itself is actually the same product, whether it’s hemp-derived or marijuana,” Jason Hunt, CEO and general counsel of DynaVap, said. “Cannabis sativa is actually the product. It’s really the same plant, but it depends on when it’s harvested, as well as the concentration.”
Delta-8 and Delta-9 are similar variations of the same THC compound found in cannabis. Delta-9 is more commonly found in the marijuana plant, while Delta-8 is almost entirely found in hemp and is federally legal.
Delta-8 THC is found in low concentrations, so it is often chemically modified by concentrating Delta-8 from the hemp-derived cannabidiol, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“They take a portion of the plant and they chemically modify it to make sure it’s more intoxicating, so it’s a synthesized cannabis product,” Hunt said.
So, how is hemp regulated?
In 2022, Wisconsin’s regulatory hemp program fully transitioned to the federal level, so now the regulatory authority falls under the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Instead, Wisconsin regulates products with hemp derivatives at the state level through the same laws that govern retail food establishments and food processors. Like other products, hemp-derived products are subject to Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection requirements for labeling, weights and measures, consumer safety, misrepresentations, and deceptive advertising.
The state only allows hemp that has been certified by DATCP or another state’s hemp program to be in food products, but food items or ingredients containing hemp manufactured and packaged outside of Wisconsin cannot be sold in Wisconsin. Wisconsin also has “truth in labeling” laws requiring all hemp products to be properly labeled. Knowingly making an inaccurate or misleading claim regarding hemp products is illegal under a state statute.
Dane County Executive Melissa Agard, a Democrat who served in the Legislature for 12 years and authored bills to legalize recreational and medical marijuana, argues that legalization would lead to regulation.
“If we would pass a bill in regards to legalizing and regulating cannabis in Wisconsin, there would be a lot more consumer protections, whether you’re at a restaurant that might be serving cannabis-infused foods or a bar that’s selling cannabis-infused beverages, or at a corner store where you want to buy some edibles or some bud,” Agard said. “Right now, you’re just kind of taking people’s word for it. There’s no checks and balances, there’s no real accountability.”
A person walks into the Wisconsin Horticulture LLC Dispensary on July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. Wisconsin is one of six states that do not regulate or have plans to regulate THC. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
Minnesota, where marijuana is now fully legal, also regulates hemp products including requiring all consumers to be at least 21 years of age.
In Michigan, only companies licensed through the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency can sell, distribute and manufacture hemp-derived Delta-8 products, and all customers must be 21.
Wisconsin has no specific age requirements for purchasing and ingesting hemp products. Instead, age requirements are left up to localities.
Wood County was the first state locality to set an age restriction on purchasing hemp-related products in 2022. Milwaukee County set an age requirement in July after two children were left hospitalized after being sold THC gummies.
In February, Public Health Madison and Dane County expressed support for implementing an age restriction statewide.
Without a statewide age restriction, many localities have not passed specific requirements, leaving those markets widely unregulated.
In the Famous Yeti’s incident, eight people under 18 were reportedly intoxicated by cannabis oil, but without regulations, there were no citations.
“There are no regulation requirements for products derived from the hemp plant,” Public Health Madison and Dane County said in a blog following the incident. “Unlike commercial tobacco, Public Health cannot issue citations for the sale or distribution of hemp-derived products to minors.”
No compensation for THC victims
The Famous Yeti’s Pizza incident shows the consequences of a lack of regulation.
Jason Tarasek, a Minnesota attorney who specializes in cannabis law, explained that people harmed by the contamination would likely need to show monetary consequences to win a lawsuit against the establishment.
“One of those people who were harmed could easily bring a negligence action against that restaurant because it’s a breach of your duty to act as a reasonable restaurant if you’re accidentally slipping THC to people,” Tarasek said.
According to responses to the public health department’s questionnaire accessed via an open records request, respondents did raise concerns about the monetary consequences of the contamination.
“I don’t think I should have to pay for my ambulance ride or my tests that I needed as a result of being drugged,” a female respondent said.
Another female respondent said she was going to have over $1,000 in hospital bills even after her insurance claim.
“The closer you get to pointing at a bill for money, the easier it is to get a judge or jury to award you that,” Tarasek said.
The civil lawsuit against Famous Yeti’s pizza relates to negligence on behalf of the restaurant.
Samuel Hoffland, a Famous Yeti’s Pizza customer who was sickened by pizza contaminated with THC, filed a lawsuit against the pizzeria in May 2025.
Hoffland claims Famous Yeti’s breached its duty by “negligently preparing, handling, and serving food contaminated with THC” resulting in “physical illness, mental distress, and other injuries requiring medical attention and resulting in damages.” The civil lawsuit also claims Famous Yeti’s is strictly liable for Hoffland’s injuries and damages from consuming “THC-laced” food.
In response to the complaint, Famous Yeti’s said it was not negligent in preparing the food nor at fault for the contamination, but admits the product unintentionally “contained” THC. The restaurant also denied the food was laced, which would imply the food was deliberately infused with THC.
“The contamination of the subject product was the result of an intervening cause not due to any negligence or fault on the part of the defendant,” Famous Yeti’s said in its response.
Currently, the civil lawsuit is still pending. Famous Yeti’s, Hoffland and their attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
Current status of regulation attempts
Wisconsin’s lack of cannabis regulations continues to leave consumers in the dark when they purchase hemp-derived THC products in Wisconsin.
Gov. Tony Evers has attempted to regulate cannabis in multiple budget cycles, the most recent being the 2025-27 biennium. The marijuana-related provisions would have legalized and set regulatory standards for marijuana.
Evers’ budget recommendations included a section that would have started a program within DATCP to regulate the cultivation, production and distribution of marijuana requiring all producers and processors to hold a permit from DATCP.
The provision would have also set more stringent requirements, such as requiring all purchasers of THC products be 21 or older and banning production or distribution of cannabis near schools, playgrounds, public parks or child care facilities. If passed, it would have also established a training program under DATCP for proper handling of cannabis.
But Republicans removed the provision from the budget bill early in the process.
In 2024, Republicans, who have been otherwise reluctant to support marijuana legalization, introduced a bill to legalize and regulate medical marijuana in Wisconsin, specifically through heavily regulated state dispensaries. The bill was sponsored by 19 Republicans, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, but failed to pass the Legislature. It would not have regulated THC products derived from hemp.
This story was produced in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Investigative Journalism class taught in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for owners of manufactured homes at a time when private equity firms are buying up parks to maximize profits.
State regulators rarely inspect parks, allow many to go unlicensed and don’t even know which parks are operating.
A patchwork of laws and regulations governing manufactured housing leaves residents unsure of where to turn when conditions deteriorate.
Listen to Addie Costello’s story from WPR.
Priced out of traditional homes during an affordability crisis, many in Wisconsin have found another way to pursue an ownership dream.
Experts estimate that more than 100,000 Wisconsin residents live in manufactured homes, the more accurate name for what many call mobile homes or trailers — structures that make up the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. Many live in parks where they own their homes but rent the land beneath them.
But Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for residents at a time when private equity firms are buying up parks to maximize profits, a Wisconsin Watch/WPR investigation found.
Wisconsin law requires operators to keep parks “in a clean, safe, orderly and sanitary condition at all times.” The Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) is supposed to enforce that law and licensing standards. But it rarely inspects parks, allows many to go unlicensed and doesn’t even know which parks are operating.
Separate state and local agencies handle issues related to leasing, water quality, and health and safety at parks. That patchwork leaves residents unsure of where to turn when conditions deteriorate.
“I don’t know what to do or if I have any rights,” a park resident in Wisconsin Rapids wrote to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
“Why is our government not looking into any of this?” a Hudson resident asked DATCP while facing septic tank failures and surging rent.
In Forest Junction: “I picked this location over a decade ago because of its affordability. I have nowhere to go.”
In Amery: “They know we do not have the resources to move the trailer out of the community.”
In Whitewater: “I don’t know who to reach out to. I’m so stuck.”
WPR and Wisconsin Watch spent six months speaking to manufactured home residents statewide. Some described tight-knit, peaceful and affordable communities. But others detailed sewage backups, dramatic rent hikes, hazardous dead trees and foul-smelling water — all while frustrations simmered with unresponsive landlords and regulators.
What many call mobile homes aren’t actually mobile. Moving them can cost more than $10,000, with risks of damaging older structures. That traps residents when park conditions worsen.
Predatory companies know this, said Paul Terranova, Midwest community organizer with the nonprofit MHAction, which advocates for park residents nationwide.
While tallying every U.S. manufactured home community is difficult, experts estimate Wisconsin has more than 900, with 80 tied to private equity, according to data from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog.
Wisconsin regulators are paying little attention, industry professionals, advocates and residents say. That’s as neighboring Michigan and Minnesota offer more resources for residents and stronger oversight.
WPR and Wisconsin Watch also found:
DSPS produced documentation of just 15 parks inspected between 2022 and February.
DSPS lacks an accurate count of manufactured homes statewide. The agency previously published comprehensive data on all licensed communities, but it now posts records for only some counties, with many parks lacking identifying information. At least 27 parks filed evictions in the last two years but do not appear in current DSPS data.
Of the roughly 700 parks DSPS lists in licensing data, roughly 30% have expired licenses. Some park owners say poor communication and a technology overhaul made applying for licenses more difficult.
A legislative task force as far back as 2002 flagged problems with “a scattered state regulatory approach” to the industry that leaves residents confused about who regulates what. It hasn’t been fixed.
Affordable option has roots in Wisconsin
Cindy Philby, 60, sold her traditional, fixer-upper home after realizing she couldn’t afford needed repairs.
She poured all of her money into a manufactured home she found from an Iowa seller on Craigslist. It cost $4,500 plus $10,000 to deliver it to a rented lot at the Woodland Park community in the town of Fond du Lac.
She slept at a homeless shelter in late 2023 while waiting for the home to arrive.
“My next best thing to keep a roof over my head was a trailer,” Philby said.
She was embracing a housing option pioneered in Wisconsin.
The morning sun shines on manufactured homes at the Woodland Park mobile home community, Sept. 17, 2025, in the town of Fond du Lac, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
A Marshfield man’s innovation in the 1950s set the stage for the manufactured homes we see today. Rollohome Corp. founder Elmer Frey’s “mobile homes” — wider than recreational trailers — could be lived in year-round, more affordably than traditional homes.
Manufactured homes can be made quicker, on a larger scale and with less waste than other homes. Today Wisconsin owners of manufactured homes pay a median of $553 per month for housing, compared to $1,118 for all homeowners and $917 for all renters, according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Local zoning laws often exclude manufactured homes from residential neighborhoods. Parks allow owners to anchor their homes without requiring expensive modifications.
Philby, like many community residents, owns her home and pays a monthly fee for the land and additional costs for utilities. Her lot is owned by Florida-based COARE Communities, a subsidiary of the private equity-backed conglomerate COARE Companies, which touts a focus “on establishing platforms across niche investment strategies.”
Beneath an option to click on an “investor portal,” the COARE Communities website says it is “focused on solving the challenges of affordable housing through the acquisition and preservation of the most affordable type of housing in America – Manufactured Housing Communities.”
The company hiked Philby’s base rent this year from $425 to $500, six times the rate of inflation. It declined to comment on the record for this story.
Philby has struggled to absorb the hike while relying largely on disability payments to get by.
“They are squeezing everybody in this park to death,” she said.
Philby and her neighbors describe a host of additional problems, including poor water drainage and crumbling roads.
The community turns into a “mud puddle” or “lake” following heavy rains or snowmelts, they say.
Wisconsin law requires manufactured homes to sit in “a well-drained” and “properly graded” area to prevent flooding. It’s up to DSPS to enforce the law, but the agency could not locate any inspection records for the park. The park does not appear in DSPS’ licensing database, even though the town of Fond du Lac has separately licensed it.
Philby wants more action.
“Do something,” she said. “Make these people do their work.”
Calling for state regulators to ‘do their damn job’
Following months of door knocking in manufactured housing communities, Steve Carlson has little faith in Wisconsin regulators. He has seen dilapidated, abandoned homes and met residents who fear management will retaliate if they complain.
Carlson, a retired social worker and organizer from Washburn County, co-founded the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance late last year. It aims to keep manufactured home communities viable by pushing for stronger legal protections and helping residents organize.
Steve Carlson, a retired social worker and organizer from Washburn County, knocks on doors in the Birch Terrace Manufactured Home Community through his current role as president of the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance, June 21, 2025, in Menomonie, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Carlson hopes his work will inspire state regulators to “do their damn job.”
They could look to Michigan, which recently created an inspection team focused on improving conditions at manufactured home parks — visiting them each year.
DSPS inspects parks only when they are built, changed or draw a complaint that officials believe warrants one.
It’s possible parks built decades ago haven’t since been inspected. DSPS lacks records to show otherwise.
More regular inspections would likely require legislative action and more staff, DSPS spokesperson John Beard said in an email.
Local governments can help.
Wisconsin law allows them to monitor parks and enforce regulations on top of state requirements.
“Some municipalities are very good, they go through the property every year,” said Amy Bliss, executive director of the Wisconsin Housing Alliance, a manufactured housing trade association.
“Others just ignore the fact that they even exist.”
The town of Fond du Lac did not inspect Woodland Park while issuing its permit. It inspects parks only when complaints relate to town ordinances, said town Clerk Patti Supple.
DSPS can separately delegate its authority to local health departments. One municipality and 16 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties regulate parks in that way. DSPS holds them to a higher standard than itself, requiring annual inspections of each park.
“What’s going on in the other 56 counties in Wisconsin? Well, it’s anybody’s guess,” Carlson said. “Maybe there aren’t a lot of problems out there. The point is we don’t know, and somebody should find out.”
He hoped Dunn County would seek delegated authority over its housing parks.
Ed Werner, a resident of the Birch Terrace Manufactured Home Community, walks past a manufactured home that is for sale, June 21, 2025, in Menomonie, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
But learning the rules and carrying out inspections would require significant time and resources, Dunn County Health Director KT Gallagher said.
DSPS would allow the county to keep 63% of community licensing fees, nowhere close to covering extra costs, health department staff said at a meeting in August.
Parks are supposed to pay licensing fees every other year that haven’t increased since at least 2006. The minimum fee of $250 would need to rise to $400 just to account for inflation since that time.
While DSPS can raise some fees, Beard said, spending extra dollars would require legislative action.
Dunn County could also raise fees, but officials worry residents would bear those costs. They also fear a scenario in which an owner closes a park instead of fixing issues flagged by an inspection.
That happened in Eau Claire, Gallagher said. City and county inspectors closed a park, leaving some residents with nowhere to go.
That’s why DSPS avoids levying financial penalties even when inspectors find major problems.
“DSPS focus is on gaining compliance,” Beard said. “Forfeitures are a last resort, especially when action could leave residents looking for a new home.”
States like Minnesota help address this dilemma by setting aside licensing fees for grants to defray relocation costs following a closure. Minnesota has also allocated millions of dollars in recent years for manufactured home park owners to make repairs.
Cars are parked in driveways at the Birch Terrace Manufactured Home Community, June 21, 2025, in Menomonie, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Lawmakers reject help for homeowners
One program helps owners of manufactured homes in Wisconsin.
A portion of titling fees flows to the Tomorrow’s Home Foundation, which grants owners up to $3,000 for repairs or modifications or up to $1,500 to dispose of uninhabitable homes. The foundation received $120,000 from the state during the last budget cycle and raised additional funds on its own.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers this year proposed adding $40,000 to the program over two years. The Republican-led Joint Finance Committee rejected the proposal and a separate provision to add $1.68 million that could help owners repair failing septic systems.
Meanwhile, the state is missing out on uncollected fees from potentially hundreds of parks without active licenses.
Without extra funds, Dunn County declined to pursue state authority over inspections.
“This is a terrible situation without any easy answer,” said Dr. Alexandra Hall, a family physician on the county health committee. “But maybe we wouldn’t have gotten here if the state was actually enforcing its own laws.”
Licensing system causes headaches
DSPS records show Philby’s Woodland Park community had an active license in 2020, but the department lacks updated information. Beard said the agency is reaching out to the park about renewing.
Confusion has swirled around DSPS licensing dating back to 2020, Bliss said. Frustrations escalated last year — the first time park renewals were done using the LicensE, an online system for the 200-plus industries DSPS regulates.
Among criticisms aired at a February legislative hearing: Park owners weren’t told DSPS would no longer process paper renewals; an online application asked some owners to fill out unnecessary information; and the portal charged just an $8 renewal fee instead of the accurate minimum of $250.
Sun shines on the park office at the Woodland Park mobile home community, Sept. 17, 2025, in the town of Fond du Lac, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Addressing the rollout across all industries, Deputy Secretary Jennifer Garrett called LicensE “an overwhelming success, vastly expediting document handling and licensing decisions.”
“We knew that the transition to an all-digital environment would present challenges to parts of this industry,” she testified to lawmakers.
The agency reached out to park representatives ahead of the change, but it lacked some contact information, Garrett added. Communities with expired licenses may have closed, rebranded, changed owners or failed to transition to the online system.
DSPS is working with the Wisconsin Housing Alliance to update missing information on its list of licensed communities, Garrett testified in February.
Seven months later, the department’s licensing site still does not list each of the group’s members.
Bliss said DSPS struggles to make time to meet with her alliance, making it feel like the “red-headed stepchild of the regulated community.”
The former Wisconsin Department of Commerce, which regulated manufactured homes until 2011, communicated far better, she added.
That’s why she pushed DSPS to restart the state’s Manufactured Housing Code Council, an advisory body of representatives from across the industry and the public.
State law requires the council to meet at least twice a year. It met this summer for the first time in more than a decade.
To whom should residents complain?
DSPS received just 18 complaints related to manufactured housing between 2023 and early 2025, only some from park residents. The data understates industry-wide disputes, considering that multiple agencies regulate the parks and residents don’t know where to turn.
In Minnesota, the Office of Attorney General compiled all state laws related to manufactured home parks into an online handbook. Nothing that comprehensive exists in Wisconsin’s sprawling system.
Have a problem with roads? Try DSPS, which regulates community standards and licensing.
County and local health departments generally handle other health and safety concerns.
The Woodland Park mobile home community is shown Sept. 17, 2025, in the town of Fond du Lac, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Philby and other Woodland Park residents sent all of their complaints to DATCP, including ones related to conditions DSPS is supposed to regulate.
DATCP received more than 100 complaints related to manufactured homes between 2023 and this March. Dozens mentioned issues in DSPS’ domain, like flooding, sewage and roads.
DATCP must identify a pattern of violations before launching an investigation, said Michelle Reinen, an agency administrator. It cannot legally represent individual consumers.
The agency and the Wisconsin Department of Justice in 2023 reached a $75,000 settlement with a Colorado-based park operator doing business in Wisconsin. That was after fielding more than 50 complaints about “unfair and illegal” renting practices.
DATCP and DSPS say they sometimes get information from other agencies. They collaborated on a 2023 investigation — responding to the Boscobel Dial’s reporting — that found violations at Cozy Acres Mobile Home Park in Boscobel.
Lawmaker seeks more clarity
Rep. Scott Krug, R-Rome, wants to clear up confusion for homeowners and landlords.
His legislation, AB 424, specifies landlord-tenant laws for parks and expands on reasons residents may be evicted. It would also require park owners to issue a 90-day notice before closing. He hopes to hear more ideas from the operators and residents if the bill draws a hearing.
Krug calls manufactured homes “a forgotten segment of real estate” that won’t help solve the affordability crisis without state action.
Lawmakers might look backward for inspiration.
A 2002 government task force on manufactured housing suggested consolidating oversight of manufactured home communities to address the state’s “disparate and confusing array” of oversight efforts.
‘They can just do whatever they want’
Park residents also battle public perception.
Members of a North Fond du Lac Facebook group complain about the condition of Woodland Park, calling it a dangerous eyesore.
Responding to one post, Philby explained people’s struggles to afford rent and urged people to push for local solutions.
“Should just flaten it,” one commenter responded.
Residents have sought state help. Stacey Murillo complained to DATCP in 2024 about issues including roads and garbage.
DATCP sent her complaint, with her name, to the park’s manager for mediation. Woodland Park management provided the state with evidence that it was addressing some issues.
But Murillo said too little has changed.
Cindy Philby leans on the bed of her truck, Sept. 17, 2025, in the Woodland Park mobile home community in the town of Fond du Lac, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Philby complained to DATCP after management gave her a lease that pre-checked a box to opt out of a yearlong contract. Wisconsin law requires landlords to offer 12-month options, more protective against evictions and rent increases.
DATCP reached out to Woodland Park to mediate Philby’s complaint in April but received no response, it told Philby in a letter.
The agency cannot order businesses to participate in mediation, but it can issue notices of noncompliance, which it did in Philby’s case.
“Since your complaint was not resolved through mediation, you have the option to contact a private attorney to discuss your legal remedies,” the agency’s letter said.
“No one in this park can afford an attorney,” Philby said, still waiting for a longer lease.
“They can just do whatever they want,” she said. “The federal government’s allowing them to do it, the town’s allowing them to do it and the state’s allowing them to do it.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Those who utilize FoodShare and Medicaid may see some changes soon, the result of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Here is what you need to know.
Changes to FoodShare (SNAP)
Nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites receive food and nutrition assistance through FoodShare.
Reno Wright, advocacy director for Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, said that while no changes have been enacted yet, the bill calls for a series of modifications.
Some include:
Expanded work requirements. The age range for adults required to meet work requirements will increase from 18-54 to 18-64. Parents of children age 14 and older will now also need to meet work requirements.
Restrictions for new legal immigrants: Before the bill, many immigrants like those with refugee status were exempt from the five-year waiting period that some legal permanent residents face to qualify for FoodShare benefits. The new law removes these exemptions, effectively making many new immigrants ineligible for the food assistance program.
Stricter exemption rules: Some people like veterans, people who are homeless and former foster youths aged 18-24 are exempt from having to meet work requirements in order to receive SNAP benefits. The bill removes those exemptions.
These changes will only be implemented once the Wisconsin Department of Health Services receives further guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cheryl Isabell, a health care navigator and Milwaukee community engagement lead for Covering Wisconsin, organizes a table of health insurance resources during a community event at Victory Academy Christian School in Milwaukee on March 13, 2025. (Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Approximately one in five Wisconsinites (or 1 million people) receive health care coverage and services through Wisconsin’s Medicaid programs. Almost half of Wisconsin Medicaid members are children.
The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee Minority released a statement indicating that 276,175 Wisconsinites will lose health care coverage under both the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid because of the new law over the next decade.
Expanded work requirements: Recipients will now have to do 80 hours a month of qualifying activities like work, school or volunteering.
Restrictions for new legal immigrants: Refugees and other people in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are generally exempt from the standard five-year waiting period to receive Medicaid benefits. The bill removes that exemption.
Recipients have to be requalified for coverage and services every six months.
Cost-sharing requirements will expand.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, these changes will force working people off the program because of red-tape work reporting requirements; increase medical debt and uncompensated care; increase Wisconsin’s uninsured population; and prevent Wisconsin from innovating and designing the best program for the state.
These changes are set to take effect in late 2026.
What’s being done to help
Alyssa Blom, a communications manager with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services, said that while the full impact of the Medicaid cuts is still unclear, the department is supporting those impacted.
“We are concerned about how they may affect access to programs and services, especially for the most vulnerable in Milwaukee County,” she said. “Our priority is to continue supporting Medicaid recipients and ensuring continuity of care, while preparing for potential changes ahead.”
Wright said the Hunger Task Force has an advocacy group called Voices Against Hunger. It is a statewide platform where information is sent out to let people know about things that are going on at the state and federal level, including federal nutrition programs like FoodShare.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will stop scheduling patients for abortions starting next week as it works to find a way to provide the service in the face of Medicaid funding cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, the nonprofit said Thursday.
Abortion funding across the U.S. has been under siege, particularly Planned Parenthood affiliates, which are the biggest provider. Wisconsin appears to be the first state where Planned Parenthood is pausing abortions because of the new law.
The organization warned earlier this year that about half its clinics that provide abortion could be closed as a result of a ban on Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood for services other than abortion.
The measure was part of the tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed in July. Initially, a judge said reimbursements must continue, but a federal appeals court this month said the government could halt the payments while a court challenge to the provision moves ahead.
Planned Parenthood services include cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. Federal Medicaid money was already not paying for abortion, but affiliates relied on Medicaid to stay afloat.
The remaining Planned Parenthood clinics in Louisiana – where abortion is banned – are scheduled to shut down at the end of this month.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said in a statement that it is trying to see as many patients as possible between now and Tuesday. The federal law takes effect Wednesday. It is not scheduling patients beyond that date, and the organization believes the move will allow it to continue seeing other Medicaid patients. The organization said it was working with providers across the state to make sure patients are referred quickly and receive timely care.
It is also considering taking legal action, the group said.
“Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will continue to provide the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion, as soon and as we are able to,” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin President and CEO Tanya Atkinson said in the statement. “In the meantime, we are pursuing every available option through the courts, through operations, and civic engagement.”
The abortion landscape has been shifting frequently since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that allowed states to ban abortion. Currently, 12 states do not allow it at any stage of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four more ban it after about six weeks’ gestation.
The bans have resulted in more women traveling for abortion and an increased reliance on abortion pills. Prescribers in states where they’re allowed have been shipping the pills to places where abortion is banned, a practice that is facing some legal challenges and is expected to attract more.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in July struck down the state’s 1849 near-total ban on abortion, saying it was superseded by newer state laws regulating the procedure. The same day it ruled in that case, the court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin asking it to find the law unconstitutional.
Wisconsin’s abortion ban was in effect until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide nullified it. Legislators never officially repealed it, however, and conservatives argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe reactivated it.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin stopped providing abortions after that ruling for 15 months before resuming them as the lawsuit over the state law played out. It has been providing abortions at three clinics in Wisconsin for the past two years.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin serves about 50,000 people across the state. About 60% of them are covered by Medicaid, the organization said.
The federal Hyde Amendment already restricts government funding for most abortions, and less than 5% of the services Planned Parenthood provides are abortions, according to the organization’s 2023 annual report.
Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of services besides abortion. Its most recent annual report shows that contraceptive services and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections make up the vast majority of its medical care. It performs more cancer screening and prevention procedures than abortions, according to the report.
Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press reporter Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services is continuing to recommend that anyone over 6 months old get an updated, annual version of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, the state’s DHS has put out a standing order for the vaccine. State officials say that will ensure that most Wisconsinites are able to get the COVID vaccine at pharmacies across Wisconsin without a prescription.
This year’s Wisconsin DHS guidelines mirror guidance from a broad range of medical experts. And the guidance echoes what state and federal health officials have recommended in recent years.
Wisconsin’s recommendations stand in contrast, however, to recent moves at the federal level.
This year, the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the new COVID vaccine for Americans ages 65 and older and for people with certain higher risk conditions. At the national level, a panel is set to meet later this week to discuss vaccine recommendations that will be provided to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wisconsin is now one of several states where health officials have moved to take statewide action on vaccines because of worries about how federal actions could impede vaccine access.
“In the past several months, leaders at federal agencies have made policy decisions and issued recommendations that aren’t supported by or directly contradict scientific consensus,” Dr. Ryan Westergaard, a chief medical officer within DHS, said during a news conference.
The order also attempts to ensure that Wisconsinites won’t have to pay out of pocket for COVID vaccines. It says that the state Office of the Commissioner of Insurance shall “direct all health insurers within their regulatory authority to provide coverage for the COVID-19 vaccine without cost-sharing to all their insureds.”
“Vaccines save lives, folks,” Evers said in a statement accompanying his order. “RFK and the Trump Administration are inserting partisan politics into healthcare and the science-based decisions of medical professionals and are putting the health and lives of kids, families, and folks across our state at risk in the process.”
State health officials are recommending that Wisconsinites get their new COVID vaccines to coincide with the fall spike in respiratory diseases. Those shots are recommended even for people who have gotten COVID shots in the past. That’s because the vaccines released in 2025 are designed to hedge against potentially waning immunity and to target newly emerging versions of the virus, Westergaard said.
“The same way that we recommend getting your flu shot booster every year, because the flu that’s going around this year might be slightly different than the flu that was going around last year, we recommend a COVID booster,” he said.
This story was originally published by ProPublica.
The U.S. Department of Education has pulled funding for programs in eight states aimed at supporting students who have both hearing and vision loss, a move that could affect some of the country’s most vulnerable students.
The programs are considered vital in those states but represent only a little over $1 million a year in federal money. Nonetheless, they got caught in the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, with an Education Department spokesperson citing concerns about “divisive concepts” and “fairness” in acknowledging the decision to withhold the funding.
The funding, which was expected to continue through September 2028, will stop at the end of the month, according to letters from the Education Department to local officials that were obtained by ProPublica. The government gave the programs seven days to ask officials to reconsider the decision.
The programs, part of a national network of organizations for every state, provide training and resources to help families and educators support students who are deaf and blind, a condition known as deafblindness that affects the ability to process both auditory and visual information. Those students often have significant communication challenges and need specialized services and schooling. (Education Week first reported that the department had canceled grants related to special education.)
Nationally, there are about 10,000 children and young adults, from infants to 21-year-olds, who are deafblind and more than 1,000 in the eight affected states, according to the National Center on Deafblindness. The programs targeted by the Education Department are in Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington, as well as in New England, which is served by a consortium for Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont.
“How low can you go?” said Maurice Belote, co-chair of the National DeafBlind Coalition, which advocates for legislation that supports deafblind children and young adults. “How can you do this to children?”
In Oregon, the 2023 grant application for the deafblind program there included a statement about its commitment to address “inequities, racism, bias” and the marginalization of disability groups. It also attached the strategic plan for Portland Public Schools, where the Oregon DeafBlind Project is headquartered, that mentioned the establishment of a Center for Black Student Excellence — which is unrelated to the deafblind project. The Education Department’s letter said that those initiatives were “in conflict with agency policy and priorities.”
The director of the Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Project received a similar letter from the Education Department that said its work was at odds with the federal government’s new focus on “merit.” The letter noted that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, which oversees the project, had a policy of ensuring that women, minorities and disabled veterans would be included in the hiring process.
The Education Department also was concerned about other words in the application, said Adrian Klenz, who works with deafblind adults in the state. He said he has talked with state officials about the discontinuation of the grant.
“I was told that apparently the administration is going through past grants and two words were flagged: One was transition and one was privilege,” Klenz said. “Transition — transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Privilege came up because a parent wrote a glowing review of staff that said what a privilege it was to work with them.” ProPublica obtained a copy of the grant application and confirmed that those words were included.
In a statement, Education Department Press Secretary Savannah Newhouse told ProPublica that the administration “is no longer allowing taxpayer dollars to go out the door on autopilot — we are evaluating every federal grant to ensure they are in line with the Administration’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.”
Newhouse said the Education Department renewed more than 500 special education grants that fund services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. She said the agency decided not to renew fewer than 35.
“Many of these use overt race preferences or perpetuate divisive concepts and stereotypes, which no student should be exposed to,” she said, adding that the funds will be put toward other programs.
The department started funding state-level programs to help deafblind students more than 40 years ago in response to the rubella epidemic in the late 1960s. While the population is small, it is among the most complex to serve; educators rely on the deafblindness programs for support and training.
Deafblind programs help educators learn the most effective ways to teach reading and connect families with state and local resources. The programs also tally the number of students across the country who are affected by deafblindness.
Disability advocates, who promote inclusion for people in their communities with disabilities, said they are struggling to reconcile how they can now be under attack for language about inclusion.
What’s more, under Joe Biden, who was president when the grant applications were submitted, language about diversity and inclusion efforts was required. The department at the time noted that “deafBlind children have complex needs and are among the most diverse groups of learners served” using federal special-education funds.
“We were required by the Biden administration to write a statement around equity,” said Lisa McConachie, of the Oregon DeafBlind Project, which serves 114 students in the state.
She said the Trump administration’s view of DEI is different from how inclusion is thought of by disability advocates. “Our passion and our mission is around advocacy for inclusion for kids with disabilities,” she said. “Students in special education are often marginalized in their schools. Students in special education are often excluded.”
Lanya Elsa, who lives in Washington and has two sons served by the state’s deafblind program, said the organization has provided strategies for her son’s educators over the years and has helped her connect with other families. She also is the former director of the Idaho program.
Elsa said that while the funding loss may seem small, “those vulnerable students have nothing else. It is devastating.”
The Education Department notified Wisconsin earlier this month that funding for its deafblind program as well as a separate federal grant to recruit special-education teachers was being discontinued. Officials there plan to appeal, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
About 170 deafblind students in Wisconsin are served by that grant, which funds assistive technology tools, coaching, family support and professional training across the state. And the recruitment of special-education teachers was begun to address a severe shortage.
“Make no mistake, losing these funds will directly impact our ability to serve some of our most vulnerable kids,” Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly said in a written statement. “Losing these dollars at this point in the year will be devastating for the kids who need these supports the most.”
In Oregon, the impact will be felt soon. McConachie said about 20 families had signed up for a parent retreat next month to swap medical equipment, share resources and learn about services to help students when they get older.
“Gathering those families together is a lifeline for them,” she said. “These families are vulnerable and so are the kids.”
Without funding, the weekend will now be canceled. “The impact can’t be undone,” she said. “The disruption will be harmful for many years to come.”
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Elizabeth Brown faced five years of housing troubles, homelessness and other barriers. But she can now say she’s a homeowner.
Brown, 51, always wanted to be a homeowner but said it just hadn’t happened for her. Just a few years ago, Brown was choosing between feeding her children and paying her rent. After moving into a home in Milwaukee near North 20th Street and West Auer Avenue that quickly fell into disrepair, she decided it was time to make a dream a reality.
“I just couldn’t do that anymore,” she said. “I knew I didn’t want to deal with landlords anymore.”
Brown purchased her home through Acts Housing and moved in June 27.
Brown is a mother of nine children, four of whom she still takes care of. She is a community organizer and the current president of Amani United, a neighborhood group.
“I love that she has this house now,” said Doris Brown, Elizabeth’s mother. “It feels like she’s reached the beginning of being settled, like she deserves to be.”
The journey
Brown’s homebuying process took about two years. But she spent even longer preparing for it.
“It was hard because one day I was trying to survive,” she said.
Two of Brown’s children are school-aged and two more are in college. As she prepared to buy a home, she was working to support her children and serving her community through her work as a leader for Amani United.
Brown has spent significant time giving back to the community. She said when it came to the process of buying a home, it was that same community that supported her.
Amanda Clark, housing coordinator for the Dominican Center, which often works in partnership with Amani United, has known Brown for eight years. She said she was excited to witness Brown become a homeowner.
“I don’t think anyone is more deserving than Elizabeth,” she said. “Elizabeth acted as a pilot so that we can, as a community, help other residents access homeownership without as many barriers.”
Overcoming barriers
Brown said there were many days when she just wanted to give up on becoming a homeowner.
One challenge, she said, was simply saving the money needed to purchase her home.
“When you are working with programs and following steps toward your goal, life is still happening,” she said. “I was homeless for six months during this process because the home I was living in just became unlivable.”
She said there were times when she’d have to rent hotel rooms to meet her and her children’s hygiene needs or rent other places to cook for them.
“There is always something else you need to do,” Brown said. “You think you’ve taken all the steps, then a coach will say, ‘oh you need to do this and this.’ ”
While she bought the home through Acts Housing, she said other supports, like staff from the Community Development Alliance, Milwaukee Metropolitan Community Church, Northwestern Mutual and LISC, were helpful in her journey.
A fresh start
Brown said buying a home feels like the beginning for her.
“I’m happy, and my children are so proud of me,” she said. “But there is so much more I want to do.”
Brown said homeownership is possible for anyone who wants to achieve it, so long as communities care.
“It was a long fight,” Brown said. “But I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason, and I had my experience so that I can help others do what I did.”
When Kristen Payne learned her child’s classmate at the Golda Meir Lower Campus tested positive for lead poisoning earlier this year, she said Milwaukee Public Schools had underestimated the amount of lead dust in the school.
“We have come to find out that Golda Meir had one of the highest levels of lead dust of any of the schools tested,” said Payne, founder of the advocacy group Lead Safe Schools MKE.
After MPS replaced the windows at Golda Meir in the 1990s, she said, district officials thought they eliminated a major hazard. But after starting remediation work earlier this year, they realized the problem was worse than they thought, she said.
Payne said the experience broke her trust with the district. She’s one of several advocates calling for MPS to be more transparent with its lead action plan.
As the school year approaches, lead safety groups want the district to share more documentation, open up about the money being spent on the plan and keep an eye on subcontractors doing remediation.
Advocates urge transparency
As of Aug. 29, the Milwaukee Health Department had cleared 39 MPS schools, meaning lead hazards have been removed and it is safe for children to return.
The district has posted full health department clearance reports for six schools and interim clearance reports for three schools, including Golda Meir.
An interim clearance report means all indoor lead hazards have been addressed, even if there are still lead hazards outside, said Caroline Reinwald, marketing, communications and public information officer for the Milwaukee Health Department.
“Some schools receive interim clearance reports because completing all exterior work can take months or even years,” Reinwald wrote. “In these cases, the buildings are still considered safe to occupy.”
An interim clearance report was issued for Trowbridge School of Great Lakes Studies on March 19. The school was closed last year due to lead hazards. (Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service file photo)
As of Aug. 29, the district had sent letters to families at 28 schools saying the Health Department cleared their school for occupancy, yet few of the full clearance reports are available online.
“Trust is not going to be rebuilt if they continue to withhold information,” Payne said. “There’s many of us who aren’t clear or sure that truly these schools are safe.”
Richard Diaz is the co-founder of Coalition On Lead Emergency, which works to prevent and respond to lead poisoning in Milwaukee.
He said he wants to know how much money MPS is spending on abatement efforts and how long the cleanup keeps students safe from lead exposure.
Lead hazards can reappear after abatement, so the district will need to monitor schools for future lead risks, according to the Milwaukee Health Department clearance reports. New lead hazards can also appear as the building deteriorates, the reports read.
“Because these aren’t full-fledged abatements, these are, you know, kind of just Band-Aids on a solution that will need to be addressed in years to come,” Diaz said.
Contractor concerns
JCP Construction, the company MPS hired to assist with lead remediation, started the work with about 150 painters, but about 30 painters have since left due to difficult work conditions and high temperatures, MPS Interim Chief Operating Officer Mike Turza said in the July 31 school board meeting.
Turza said JCP Construction hired Illinois-based Independence Painting to fill the void, a decision that raised concerns among advocates and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. The district currently has 172 painters working across buildings.
Andy Buck, political affairs director with the painters’ union, said safety is a big concern. He said people want to know and ensure contractors doing lead remediation have the necessary qualifications.
“How’s that being documented?” Buck asked.
MPS media relations manager Stephen Davis said the district holds the contractor, JCP Construction, accountable for ensuring subcontractors are compliant with state regulations and licenses.
When the public raised concerns about out-of-state contractors like Independence Painting, the district worked with JCP to ensure it had all the necessary qualifications, Davis said.
There are generally no restrictions on the use of contractors from outside the area or state, but the district mandates that any staff meet the qualifications of state and building code requirements, Davis said.
Payne said the situation is another example of why she struggles to trust the district. Like Buck, she wants to see the documented qualifications of the subcontractors.
During the July 31 school board meeting, Turza said a district staff member was always monitoring each worksite and that certified lead stabilization staff or Wisconsin Department of Health Services workers were always present.
“It’s not clear to me who is correct,” Payne said. “I would want to see actual data on that before coming to any conclusion.”
What’s next
The first day of class for most Milwaukee Public Schools was Sept. 2. As of Aug. 29, there were still 11 schools that had not been cleared by the Milwaukee Health Department.
Remediation efforts are ongoing with clearance of all schools expected by the start of the school year, according to the district’s most recent lead action plan report.
You can check on the progress of lead remediation efforts on this website.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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In Wisconsin, permanently and totally disabled workers haven’t seen a raise to their worker’s compensation benefits in nine years, despite prices increasing 34% and the Legislature granting companies premium cuts worth more than $1 billion.
There’s a chance the raise will finally happen now that the state budget includes the creation of a worker’s comp fee schedule for medical services, which was a sticking point in past worker’s comp bill negotiations.
The proposed bill would make an estimated 210 more people eligible for raises and increase the maximum weekly benefit to $1,051 from $669 effective Jan. 1, 2026. It still must pass the Legislature and be signed by the governor.
Jimmy Novy grew up on a farm with corn, cattle and chickens in Wisconsin’s smallest municipality. Yuba, in the Driftless Area northwest of Madison, covers a third of a square mile. Novy correctly quotes its population in the last census: 53.
In 1967, at age 19, married with a child, Novy got a job at the Rayovac plant in nearby Wonewoc. It made batteries used in walkie-talkies in the Vietnam War.
In his late 20s, Novy learned he had been exposed to manganese, a key component in batteries. He suffered neurological problems that affected his left leg, severely limiting his ability to walk or even maintain his balance.
“The nerves from the brain to my leg, they can’t do nothing about that,” he said.
With four children to raise, Novy turned to Wisconsin’s first-in-the-nation worker’s compensation system. After three years of legal back-and-forth, the state agreed that Novy was permanently and totally disabled (PTD), meaning he was among the worst-off of Wisconsin workers injured on the job. As a result, he qualified for worker’s comp checks for life.
But there was no guarantee of how often those checks would increase.
Jimmy Novy suffered neurological problems in his late 20s after a decade handling toxic chemicals at a Rayovac plant in Wonewoc, Wis. (Courtesy of Jimmy Novy)
A now-abandoned factory once housed Rayovac Corp., a battery company at which Jimmy Novy suffered a workplace injury in his late 20s. The site is seen July 29, 2025, in Wonewoc, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Now 77, widowed, remarried and using hearing aids and a cane, Novy hasn’t seen an increase in his $1,575 monthly worker’s compensation check — nor have the other more than 300 other PTD recipients — since 2016.
“I can’t make it,” Novy told Wisconsin Watch in mid-July. “I got $8 left in my checkbook right now to last me through the last week of the month.”
“The wife buys food and stuff, otherwise I’d be starving to death,” he added.
Had Novy’s worker’s comp payment kept pace with inflation, which rose 34%, he would have received nearly $21,000 more over the past nine years, according to calculations by University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Menzie Chinn.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin employers have seen their premiums for worker’s compensation insurance decrease 10 years in a row, saving them $206 million in the past year and over $1 billion since 2017, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association, which is part of the state Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council.
Twenty-three states, including Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota, provide automatic cost-of-living raises for PTD recipients. In Wisconsin, raises have been provided only when they are included in a wide-ranging worker’s compensation “agreed bill,” proposed every two years, and only if the bill becomes law.
That moment might be at hand.
The advisory council has recommended raises for PTD recipients in the next agreed bill, which is being drafted.
The bill still has to be approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Making history, creating PTD raises
In 1911, Wisconsin became the first state to adopt a comprehensive worker’s compensation law that was upheld as constitutional. Before that, the burden was on the worker to prove that a job injury was the employer’s fault. Now it’s a no-fault system. Workers injured on the job can receive regular payments based on their salary, plus coverage of medical bills to treat their injuries.
Wisconsin’s system has received high marks for getting injured workers back on the job quickly and for worker satisfaction in health care for their injuries.
The money for worker’s compensation checks comes from worker’s compensation insurance companies and from employers who are self-insured for worker’s comp. No tax dollars are involved.
About 21,000 people annually receive Wisconsin worker’s comp checks, the vast majority of them for a temporary period. Only about 500 people receive PTD benefits, and only 300 of them, like Novy, are eligible for raises.
That’s because the 2016 agreed bill limits raises, known as supplementary benefits, only to PTD recipients injured before Jan. 1, 2003.
Wisconsin Watch’s Tom Kertscher explains how permanently and totally disabled workers haven’t seen a raise to their worker’s compensation benefits in nine years. He also talks with Jimmy Novy, 77, who grew up on a farm in Yuba, Wisconsin, and became severely disabled after his job at the local Rayovac company exposed him to manganese. (Video by Trisha Young / Wisconsin Watch)
How PTD raises are decided
The process that determines whether PTD raises are granted is not unlike the bargaining that an employer and a union do to reach a contract. Both sides have priorities, and there is horse trading and eventually compromise, at least on some issues.
The Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council is composed mainly of five representatives from management and five from organized labor, though it also includes nonvoting members representing insurance, health care and the Legislature.
Every odd year, the council develops a bill proposing multiple changes to worker’s comp. The process typically takes months of negotiations, said John Dipko, the council’s non-voting chair and administrator of worker’s compensation for the state Department of Workforce Development.
If approved by the Legislature and the governor, the bill becomes law the next year.
That process has produced 11 PTD raises since 1972. The 2016 raise put the maximum PTD payment at $669 per week.
‘The most severely changed’
Circumstances have left PTD recipient Scott Meyer better off financially than Novy, but delays in raises have forced Meyer to dip into savings and, as his health conditions worsen, worry about the future.
Meyer grew up outside of Milwaukee, playing in the woods and farm fields of rural Washington County. He was a member of the hockey team at West Bend West High School.
In 1993, at age 19, Meyer was working on a loading dock when a co-worker backing a semi-trailer pinned Meyer between the trailer and the dock. Meyer closed his eyes and tried to remain calm, thinking his right leg was broken.
“One of the paramedics in the ambulance thought that I was unconscious and said to the other paramedic that this was going to be his first fatality call,” Meyer recalled. “And I immediately then knew that something more major had happened.”
Scott Meyer in 1992 in his West Bend West High School hockey uniform. (Courtesy of Scott Meyer)
Scott Meyer in 2023 with his dog Luna near their home in Frisco, Colorado. (Courtesy of Lynn Meyer)
Worker’s comp recipient Scott Meyer’s video request to the state for a raise.
Meyer underwent multiple surgeries, spent more than a year in the hospital and dropped to under 100 pounds. He was left a paraplegic.
Though unable to work, Meyer became an Alpine skier in Colorado, where he now lives, competing in the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.
Meyer, 51, said he receives about $2,300 per month from worker’s compensation – nearly $370 per month less than what he was paid on the job in 1993.
Meyer, who owns a condominium with his wife, a mental health therapist, said he has been able to live comfortably only by preserving savings, including from a one-time payout he received from his former employer for his injury. But with no raises in nine years, he has had to dip into savings to get by.
Earlier this year, both Novy in an email and Meyer in a video asked the Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council to recommend raises for PTD recipients.
“These are people whose lives are the most severely changed and are legitimately dependent upon these funds,” Meyer told Wisconsin Watch. “We’re talking about pennies on the dollar to the kind of money that is in the system.”
The process that results in PTD raises involves negotiations on a variety of worker’s compensation issues. That has made the road to another raise rocky in recent years.
Delayed raises and a possible breakthrough
The Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council’s agreed bill for 2018 would have raised the maximum weekly PTD payment to $711 from $669 and made more PTD people eligible for raises. But the bill also proposed a “fee schedule,” generally opposed by health care organizations, to limit how much health care providers can charge for worker’s comp care. The bill did not pass the Legislature.
Since then, the labor side of the advisory council continued to propose PTD raises, while the management side continued to seek a fee schedule. Wisconsin is one of only a handful of states without one. The two sides did not agree to include PTD raises in their 2020, 2022 and 2024 agreed bills.
A key barrier was cleared when a fee schedule for worker’s comp was included in the 2025-27 state budget adopted in July.
Days later, the advisory council proposed raises for current PTD recipients and made more PTD recipients eligible for raises.
Jimmy Novy smokes a Wrangler cigar on his porch July 29, 2025, in Hillsboro, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Under the 2026 agreed bill, the injury date for PTD recipients to be eligible for raises would change from Jan. 1, 2003, to Jan. 1, 2020 — making an estimated 210 more people eligible for raises.
The bill would also raise the maximum weekly benefit for PTD recipients to $1,051 from $669 effective Jan. 1, 2026.
And it would add raises each Jan. 1, though those amounts would not be set until shortly before they become effective.
For individuals, the raise amounts would vary based on when they were injured.
For example, a PTD recipient injured in 1985 and receiving $535 a week would get a 57% increase to $840. The increase would amount to nearly $16,000 per year.
Once it’s drafted, the new agreed bill would need a final vote from the advisory council, which is expected in September. Then the bill would be submitted to the labor committees of the state Senate and Assembly.
Council management representatives didn’t reply to calls and emails requesting comment. Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale, the lead labor representative, said she understands the frustration over delayed raises. But she said the advisory council system, with management and labor hashing out worker’s compensation issues, provides stability.
Without it, “it would be up to the Legislature, and the whims of the political winds would determine the policy,” she said.
Dipko, the DWD administrator, said the department is sympathetic.
“We agreed that an increase is overdue,” he said.
Jimmy Novy holds out his arm to show his new tattoo on July 29, 2025, in Hillsboro, Wis. He has been collecting worker’s comp checks from the state since his injury in his late 20s. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
An archival photograph of Jimmy Novy, one of 312 permanently and totally disabled individuals in Wisconsin who haven’t seen a raise in their supplemental income since 2016. (Courtesy of Jimmy Novy)
After waiting this long, Novy isn’t sure what to think. He’s happy he and wife share a $125,000 brick house they own “with the bank,” as he puts it, and for his monthly $1,635 Social Security check, which increases each year. But he has filed for bankruptcy three times, most recently in 2020. He feels that at this stage of his life, he should be more secure, and a raise in worker’s comp would help.
“The Legislature should be — forget Republican, Democrat — just vote for what’s good,” he said.
“I can’t see how come they can’t give us a little raise every year,” he added.
How to express your opinion
The Legislature later this year is expected to consider a bill that recommends changes in state law on worker’s compensation, including providing raises to the permanently and totally disabled. Here is contact information for the two labor committees:
The chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development is Sen. Dan Feyen, R-Fond du Lac: Sen.Feyen@legis.wi.gov; 608-266-5300.
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Klein Hall, which has helped some 1,000 veterans rebuild their lives since opening in 2007, is set to close on Sept. 12, displacing more than two dozen residents.
Gov. Tony Evers proposed $1.9 million in new funding to support Klein Hall and a veterans home in Green Bay. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget writing committee rejected the proposal.
Elected officials have pointed fingers, but some lawmakers say their colleagues should put politics aside to prevent the closures. A pair of bills seek to do that, but opinions differ on the best path forward.
Meanwhile, most veterans already moved out of the Chippewa Falls and Green Bay homes.
Air Force veteran Blake Haynes faced an impossible choice during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic: pay rent or buy insulin. He couldn’t afford both. One month, he chose rent. His blood sugar spiked, sending him into cardiac arrest. Clinically dead for 10 minutes, he was revived by doctors, only to see him fall into a coma.
When he woke up almost three weeks later, Haynes said, everything changed for him physically and mentally. He couldn’t work. He faced eviction. He could no longer stay with his kids.
“I was going to end it all,” he said.
Eventually a nurse connected him with Veterans Outreach and Recovery. That led him to Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, which provides housing, job training and recovery services to veterans. During his year and a half there, Haynes stayed on track with medical appointments and found direction in his life.
Two years after leaving Klein Hall, Haynes lives a new reality. He’s renting a home, leasing a new car, staying out of the hospital for diabetes issues and pursuing a nursing degree. Most importantly, he’s back with his kids.
“I have a life,” Haynes told Wisconsin Watch.
But Klein Hall, which has helped some 1,000 veterans rebuild their lives since opening in 2007, is set to close on Sept. 12, displacing more than two dozen residents.
That’s after lawmakers enacted a budget without funds to cover rising costs at veterans homes.
A state of Wisconsin flag, United States of America flag, and a POW/MIA flag fly outside Klein Hall on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Gov. Tony Evers proposed $1.9 million in new funding for the Veteran Housing and Recovery Program. VHRP supports the veterans homes like Klein Hall as well as facilities in Green Bay — also slated to close — and Union Grove. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget writing committee rejected the proposal before hashing out the two-year budget Evers signed in July.
Evers, a Democrat, called closures “a direct result of the Legislature’s failure to approve the investments” he proposed.
Amid the finger pointing, some lawmakers say their colleagues should push politics aside to prevent closures that leave veterans with fewer services. A pair of bills seek to do that, but opinions differ on which offers the best path forward.
Meanwhile, most veterans already moved out of the Chippewa Falls and Green Bay homes, and their closure date is fast approaching.
A ‘stepping stone’ toward recovery
Klein Hall was a place of recovery for veterans like Haynes who wanted to get their lives back on track. For Army veteran Randy Nelson, it was a chance at stability after years of battling a methamphetamine addiction.
“I feel so lucky by everything I’ve been given, and Klein Hall was a stepping stone for me,” Nelson said.
Randy Nelson, an Army veteran, looks through the dresser in his room, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
In February, Nelson completed a two-month chemical dependency program at the St. Cloud Veteran Affairs Medical Center to address his bipolar disorder and substance use. After completing the treatment, he was advised not to return to his trailer in Minneapolis and was directed to Klein Hall, where he could continue his recovery near his daughter.
Beginning in April, Nelson took part in many of the programs that help him manage his anger and remain drug-free. He met regularly with a social worker who helped him schedule medical appointments and drove him to places he needed to go.
When veterans first enter the program, they are evaluated, with two major focus areas being mental health and substance abuse, which affects about 60% to 70% of residents, said Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall.
Other programs focus on housing retention and anger management, like the one Nelson joined. Each resident also has an individualized service plan. Case managers work with them on housing, finances and health, but also tailor to more individual needs like job searches or accessing disability benefits.
In their leisure time, veterans often play puzzles and games, read books from the facility’s library or spend time coloring, an activity that Withrow noted can help those with anxiety redirect their focus.
Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall, stands in front of a mural painted by veteran James Heber that depicts Chippewa Falls and a veteran’s journey at Klein Hall is painted on the wall, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
As part of his therapy, one veteran, James Heber, turned to painting to create a mural for the facility. Filled with shades of green and blue, the artwork depicts Chippewa Falls and follows a veteran’s journey at Klein Hall — from military service to homelessness to stability, ending with finding a home of their own.
“It tears me apart that we can’t save this in some way,” Withrow said.
Finding new homes
Klein Hall can house 48 veterans. At the time the closure was announced in mid-July, the facility housed just under 30 residents. Now there are just two. Staff worked quickly as soon as news broke to find alternative housing and program options for veterans. Efforts in Green Bay look similar, where the priority is finding veterans the resources and support they need to transition into new places ahead of the closure, said Katrina Currier, site director at the Green Bay facility.
“We’re losing a critical housing program,” she added.
Fortunately, many have found new arrangements and are in the process of moving into those places, the goal being to make sure no veterans are left on the street as the facilities close, Withrow said.
Nelson recently signed a lease for a place in Eau Claire, which he found through HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing. He said he hopes to stay there until he needs assisted living.
Other veterans were relocated to the facility in Union Grove, which is the only of the three VHRP-operated sites that remain open. But the adjustment came quickly.
Books are stacked on the shelves in the library, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Marine veteran Derek Aune said the sudden closure “thrust” him and other veterans at Klein Hall “into high gear.”
Aune came to Klein Hall after spending time in and out of jail and institutions. As someone who prefers to take things slow, he said he had no place to go after being released from prison and described Klein Hall as a stable place to land, somewhere he could get back on his feet before planning where to go next.
Instead, he relocated to Union Grove, a facility much farther from the people and hometown he knows. He said the closure forced him to switch medical providers, disrupted his plan to move forward at his own pace and made it harder as someone who deals with depression.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine after a while, but it sucks when you have mental health issues like that, and then you get flung from one thing to another,” Aune said. “It’s not very easy to deal with.”
Navy veteran Rob Lewandowski arrived at Klein Hall in early July, also hoping to better his life with the support of a community of fellow veterans. Just a week later, he learned the facility was shutting down.
Lewandowski spent years recovering from PTSD and maintaining sobriety, and said he was looking for a way to become a “productive member of society” again. He left his apartment in Rice Lake, where he had been isolating, in search of that at Klein Hall.
Instead, Lewandowski found himself at Building 47, a housing facility for veterans in Minneapolis. He said he’s grateful for the sense of community and progress in his housing search he’s found there, but the move had him give up a new job opportunity in Chippewa Falls that he secured right before he had to leave.
“I really, really, really wish that they hadn’t closed. I would still be there. I’d already be working,” Lewandowski said. “I would be that much further along on the way to being self sufficient, which I strive to be and I’ll be there one day.”
Saving Klein Hall
Before the closure was announced, the facility just received new mattresses, which still remain bagged in plastic. The next project was to refresh all the furniture.
But with the facility’s remaining days numbered, the priorities have shifted. Staff are focused on placing veterans and preparing to shut down the building.
“Sadly, every day we come to work, we’re here to shut the program down,” Withrow said.
New, unopened mattresses are stacked in the hallway, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Still, some advocates haven’t given up on saving the program. The funding that was cut from the budget was intended to lease a new building for Klein Hall residents, due to the aging condition of the nearly 50-year-old facility. Withrow said the building’s biggest issues are the roof and air conditioning system, along with other plumbing problems. The main concern, he noted, is that these repairs tend to be expensive.
Jerry Green, a veteran with 40 years of experience in real estate development, said the building is so outdated that repairing it to code standards would likely cost more than leasing a new space. He works for Goldridge Companies, a real estate firm based in Eau Claire, and explained that the plan was to use the proposed budget funding to lease a new facility in Altoona, close to transit, restaurants and pharmacies.
There would be no construction cost to the state, Green said, only the cost of leasing the replacement building for Klein Hall. He pointed to the need to save the program, noting that a number of veterans die by suicide due to their struggles. In 2023, Wisconsin Department of Health Services data showed that while veterans make up about 6% of Wisconsin’s adult population, they accounted for 15% of adult suicides.
“(Klein Hall) gets the veterans back on course, and helps them get employment and straighten out their lives, mostly to save their life,” Green said.
It’s just a matter of coming up with the funds to pay for it, but legislators remain divided on who is to blame and how to move forward.
Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall, walks into a room that formerly housed a veteran, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, spoke to veterans in Howard last week, blaming Evers for the planned closures. He argued that the governor and Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs had enough funding to keep the facilities open.
WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey pushed back on the claims, saying the department can’t freely spend its funds. Costs from Lutheran Social Services, the nonprofit managing the facilities, rose about 30%, he said — more than the department could cover without additional state funding.
The VHRP facilities operate under two grant and per diem awards from the Federal VA: one for Chippewa Falls, and another for Green Bay and Union Grove. Hoey told Wisconsin Watch the department could not renew the grant for Chippewa Falls without the extra funding from the state.
In the renewal application for the other two facilities, WDVA reduced the total number of beds from 57 to 40 to reflect the closure of the Green Bay facility. Hoey said there were beds available at Union Grove to accommodate those displaced by closures.
The sun shines on Klein Hall on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
After Evers’ funding proposal was rejected by the joint finance committee, Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, and several other Senate Democrats introduced an amendment on the Senate floor to fund the programs. But it was voted down by all but one Republican on the committee.
Budget committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, told Wisconsin Watch in a statement that the Legislature invested in veterans’ programs in the state budget. The budget included a 15% increase to VHRP, $5 million to support the state’s veterans homes and $2.5 million for the Veterans Community Project, with additional funding to county-level services.
However, Born did not address the decision to exclude funding for the facilities set to close or outline any future plans to address those closures.
In response to the lack of funding for the facilities, Smith introduced a standalone bill aimed at keeping both Klein Hall and the facility in Green Bay open before their scheduled closure deadline.
Smith hopes that a floor session expected in September could address this issue, but it is ultimately up to the Republican leadership to decide what gets discussed and whether the bill moves forward. Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, cosponsored the bill, and told Wisconsin Watch that he would “be honored to vote yes” on the bill once it reaches the Senate floor.
Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, introduced another bill that includes the over $1.9 million to keep the VHRP sites open, along with other veteran-focused initiatives. The legislation aims to also expand the property tax credit for veterans and fund the University of Wisconsin-Madison Recovery Project to help recover and identify remains of Wisconsin service members missing in action.
Jacque told Wisconsin Watch his bill aims to address other important veterans’ issues left out of the final budget, while also providing funds to save Klein Hall. He said “it appears that the governor could still use discretionary funds to keep the facilities open and I encourage him to do so.”
Official portraits of Gov. Tony Evers, President Donald Trump, and WVDA Secretary James Bond hang on the wall, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Smith expressed frustration at what he described as a “political cat and mouse game,” rather than simply passing a “clean bill” to ensure veterans have access to critical recovery and housing services.
Hoey believes that if a funding bill passes, the Green Bay facility could reopen relatively quickly. Reopening Chippewa Falls would take longer, as WDVA would have to reapply for the grant, and funds would not be available until Oct. 1, 2026.
For Smith, the solution lies in putting politics aside to do what is right for veterans.
“It is not about Democrat or Republican. This is about people that we owe every available resource to, to be sure that they are able to recover or to have housing,” he said. “We have a program for that, and it’s provided through Klein Hall, it’s provided through the facility in Green Bay, which they are also going to close, and we cannot let that happen, period.”
Lasting impact
Withrow reflected on the effect Klein Hall has had on numerous veterans. He recalled one veteran who came in after losing his leg, wheeling himself around in a wheelchair while struggling with addiction and unemployment. Withrow got to see him leave the program. The veteran now has a prosthetic leg and showed Withrow a video of him jogging.
Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall, poses for a portrait in front of books stacked on the shelves in the library, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
He witnessed another veteran come in with a poor rent history, anger issues and substance abuse. He now owns a home.
“We had residents that come in with nothing and then end up in a place that they’ve always dreamt about being, that (they) didn’t think they could have,” Withrow said.
Nelson, one of the last remaining residents at Klein Hall, moved into his new apartment. He said he’s grateful for the support he received at the facility and that it’s been instrumental in maintaining his sobriety. He didn’t think once about using during his time at the facility.
“It’s a shame that this is shutting down,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d be right now had it not been for here.”
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Wisconsin Watch reporters joined more than 60 volunteers in Brown County’s summer point-in-time count last month — a one-night snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness in communities across the United States, including Wisconsin.
Some volunteers had experienced homelessness themselves.
The volunteers officially counted 179 people experiencing homelessness. That’s seen as an undercount because volunteers do not count people who are sleeping or unable to respond to surveys. And some people don’t want to be found.
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.”
Cody Oberhuber, economic support specialist for Brown County, leads a group of volunteers during the first of three routes he was assigned to in the summer PIT count at 11:47 p.m. on July 23, 2025, in downtown Green Bay, Wis. After parking outside the Brown County Central Library, Oberhuber led the group across the east side of downtown.
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.”
Volunteers drive alongside farm land in northwestern Brown County during the summer point-in-time count at 2:07 a.m. on July 24, 2025, heading to their route in Pulaski, Wis.
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.
State Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, second from left, fills out a survey while speaking with a man experiencing homelessness during the point-in-time count at 12:15 a.m. on July 24, 2025, at Jackson Square Park in Green Bay, Wis. This was Wall’s first year as a volunteer. He said he was motivated after hearing so much from his constituents about housing costs.
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?
Volunteers search for people experiencing homelessness under the Mason Street Bridge ramp during the summer PIT count at 12:55 a.m. on July 24, 2025, in downtown Green Bay, Wis.
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.
From left, state Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, Newcap, Inc. employee Lucia Sanchez and volunteer lead Cody Oberhuber plan their next steps during the summer point-in-time count at 12:33 a.m. July 24, 2025, in downtown Green Bay, Wis.
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.
Volunteers drive into the parking lot of a Kwik Trip during their route of the summer PIT count at 2:28 a.m. July 24, 2025, in Pulaski, Wis.
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.”
From left, volunteer lead Cody Oberhuber, Brown County count lead Meaghan Gleason and Newcap, Inc. employees Lucia Sanchez and Alexandra Richmond talk through the progress of the point-in-time count between routes at 1:45 a.m. July 24, 2025, at Newcap’s office in Green Bay, Wis.
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.”
A lone street light glows as volunteers search for people experiencing homelessness during the summer PIT count at 2:57 p.m. on July 24, 2025, in Pulaski, Wis.
Jack Link’s, the world’s largest manufacturer of meat snacks, has spent years integrating itself into the country’s cultural and political arenas.
Riding a wave of protein-crazed consumers and a booming snack industry, the company’s iconic Sasquatch marketing campaign has helped its products become a staple in gas stations, grocery checkout lines and school vending machines.
The company has also spent years cultivating deep political ties, funneling millions to Donald Trump and nurturing a relationship with the president that has led to White House access.
Trump has been a strong supporter of the meat industry and welcomed Jack Link’s officials to a White House event during his first term. However, the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement is currently pushing for healthier eating standards and for states to restrict processed foods in their nutrition programs.
Now, Jack Link’s and the processed meat industry are caught between conflicting ideologies within the Trump administration and a battle over the future of food policy.
“There’s very much a conflict within this administration about the role of corporate power and public health,” said Judith McGeary, executive director of the Texas-based sustainable agriculture and farmer advocacy group Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance.
In May, the federal MAHA commission, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recommended in a new report that Americans consume fewer sugary drinks, snacks and processed foods.
While the report didn’t specifically mention processed meat snacks, it grabbed the attention of snack giants like Jack Link’s and other corporate agriculture groups, which are opposed to any additional regulations or changes to the food industry, McGeary said.
The report did note that low-income children and families consume more processed meat than their peers and that these products have been classified as carcinogens linked to serious health risks.
Kennedy, along with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, has encouraged states to restrict what foods can be purchased with benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
States, from West Virginia to California, have responded by approving bans that limit purchases of sugary beverages, snacks and foods with dyes and artificial ingredients.
Jack Link’s responded by hiring a lobbying firm, a move that paid off when it faced increased regulations during Trump’s first term.
Jack Link’s benefits from political, consumer trends
Minong, Wisconsin — a small, rural village in the state’s northwestern tip, home to taverns, gravel roads, rows of northern Wisconsin pine trees, and plenty of grazing land for beef cattle — is one of dozens of small towns across the state with roots in the cattle and lumber industries.
Minong is also home to a bigfoot-sized footprint of Jack Link’s that is hard to ignore.
Jack Link’s, owned by Link Snacks, is a $2 billion, privately owned company with dual headquarters in Minong and downtown Minneapolis, a few hours away.
Jack Link’s has dual corporate headquarters in Minong, Wis., and Minneapolis, pictured here on July 3, 2025. (Steven Garcia for Investigate Midwest)
The company employs roughly 4,000 people worldwide. Jack Link’s leadership has long served on local college and hospital boards and, in 2016, broke ground for the Jack Link’s Aquatic & Activity Center in Minong.
What started in the late 1980s as a family-owned jerky company has evolved into a global enterprise with offices and production plants in Canada, Australia, Mexico and Brazil.
Troy Link, son of company founder and current board member John “Jack” Link, has led the company’s global expansion since he became CEO in 2013.
Link has also developed a relationship with the Trump administration over the years by hosting private fundraising events and donating to his campaigns.
Last year, Link also donated half a million dollars to America PAC, a political action committee founded and operated by Elon Musk, according to Federal Elections Committee filings.
This donation placed Link among a highly influential group of donors and prominent technology and cryptocurrency industry moguls, such as Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
Link donated $1.3 million during Trump’s 2020 re-election bid and also welcomed the president to a private fundraiser in July 2020 at his Florida mansion.
As a whole, the Link family has donated roughly $2.3 million to candidates, committees and state parties in the last decade. The majority of this occurred during the 2020 and 2024 Trump campaigns.
In 2018, the company was invited to the White House as part of a “Made In America” exhibition, where each state showcased a single business with products made in the country.
Troy Link did not respond to repeated requests for comment regarding the relationship of Jack Link’s and the Trump administration.
This relationship with politicians has served the company in the past. In Trump’s first term, Jack Link’s lobbied for beef jerky and meat snack sticks to qualify for the nation’s Child Nutrition Programs, such as school meals.
An Obama-era rule prohibited the reimbursement of beef jerky and dried meat products for school food purchases in 2011. When the rules were revisited under Trump in 2018, Jack Link’s argued in documents submitted to the USDA that dried meat products should receive the same crediting and treatment as other meat, like hamburgers and chicken strips.
“These food products should be held to the same standard as any other meat product when determining eligibility,” a Jack Link’s attorney wrote. “Currently, this is not the case because USDA has arbitrarily disqualified dried meat products from the program.”
A bipartisan trio of Wisconsin federal officials came to the aid of Jack Link’s during this regulatory update, with Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and former Congressman and current U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy writing in support of this change soon after.
“We are concerned that (Food and Nutrition Service) has overstepped in excluding this entire product class from consideration,” the officials wrote in a February 2018 letter. “Therefore, we respectfully request USDA to reevaluate this categorical exclusion.”
Link family members donated a combined $73,000 to the authors of the letter.
The lobbying effort worked. The Food and Nutrition Service announced in December 2018 that beef jerky and dried meat products were now eligible for reimbursement as part of school snacks and meals. Jack Link’s currently markets its snacks directly to school food purchasers.
The addition of school contracts and other market growth helped fuel the company’s expansion.
In recent years, Jack Link’s has broken ground on new manufacturing facilities across the country and purchased jerky companies from Tyson Foods and British packaged goods giant Unilever.
The company also launched Lorissa’s Kitchen, a healthy meat snack brand fronted by Troy’s spouse, Lorissa, and sold at Walmart and Costco nationwide. The brand differentiates itself from Jack Link’s by selling snacks “without added preservatives, nitrites or MSG and allergen-free products,” according to company media statements.
During the 2024 Republican National Convention, Link also appeared on a Fox News business segment to argue that inflation under Biden was making it more expensive for consumers to purchase snacks.
“Buying snacks should not be a luxury item; this should be an everyday occurrence,” Link said. “We just need to put more money back into the consumer’s pocket.”
Protein snacks boom amid calls to reduce meat consumption
As Jack Link’s worked to build a close relationship with the Trump administration, meat consumption was booming, especially thanks to right-wing influencers.
Online personalities, such as podcast hosts Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson, have advocated for all-meat diets, including raw meat and eggs.
The connection between meat consumption and conservative politics dates back decades, according to food studies researcher Adrienne Bitar.
“Higher meat consumption has always been understood as sort of more conservative,” said Bitar, author of “Diet and the Disease of Civilization.”
“Where it comes up in the alt-right is the idea that the feminizing effects of civilization are unnatural, restrictive, repressive, and to liberate yourself from the accoutrements of civilization means to follow your appetite, with the hunger for meat being one of those appetites.”
Meat snacks sales increased 40% from 2019 to 2022, according to an industry report. The desire for more protein-dense snacks has risen across the entire food sector, from protein-packed popcorn to chocolate muffins.
However, the nation’s protein consumption far outpaces that of similar nations and needs to be reassessed, according to grocery experts and leading nutritionists.
“Unless you’re a competitive athlete or competitive bodybuilder, you’re probably eating too much protein,” said Errol Schweizer, publisher of The Checkout Grocery Update, a grocery industry publication, and former vice president of grocery for the multinational supermarket Whole Foods.
As protein rises in popularity among consumers, many nutritionists say Americans need more fruits and vegetables in their diet. (Mónica Cordero / Investigate Midwest)
Schweizer said the popularity of protein snacks has ebbed and flowed with American consumers, following the trends of certain diets and lifestyles over the past few decades. U.S. consumers are “obsessed” with protein intake, he said, and typically have diets that consist of fewer fresh fruits, vegetables, fiber and healthy fats.
Schweizer’s observations align with the nation’s blueprint for diet and nutrition.
Updated every five years, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans helps shape national standards for nutrition labeling, school meals and chronic disease prevention.
In October 2024, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a 20-person group of nutrition experts, released its recommended updates to both the USDA and the HHS. Now those two agencies will review recommendations and public comments to set the final dietary guidelines later this year.
Since 2000, the panel has consistently urged Americans to cut back on red and processed meats in favor of lean meat, seafood and plant-based proteins.
The committee’s 2024 report recommends diets “lower in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains and saturated fats.”
The country’s leading meat industry group, The Meat Institute, whose members include Jack Link’s and other major meatpacking and meat snack companies, has argued against the committee’s recommendations.
“The Meat Institute is extremely concerned that consumers will inaccurately perceive meat and poultry products as poor dietary choices, which may lead to a variety of unintended consequences, including nutritional deficiencies in certain sub-populations,” the Virginia-based group wrote to the HHS in February.
The National Pork Board, the pork checkoff organization based in Clive, Iowa, wrote to the health department in February, stating that recommendations to reduce consumption of red meats are short-sighted and efforts to push foods such as legumes and beans over meats “does not seem to be supported by a robust body of evidence.”
“The elevation of plant-based protein sources over lean meats could inadvertently discourage the consumption of nutrient-dense lean meats, thus increasing the risk of nutritional deficiencies,” the letter stated.
In its inaugural report, the MAHA Commission wrote that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has a “history of being unduly influenced by corporate interests,” noting how a past attempt to reduce the push for reducing intake of processed meats has been met with backlash and scientific discrediting from the meat industry.
Processed food industry fortifies as feds debate SNAP, diet guidelines
In late June, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, flanked by Kennedy in the state capitol, announced a sweeping set of executive orders to remove processed foods and foods with additives from the state’s nutrition programs.
“For far too long, we have settled for food that has made us sicker as a nation,” said Stitt at a June press event. “In Oklahoma, we’re choosing common sense, medical freedom, and personal responsibility. President Trump and Secretary Kennedy have led the charge nationally; I’m grateful for their support as we Make Oklahoma Healthy Again.”
Other states have followed suit with Arkansas, Indiana, West Virginia and California enacting bans on processed foods from SNAP purchases, or are exploring ways to reduce ultra-processed foods in the state, often with the support of Kennedy and Rollins and other federal leaders.
However, Joelle Johnson, deputy director for the food and nutrition consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, said despite growing debates about ultra-processed foods in the nation’s food programs, there is a lack of clear guidance from the federal government to retailers and food purchasers about what would and wouldn’t qualify as being ultra-processed.
“I would be surprised if we see bans of ultra-processed foods in SNAP, beyond candy and sweetened beverages, anytime soon,” she said.
Still, major snack and processed food companies, including Jack Link’s, are bracing for any changes that could harm their sales.
The Jack Link’s corporate headquarters as seen on July 3, 2025. (Steven Garcia for Investigate Midwest)
Consumer Brands Association, a Virginia-based organization representing major packaged food companies, including Tyson Foods and Coca-Cola, spent $42 million in lobbying over the past decade, focusing on issues including SNAP funding and dietary guidelines, among other issues.
Since 2023, the organization has worked with lobbyist Clete Willems, the deputy assistant of international economics during Trump’s first term and a former Obama administration official, according to lobbying disclosure documents.
Conagra Brands, the publicly traded, packaged food conglomerate that owns major brands such as Slim Jims, Orville Redenbacher, Birds Eye Frozen Foods and Reddi-Wip, spent over half a million dollars in the past year lobbying federal officials and has spent $4.6 million in lobbying in the past decade. Conagra and Consumer Brands Association did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
In April, Link Snacks, the parent company of Jack Link’s, hired lobbying firm Bockorny Group, which has also represented the meatpacking company Agri-Beef Co. and pork industry publication National Hog Farmer. This was the first time the beef jerky giant has lobbied federal officials.
Lobbyists working for Jack Link’s include Pete Lawson, a former VP for Ford Motors and staff attorney for Virginia Democratic Congressman Jim Moran, and Eric Bohl, a former staffer for the congressional offices of Missouri Republicans Vicky Hartzler and Jason Smith, who worked on the 2014 Farm Bill.
This year, Link Snacks has spent $25,000 on lobbying the federal government to support “protein snacks in SNAP program” as well as issues with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, according to lobbying disclosure documents.
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Responding to an order from President Donald Trump, several federal agencies are seeking to block undocumented immigrants and some immigrants with legal status from accessing programs that provide literacy classes, career education, medical and mental health care, substance abuse treatment, free preschool and more.
A range of institutions — including colleges, government agencies and nonprofits — manage the affected programs.
The order has caused widespread confusion about which organizations must check immigration status of the people they serve and how they could do that. Parts of the order appear to conflict with federal law.
Wisconsin joined 20 other states in a lawsuit challenging the new restrictions.
A group of federal agencies announced in July that at least 15 federally funded health, education and social service programs would exclude undocumented immigrants and some who are living in the country legally.
Responding to President Donald Trump’s February executive order to “identify all federally funded programs currently providing financial benefits to illegal aliens and take corrective action,” the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice and Labor listed programs that provide literacy classes, career education, medical and mental health care, substance abuse treatment, free preschool and more.
In Wisconsin alone, the state Department of Justice estimates the new federal restrictions “put at risk more than $43 million each year in substance abuse and community mental health block grants that fund services in all 72 counties, 11 Tribal nations, and approximately 50 nonprofit organizations.”
Wisconsin Watch contacted more than a dozen Wisconsin organizations, government agencies and national experts to learn about the new policy’s effects. But we found more questions than answers. Most are unsure who is subject to the new rules or how to comply.
While we were reporting this story, Wisconsin joined 20 other states in a lawsuit challenging the new restrictions. That suit is still pending, but the parties have agreed to a deal that would delay most of the restrictions in those states until September.
Confusion created by the guidance could have serious consequences, experts say. Some providers might delay or cancel programs unnecessarily out of an abundance of caution, while some immigrants may avoid services for which they remain eligible, such as health care and education.
While much remains unclear, here’s what we know so far.
Which immigrants would be barred?
A 1996 law already prohibited certain immigrants from receiving 31 “federal public benefits,” including Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and cash assistance. The Trump administration’s new guidance bars the same immigrants from additional programs, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Those ineligible include:
People with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
People with nonimmigrant visas, such as student visas, work visas and U visas for survivors of serious crimes.
People who have pending applications for asylum or a U visa.
People granted Deferred Enforced Departure or deferred action. This includes Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients — those who entered the country as children.
Undocumented immigrants.
Lawfully present immigrants who don’t fall into categories below.
People in the following groups would remain eligible:
Lawful permanent residents (green card holders).
Refugees.
People who have been granted asylum or withholding of removal.
Certain survivors of domestic violence.
Certain survivors of trafficking.
Certain Cuban and Haitian nationals.
People residing under a Compact of Free Association with Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
Why the confusion?
A range of institutions — including colleges, government agencies and nonprofits — manage the affected programs. Many did not previously check the immigration status of the people they serve; creating a process to do so may add costs and logistical challenges. It could prove especially daunting for organizations like soup kitchens and homeless shelters, which provide urgent services to people without easy access to documents.
Meanwhile, entities that administer these federal funds include nonprofits and federally funded community health centers, which operate under laws that conflict with the guidance.
Health and Human Services said its settlement with the suing states “will permit the agency to consider, as appropriate, whether to provide additional information” about the restrictions it announced.
How would the changes affect health care in Wisconsin?
Wisconsin has 16 federally qualified community health centers serving patients at 217 sites. They receive money from Congress to provide primary care to all, regardless of their ability to pay. Nationally, such clinics serve more than 32 million patients, making up 1 in 10 people in the United States and 1 in 5 people in rural America, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.
Aside from emergency rooms, they are often the only care options for undocumented immigrants or those with limited English proficiency, said Drishti Pillai, director of immigrant health policy at KFF, a national nonprofit providing information on health issues.
Federal law requiring those clinics to accept “all residents of the area served by the center” contradicts the Trump administration guidance.
Layton Clinic is shown on May 9, 2018, in Milwaukee. Wisconsin has 16 federally qualified community health centers serving patients at 217 sites. New Trump administration rules seek to bar certain immigrants from such services, but they appear to contradict federal law. (Andrea Waxman /Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
The national association said in a July 10 statement that it’s working with experts and legislators to understand the impact of the new rules and ensure centers “have the information and resources needed” to continue serving their patients.
Access Community Health Centers, a nonprofit that provides medical, dental and mental health care at five south central Wisconsin clinics, will make “adjustments” if further federal guidance comes, CEO Ken Loving said.
“We don’t have the information we need to understand how this is going to impact us and how we can adapt to help our patients,” he said.
How would the changes affect education in Wisconsin?
The Wisconsin Technical College System has followed 1997 guidance that said public benefit restrictions did not apply to such educational services, spokesperson Katy Petterson said. She’s not sure how the updated guidance might affect the system, which will “wait to learn the impact of the lawsuit.”
If community-college-operated programs begin checking immigration status, ineligible immigrants may remain able to take federally funded classes through nonprofits that are subject to different rules.
A textbook lies on a table during a Literacy Network of Dane County English Transitions class at Madison College’s Goodman South Campus on July 9, 2025, in Madison, Wis. Some adult education services are on the list of federally funded programs that the Trump administration is targeting for immigration status checks, but the effects of the new rules are unclear. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
The nation’s 1,600 Head Start agencies, which provide free early childhood education and family support services for low-income families, fall under the restrictions announced in the Department of Health and Human Services notice. But the document doesn’t say whether Head Start staff must verify the immigration status of children, parents or both.
“It’s very ambiguous about who this impacts. … If you read the language, it’s 26-plus-ish pages of legal jargon, and it’s shifting,” said Jennie Mauer, executive director of the Wisconsin Head Start Association, which supports the state’s roughly 300 Head Start service sites.
One thing Mauer wants families to know: Children already enrolled in Head Start won’t be forced out.
“We want to follow the rules, but Head Start is not required to redetermine eligibility,” Mauer said, noting it has never been required to do so in 60 years. She’s been telling the center directors to sit tight, even as worried parents ask questions.
One entity that won’t start checking immigration status: K-12 schools. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that denying education to undocumented students violated their constitutional rights.
Must nonprofit providers start checking immigration status?
Probably not. The 1996 law restricting public benefits says nonprofit charities are not required to “determine, verify, or otherwise require proof of eligibility of any applicant for such benefits.”
At Literacy Network, a nonprofit offering a variety of free ESL and basic education classes in Madison, staff aren’t planning changes based on the new rule.
“It could certainly impact many of our students in other areas of their lives and therefore their ability to participate in our programs, but not who we can serve,” spokesperson Margaret Franchino said.
Still, guidance from the Department of Education is vague. It states that the exemption for nonprofits is “narrowly crafted,” and “the Department does not interpret (it) to relieve states or other governmental entities … from the requirements to ensure that all relevant programs are in compliance.”
Ryan Graham is the homeless systems manager at Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care, a nonprofit that supports agencies responding to homelessness across most of the state.
As his agency discusses updates with partner agencies, it is preparing for an “increased administrative burden on already stretched staff.”
“We don’t yet know whether there will be delays caused by having to check or validate someone’s citizenship status, especially in emergency situations where time is critical,” Graham said.
When do the new rules take effect?
The notices published in July took effect immediately, though some federal agencies said they would likely not enforce them for about a month. The Trump administration later agreed to pause enforcement until Sept. 3 in the 21 states that sued.
The Department of Health and Human Services, meanwhile, has voluntarily stayed enforcement of its directive in all states until Sept. 10.
What is the basis of legal challenges?
The multistate lawsuit argues the Trump administration failed to follow proper procedures in implementation and that it can’t retroactively change the rules after states accept grants to administer programs. Requirements to check the immigration status of every person served would unreasonably burden program staff and possibly force programs to close, the states argue.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul speaks at a press conference at the F.J. Robers Library in the town of Campbell, outside of La Crosse, Wis., on July 20, 2022. Kaul joined 20 other states in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to require more federally funded programs to check clients’ immigration status. (Coburn Dukehart / Wisconsin Watch)
States “will suffer continued, irreparable harm if forced to dramatically restructure their social safety nets and render them inaccessible to countless of the States’ most vulnerable residents,” the plaintiffs wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Head Start groups nationwide had already sued before the Trump administration published new guidance. That suit argued staffing cuts, funding delays and bans on diversity efforts threatened to destabilize Head Start — a long-standing, congressionally mandated program. A hearing in that suit was held Aug. 5 on a request to temporarily block the Health and Human Services notice.
What does the Trump administration say?
The 1996 public benefits ban exempted federal programs that offered services available to all people on the grounds that they were “necessary for the protection of life and safety.”
Trump calls that exemption too broad.
“A surge in illegal immigration, enabled by the previous Administration, is siphoning dollars and essential services from American citizens while state and local budgets grow increasingly strained,” the White House said.
Citing studies from congressional committees and groups that seek to severely curtail immigration, the White House argues that allowing broad access to federal resources incentivizes illegal immigration and costs U.S. taxpayers. The recent federal spending package also eliminated access to Medicaid, Medicare and food stamps for some authorized immigrants, including refugees and asylees.
Experts worry the confusion about the new rule could have a chilling effect, leading even eligible immigrants to stop using services.
Pillai of KFF noted that the restrictions on community health centers, alongside congressionally approved changes “that limit health coverage to a smaller group of lawfully present immigrants,” will likely make immigrant families even more reluctant to seek health care and social services.
The changes “may increase their reliance on emergency room care, which can be more costly in the long term,” she added.
Graham, the homeless systems manager, believes the Trump change will create “a direct barrier to safe and stable shelter for undocumented individuals and mixed-status families” and qualified immigrants or citizens who “may not have identification or the means to attain identification after fleeing a dangerous situation or crisis.”
It could also prompt administrators of some programs not covered by the rule to start screening participants as a precaution, or shut down programs to avoid screening challenges.
That has happened before. When Trump issued an executive order in January saying the administration would no longer “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender-affirming health care for people under 19, some providers stopped offering those services even though state law protected them.
Braden Goetz, who worked for more than 20 years in the U.S. Department of Education and now works as a senior policy adviser at the New America Foundation’s Center on Education and Labor, said it’s unusual for federal guidance to be so sparse and ambiguous.
“Maybe that’s the intention: to confuse people and chill services to people who are not citizens or not legal permanent residents, and scare people,” Goetz said.
Five things to know about the new public benefits rule
The rule bars some immigrants with legal status, as well as all undocumented immigrants. That includes people with TPS, DACA, guest worker visas or pending asylum applications.
Children already enrolled in Head Start can continue attending, regardless of their immigration status. That’s because Head Start programs aren’t required to redetermine eligibility, according to Wisconsin Head Start Association executive director Jennie Mauer.
Nonprofit charitable organizations appear to be exempt from the new requirement. That means immigrants barred from services under the new guidelines may still be able to get services through nonprofit organizations.
Community Health Centers are required by law to accept all people in their area. It’s not clear how the new rules, which state that these federally funded health centers should only be available to “qualified immigrants,” will work with that law.
The new rules do not affect access to K-12 education, which the U.S. Supreme Court has found to be a right of every child regardless of immigration status.
Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success in Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Sreejita Patra is statehouse reporting intern for Wisconsin Watch.
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