Homelessness is on the rise
By Christina Beam
wiscnews.com
August 20, 2005
Wisconsin Dells - A significant increase in the area's homeless population recently has resulted in more homeless families than there is housing or assistance for them and there's no end to the shortage in the near future, experts say.
"There are a lot of young families who come here and get very frustrated because there is no housing for them," said Kelly Wilcock, executive director of the Sauk County Housing Authority. Wilcock's office operates 40 public housing units for the low-income, elderly and disabled in Sauk County. It also gives out housing vouchers to assist those people, but the waiting list for those vouchers is consistently about 400 people long.
"I don't know what happens to them" when they leave the office without getting assistance, Wilcock said. "I just don't know."
The downturn of the economy, combined with the rising cost of necessities like fuel and healthcare, have pushed more area families to the brink of homelessness or over the edge, said Susan Tucker, housing coordinator for the Central Wisconsin Community Action Coalition.
At the same time, funding to house and provide services for those people is in decline, Tucker said. The federal government is focusing its attention on larger metropolitan areas with more visible homeless populations rather than on solving rural homelessness, Tucker said.
But just because the homeless aren't as visible doesn't mean they aren't here. Understanding homelessness in our area means rethinking what it means to be homeless, Tucker said.
"The Midwest values we all hold near and dear make us more likely to take in friends and family members who are experiencing homelessness," she said. "That's why you don't see as many people sleeping out in parks or cars as you do in big cities." Research also indicates that families, single mothers and children make up the largest group of people who are homeless in rural areas, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Tucker said at any given time she knows of five homeless families in the Dells. One recent week Homeless Haven had to turn away 30 people from the shelter; another week, 60.
The Sauk County Housing Authority sees up to five homeless people a week looking for shelter, Wilcock said. He estimated that of the 400 people on the voucher waiting list, 40 are from Lake Delton and 50 or 60 are from Wisconsin Dells. Many more work service jobs in the Dells area that don't pay the rent in cities like Reedsburg or Baraboo.
With the consistently high demand for housing assistance, social service agencies play a game of merry-go-round referrals with clients whose needs they can't meet. An evicted family could hear by word of mouth that St. Vincent de Paul's offers services for the homeless, said Virginia Weidling, a member of St. Vinny's board of directors. The family might receive some rental assistance and furniture from St. Vinny's to start up a new home, but in a month or two, without sufficient income, they are again unable to pay the rent.
That's when Sauk County Housing hears from them, Wilcock said. Young, underemployed families without housing present the biggest need and the hardest one to fill. "It's a cycle," he said. "They get in (housing), there are no jobs for them to support a family on, they can't afford the rent, they get evicted." These are the families the housing authority's vouchers are targeted to, but there are just never enough vouchers, Wilcock said.
Agencies like Renewal Unlimited, CWCAC, St. Vinny's and the Salvation Army do a good job of helping those people when the housing authority can't, Wilcock said. But many of those agencies have seen their resources decrease in recent years, and county human services departments are also struggling to serve the same number of people with less funding.
"More and more the federal government is looking for local governments and organizations to pick up the slack," Tucker said. "It only makes sense that services will be cut."
But cutting services will not eliminate the problem, Wilcock said. "Homeless people live in Wisconsin Dells, they live in Baraboo, they live in Reedsburg," he said, "and they're not going to go away. I think the villages and cities need to address that issue."
For Part Two of this series, please click here.