Who will manage the case management?
Wausau's new homelessness initiative needs funding, and everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else
Tuesday night’s meeting of the Wausau City Council was a little awkward. Three women from a non-profit called CW Solutions came up to the podium to give a presentation about a new program that would help transition single homeless women from life on the streets to eventually living on their own via a transition program.
Before they got much of a chance to speak, however, they were hit with a barrage of questions from the city council including its president Becky McElhaney.
Why? Probably because of the way it was presented. Included in the packet was a resolution sending the proposal to the Finance Committee for potential funding of the nearly $600,000 program. Which is odd, since Police Chief Matt Barnes later told the council that they were planning to reach out to “community partners” for funding, and that taxpayer dollars wouldn’t be used on the program.
But that wasn’t really made clear in the council packet. So it looked like the city was being surprised with a $600,000 program it would be expected to find money for shortly after learning of its existence.
It was a colossal mis-calculation, and one that might have put a potentially needed program in jeopardy. And the impact is that the city looks like it’s fumbling on an important issue that could have major ramifications down the road for reasons I’m about to lay out.
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