How Wausau is currently helping its homeless population

And the gaps that Wausau still needs to fill

The Wausonian corrected information about Section 8 housing under Tracy Rieger’s section. It’s explained further in that section.

There was a time when the Marathon County Housing and Homelessness Task Force celebrated a win — that it had created bylaws for its organization.

That wasn’t acceptable to The United Way’s Ben Lee. Lee attended one meeting and knew what he needed to do - dissolve the task force and start anew.

That led to a number of changes in the community around how it handles homelessness. It started with the development of two task forces. One of those, the United Way’s Housing Task Force, had one rule - it needed to be populated by decision-makers. If someone was on the task force who wasn’t a decision maker, they were asked to leave and send the person who is.

It seemed to be a pivotal change from merely talking about doing something about homelessness in the Wausau area to actually doing it. That became clear during a Wausau Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night.

Wausau leaders for two hours heard about all the programs that Wausau has to address the housing crisis. It can be easy to forget that almost none of those services (or at least the programs they’re now running) existed ten years ago.

The meeting was the first of two planned meetings. The second meeting will focus on a free-range discussion of ideas around how to handle homelessness in the community.

The Wausonian decided to break down those services with updates on how each is going and what the people operating those services are seeing.

Affordable housing projects

Interim Community Development Director Randy Fifrick laid out three affordable housing projects in the works.

Westside Battery: The new Westside Commons project will start construction at the end of the month after Gorman and Company received the go-ahead from Wausau in 2021. (Two restaurant plans for the building fell through.) The project will have 56 one-to-three-bedroom units and should be complete by the end of 2025.

700 Grand Avenue: The project plans to bring 50 one-to-three-bedroom units to the corner of Grand Avenue and Thomas Street where Vino Latte once stood (and a community garden and orchard most recently). Because a major utility line runs under the site, the project is now expected to cost much more than originally estimated and is kind of in a holding pattern.

Infill projects: There are several affordable single-family homes planned for Jefferson Street, Thomas Street and Bridge Street. The city is seeking out letters of interest for those sites after a request for proposals for those sites went unanswered.

There was another affordable housing project planned for Wyatt Street but that ended up falling through, so the project is currently looking for a home, Fifrick explained.

Wausau Police

Officer Matt Barnes says the new program with two police officers downtown has been dramatically improving the atmosphere downtown. Barnes says the officers, hired from the police ranks to patrol downtown after an increase in trouble caused by some homeless individuals, says they’ve been making a number of referrals to Community Outreach Coordinator Tracy Rieger. Barnes says that the officers spend as much time connecting those individuals to resources as it does enforcing laws. That also includes the District Attorney’s office’s diversion and deflection programs.

Barnes says the community is seeing a big influx of homeless people coming from outside the community to Wausau, whether on their own or being sent here by other municipalities.

One gap Barnes says Wausau has is transitional housing, since often getting someone into housing is much easier than keeping them in housing.

Grants Pass Supreme Court decision

City leaders were keeping an eye on a case about to come to the Supreme Court called Grants Pass. The case involved a class action lawsuit against the city in Oregon about the size of Wausau that created an outdoor camping ban, with fines and eventually jail time for those violating the ban.

The Supreme Court in June ruled that the camping ban didn’t violate the 8th amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, City Attorney Anne Jacobson told the committee.

Barnes told the committee that the ruling didn’t affect the city since it does not have an outdoor camping ban. The city is enforcing the city’s curfew laws in its parks, he explained. The fines and jail time were in line with punishment of other similar crimes and no class was targeted because anyone camping would have the same law applied to them.

Tracy Rieger, outreach coordinator

Rieger says the city counted roughly 183 homeless individuals in June through its various shelter sources. That no longer includes the Salvation Army as they only accept families now (family shelters were once identified as a gap in Wausau). About 80% of those are seeking shelter at Catholic Charities, which was only at capacity seven nights in June. The remainder shelter outside, which she says is more common in the summer months.

Rieger says she housed two people in June, and has housed 58 since she started nearly two years ago. Of those, 13 have since become homeless again, leaving 45 remaining successfully housed. Rieger spoke of the need for more case management and transitional housing.

Rieger says through a partnership with the housing authority, 56 unhoused individuals are seeking Section 8 vouchers to get themselves into housing. Someone on Section 8 housing with no income at most would need to pay $50 per month. Those with income are capped by a percentage of their income going to housing between 30-40%.

The above paragraph was corrected to clarify only those with no income pay at most $50 for their housing.

Another challenge she points out is that landlords are requiring double security deposits for homeless individuals, something she says is a challenge to an already cash-strapped population. And affordable housing already is lacking in Wausau, as is transitional housing.

Rieger also highlighted the lack of public transportation (the bus issue is one I’ve been covering since I moved back here in 2014). That’s been a challenge for her because many homeless individuals might find a job only to not be able to get there for lack of transportation.

And one other problem Rieger addresses — homeless people will come out of incarceration and have nowhere to go, so they end up right back on the streets.

Deputy Fire Chief Justin Pluess

Pluess briefly touched on the new Community Paramedic program, which is meant to curtail 911 calls by “frequent flyers” or people who make more than four times in a month or 10 times in six months. The community paramedic, which the fire department hopes to have on board by mid-August, can make referrals to Rieger for those in the homeless population that he or she encounters.

Country Administrator Lance Leonhard

A common theme at earlier council meetings is that the county hasn’t been doing its fair share to combat homelessness. Leonhard addressed the committee with some of the things the county has been working on in regards to homelessness.

Family Keys: The county is one of three counties in the state piloting the Family Keys program, which seeks to help families find stable housing through a contract with North Central Community Action Program. Social Services also has a program whereby the homeless can get meals and get help with benefits.

Diversion and Deflection: Leonhard says the District Attorney’s Office’s diversion and deflection programs, as well as treatment courts, can help keep low-level offenders out of jail and into stable living situations.

North Central Health Care: The tri-county medical agency runs Hope House, a sober living facility, has recently hired two outreach specialists and once again has an inpatient addiction treatment center.

The county also through its treasurer’s office has a program to help those struggling to stay in their home. The library and non-profits the county works with also assist the homeless in various ways.

Leonhard also pointed to the county getting ready to vacate the offices on 212 River Drive as well as its Social Services campus on Thomas Street. The latter especially could potentially be a site for more affordable housing in the city.

Catholic Charities

The night shelter at the Community Partners Campus houses up to 30 in the evening and its director, Nathan Turajski, says that they’re already searching for a larger space. Turajski says the shelter housed 297 different individuals for 9,967 total stays in 2023. So far in 2024, the shelter saw 153 unique individuals who had 5,394 stays.

Turajski says that’s a cost savings to the city, as unhoused individuals can cost a city from $50,000 to $250,000 per year in extra needed services.

Turajski says the day center has also been helpful, with homeless individuals receiving job help, dental care, financial case management, and potentially in the near future counseling support through North Central Health Care.

Bridge Street Mission

Bridge Street Mission director Craig Vincent said work is underway on the new location on First Avenue in the building Bethesda is located in. When completed it will house 40 men in transitional housing and eventually will expand to offer 20 beds for women.

That means it is selling the old Annabelle Apartments it had been operating out of, where it has shelter for 36 men. Those were low-cost apartments that often served as a home for people who couldn’t afford much else. Rent had been around $300 per month prior to it becoming a sober living house. The building is currently listed for just under $600,000. Vincents says they’ve had interest from uses ranging from a Hmong elderly care center to being turned back into affordable housing.

Bridge Street also has a daytime drop-in center from 10 am-3 pm Monday through Friday and they serve meals that are open to the entire community. Vincent says Bridge Street Mission identified 383 separate individuals who were in a housing crisis in 2023, and that’s down from 418 in 2022.

Vincent also spoke of the Community on Call program whereby non-profits partnered up with area businesses and other organizations to house homeless individuals during times of extreme weather in the winter. Because of that program, he said, the city didn’t have any weather-related deaths in 2024.

City Council President Lisa Rasmussen

Finally, Rasmussen said the United Way Housing Task Force - arguably the central force that helped drive the massive amount of change Wausau has seen - is undergoing a results and accountability workshop to see what has been accomplished, what needs working on, and what the new membership should be. (In other words, maybe some members are no longer needed because their mission has been accomplished and there might be others who should be on the committee.)

There was some discussion but Part II will include more discussion and more about the next steps around homelessness.

But it often seems to get lost just how much things have changed. Much of the above wasn’t in place 10 years ago. That’s important to recognize as the city works toward its next steps in addressing homelessness.

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