Editor's note: We've updated the story below to include a response from Abele's spokeswomen, which we received after the Shepherd went to press. See below.
Milwaukee County’s homeless population has made news in recent weeks, with reports highlighting local shelters’ waiting lists, the county’s removal of homeless people from under a bridge and calls for the city and county to open warming sites during our cold snaps.
Not surprisingly, homeless Milwaukeeans have emerged as an issue in the race for Milwaukee County executive. The incumbent, Chris Abele, hasn’t made many campaign appearances but in his budget he’s promoted his plan to end chronic homelessness by 2018.
One of his rivals, state Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), called a press conference last week in front of the Moderne on Old World Third Street, where Abele paid $2.8 million for two condos, and took Abele to task for his lack of support for local homeless shelters while the billionaire’s son lives in luxury.
But is Abele ending homelessness as we know it? Or is he ignoring the needs of Milwaukee’s homeless families and individuals at the expense of his own needs? The truth is complicated, just as the issue of homelessness itself is complicated.
Ending Chronic Homelessness
Let’s start with the claim by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele that he is going to end chronic homelessness by 2018.
And let’s start with the premise that homeless individuals are just that—individuals with unique life histories, personalities, goals and needs. While they all lack stable housing, homeless people are not all the same. Some individuals are temporarily homeless because they lost a job, ended a relationship, were kicked out of their home, are escaping abuse, had unexpected expenses, have a mental health issue or simply choose not to live in permanent housing. Some are homeless for a short period of time while others are homeless for the long term. Some are on the street or couch surfing with friends or family while others are living in homeless shelters.
That said, the federal government categorizes homeless individuals to more accurately describe their life circumstances and allow policy makers to target programs to them. One of those categories is the chronically homeless, defined as individuals with a disabling condition who have been without stable or permanent housing for more than a year or at least four times over the past three years.
|
|
Chronically homeless people make up about 13% of Wisconsin’s homeless population and about 16% in Milwaukee County. In Milwaukee County in 2014, on any given day an estimated 1,201 individuals were homeless, 195 of whom are chronically homeless, with 55 “unsheltered” and 140 in shelters.
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is targeting this population in his plan to end chronic homelessness by 2018, launched in mid-2015 with $600,000 and $1.8 million committed annually after that from the federal, county and city governments. Abele’s plan is based on the Housing First model, launched in other cities, which places chronically homeless people in housing and then addresses their other needs.
The Abele administration says the program is well ahead of schedule with 98 individuals placed in housing since September 2015, close to the goal of housing 100 individuals in the program’s first year.
Abele’s spokeswoman said his emphasis on chronic homelessness would ease the demands on local shelters.
“In addition to empowering more people to get the help they need to live a better life, [the Housing First initiative] frees up more resources for shelters to provide assistance to people in emergency situations,” Melissa Baldauff emailed.
147 Families and 445 Individuals on Wait List
Over the holidays, local newscasts reported that Milwaukee shelters were “at capacity” and individuals and families were being turned away. But is there a shortage of space in local homeless shelters?
On Friday, Audra O’Connell, coordinated entry program director for the county’s IMPACT program, said that there was a waiting list for shelters, but also that there was untapped capacity in local shelters for those who are homeless.
“There are shelter options that open up every day,” O’Connell said. But those on the waiting list are allowed to choose which shelter they enter and they can refuse their options, she said.
Once again, definitions are important. O’Connell drew the distinction between seeking shelter services because one is literally homeless, totally lacking a place to stay that day, or at risk of losing their housing. For example, on the wait list for shelters on Friday, Jan. 15, there were 147 families, but 11 were literally homeless. The other 136 families were imminently at risk of losing their housing. In addition, 136 single women were on the wait list on Friday, but 16 were literally homeless. And 309 men were on the wait list, 103 of whom were literally homeless.
Those who are literally homeless are not necessarily chronically homeless, those who are targeted by Abele’s plan. For example, an individual could be literally homeless for a brief period of time but not be chronically homeless. But those who are chronically homeless, according to the new federal definition, are those who have a disability and have been homeless for a year or at least four times in the past three years, totaling a year of homelessness during that three-year period.
Instead of focusing on chronic homelessness, Abele challenger Sen. Chris Larson said he’d prioritize resources for families, since children are affected. He pointed to a 2015 study by Janice Wilberg showing that there’s a shortage of space in local shelters and singled out the dearth of resources for families. The study found that 5,813 families requested shelter in 2014 but just 528 were referred to a shelter and 317 entered a shelter. While 844 of them were referred to other resources, Wilberg found that 2,913 of these families were found to not be eligible for shelters or declined and 1,528 families were placed on the wait list. In other words, 5% of families seeking shelter in 2014 in Milwaukee County actually entered one, but 26% of the families seeking shelter were placed on the wait list.
“This is clear evidence that the emergency homeless services need more capacity,” Larson’s campaign manager Josh Kilroy told the Shepherd.
Emergency Shelter Funding on the Rocks
Although Abele is focusing on the chronically homeless, he’s battled with the county board over additional funding for emergency homeless shelters. More than 80% of Milwaukee’s homeless population are temporarily or situationally homeless and they typically rely on the county’s shelter providers but aren’t directly targeted by Abele’s plan.
Supervisor Peggy Romo West told the Shepherd she welcomed Abele’s attention to chronically homeless individuals but that the county needs to do more.
“The problem isn’t that he wants to end chronic homelessness,” Romo West said. “The problem is that he doesn’t want to support our emergency shelters.”
The county provides $418,000 for local shelters per year, as it has for years. But in 2013, the federal government slashed its funding for homeless services. According to testimony before the county board from the Shelter Task Force in September 2013, an estimated $585,000 in federal funding for Milwaukee’s emergency shelter services was cut.
To help fill this critical need, supervisors added an amendment to Abele’s proposed 2014 budget for $300,000 in emergency funding for local shelters in addition to the $418,000 annual allocation. The board freed up the money for homeless shelters by slashing Abele’s $400,000 request for private security services to $100,000 of security coverage from the sheriff’s department.
Abele vetoed the $300,000 cut to his request for private security but kept intact the board’s $300,000 allocation for homeless shelters affected by federal cuts. However, in his veto message, Abele put the homeless shelters on notice. “I urge the homeless shelters that receive this one-time county funding this year to consider the sustainability of their own organizations and consider other funding streams,” Abele wrote.
The federal cuts to the local emergency homeless shelters were deep and not easily covered by private grants and donations, something Abele seemed to gloss over in his veto message.
The next year, the same battle emerged. In his proposed 2015 budget, Abele included the $418,000 of base funding for emergency homeless shelters, but he omitted the $300,000 in emergency funding that the board had included in the previous budget. Once again, supervisors added $300,000 back in.
Abele vetoed the extra money, which supervisors overrode.
A similar drama played out in Abele’s proposed 2016 budget. Abele funded the programs he supports—including his plan to end chronic homelessness and the $418,000 in base funding for emergency shelters—but didn’t include the extra funding for emergency homeless shelters. The county board added $300,000 for the third straight year for shelters. But this time, Abele didn’t touch it.
State Rep. Jonathan Brostoff (D-Milwaukee), who has worked and volunteered in local shelters and has endorsed Larson, said the funding is a question of priorities. He supports the Housing First model, but said the emergency shelter system needs support, too. And he said that since Abele committed the county to pay $4 million annually for the Bucks arena for the next 20 years, he could find extra funds for homeless shelters, too.
“I’m happy that the funding was restored for crisis shelters and emergency shelters but I think that it’s important to prioritize what the county does and what’s most important,” Brostoff said.
Brostoff issued an open invitation to Abele to visit a homeless shelter.
“I’d love to bring him on a shift with me so that he can see what’s really going on,” Brostoff said.
The Shepherd relayed Brostoff’s invitation to Abele’s spokeswoman, who didn’t respond.
UPDATE: After the Shepherd went to press, we received the following response from Abele's spokeswoman: "This is the first I've heard of the invitation from Rep. Brostoff, but my guess is that the county executive would be happy to do so (he's visited shelters many times over the years.) I can follow up with Rep. Brostoff's office."
