001Five clerk will call the roll please. Toshek here. Herman here. Matsorf here. Gillson here. Hildebrand here. Penquitz here. Bender here. Sandy here. Let the record show we have a quorum for a committee of the whole. Next item is the approval of the minutes from February 27th, 2025. Chair will entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second a motion to approve. We have a first and a second. Any discussion? Clerk will call the role. Sandy here. Hilderbrand, yes. Master, yes. Penquitz, yes. Toshek, yes. Herman, yes. Binder, here. Gelson, here. Motion carried. Thank you. Tonight we have a presentation from Shaborging Housing Coalition and for the uh I know Sue Kaiser. Sue, thank you very much. Why don't you uh introduce your topic and your team and tell us uh give us a a quick synopsis and then
002do your presentation. Okay, we'll do. Thank you. and I'll try not to cut you off at five minutes to the hour. Okay, sounds good. I don't think we'll have a problem with that. We were planning on doing a um video at the end, having you listen to um one of the people that is out in the community. Um but we understand that your audio is not working, so we aren't going to be able to Yeah, it doesn't work that way. Yeah. Um but thank you very much for having us here. Um, Lyric Glenn and I are with the Shabboan County Housing Coalition. Okay, so it's a countywide um effort. Lir serves as the chair. I serve as the secretary of that group. And we're here tonight to talk about the topic of homelessness. And um
003more importantly, I think that um topic has widened a bit um to not only encompass the unhoused um but also to encompass this word that we love to use affordable. And on that end, I'm going to move right into um our questions that you have your piece of paper for. The first question, I'm not too worried about you thinking about this actual scenario. Sometimes it's hard to think when you're living in a a a larger home. It's hard to think about what you might pay for a two-bedroom, oneb apartment, one parking spot, utilities not included. That's just kind of the average thing that a lot of our people are looking for when they're out looking for apartments to rent. But one of the things that's common no matter where you go is we hear that
004you should always look at no more than 30% of your gross income. So what I'm asking you to do is personally write down for this first question 30% of your gross income. If that gross income is an income that includes a second income into the family like most of us, you know, do had for a while or still have that you have a a team that's working to um support the family, then you would base your 30% on that gross income. Okay? So, I'll give you just a little bit to do that one and then also a little bit to do the second question, which is what three things you would want in your living space to consider it healthy. And I'm going to include safe if that also helps give you a picture. I'm
005not going to define what those words healthy and safe are. I would just like you to give three examples of what you think would make a healthy slashsafe living space and we'll just take a couple of minutes for you to do that quick and then we'll start in on our presentation. Thank you Mr. Mir. Do you want a monthly amount? Yeah, please. Monthly amount. Thank you. Good question. You're defining there. And then when you're done, if you would just like fold them up and pass them down to the end here by John and then I'll grab them. We'll look at the answers a little later. Thank you. um as those answers are coming on over just a little bit more about um Susan Hector. Not only do I serve with the Traveling County Housing Coalition
006as secretary, I also am born and bred Plymouth, Wisconsin. Um, I've lived here all my life. Um, I take a pretty big interest in my community um and the surrounding county and work currently for Pathways to a Better Life, which deals in uh recovery from substance use disorder and lyrics. If you want to get a little song and dance about yourself. Yeah, as Sue mentioned, I'm the chair of the Shabboan County Housing Coalition. I also am the supportive housing program director for Lakeshore Calf. So, essentially in a very brief synopsis, I oversee all state and federal housing grants for four counties. So, Shuen, Manitwat, Kiwani, and Door. Then, I provide oversight to emergency shelters on being low barrier or meeting different grant standards, how to best serve the community. um Lake Su I was born
007and raised not in Plymouth but in Shboan and moved away for four years to get my bachelor's my masters at Marquette and then like most in adults I'm like I'm never moving back home that's so stupid and then somehow I ended up back here so and here I am so I'm going to get started Sue will go through the questions kind of hop in when she wants and to add information so kind of an overview introduction we kind of did that But I'll go into the housing coalition a little more um just some recent statistics data because it's always good to have that backing up kind of the work we do, some of the current vulnerabilities that are happening and why we see such a spike in homelessness. Uh some community impact work being done
008by nonprofits and then just other community members, some government work and then kind of like feedback and what could be done better. And then just there is that video at the end. we can't watch it, but if you want to watch it on your own time, you absolutely can. It just gives some lived experience because I don't have lived experience for being a person experiencing homelessness. However, I do have like the knowledge and the policy side and things I've seen work. So, a brief introduction. This is the county Housing Coalition. Our aim is to educate, advocate, and facilitate change to enhance housing opportunities and ensure thriving and healthy community. With that, our vision is that all Shabboin County residents have access to safe, stable, and affordable housing. So, some recent statistics. I actually want to
009pop back. That picture is with the Plymouth Police Department as well as one of our veteran community members that reside here. He his name's Mark. He joins a pit count which we'll get into in a little bit. Um and this was last year July. They just took a picture together. They had a good conversation about community members experiencing homelessness. So I just thought it was a neat picture to include. So, the January pit count, if you have never heard of the PIT count, it stands for point in time. It is done twice a year in June or January and July. Um, and everyone around the country goes out overnight, 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. And it's supposed to gauge what homelessness looks like at any given point in a community. So, this could be individuals
010sleeping outside. We also count emergency shelter stays and transitional housing programs. And it's just supposed to provide a very general understanding. It's not perfect. It doesn't include the McKinto population, which is typically like the kiddos doubled up with their parents and other family members. Um, and it doesn't include people who are doing like self-pay hotel motel stays. So, it it does have some flaws to it. That being said, it does have like a huge increase still for doing it in our community. So the first little tab is transitional housing and I took the January counts for the past three years. And besides transitional housing, there's always an increase. And the transitional housing cap just gets finicky. There's only technically one transitional housing program we count and that is Bridgeway. And there's just varies because of
011how many families and the members in that family that they can keep in their homes. Um but for unsheltered homelessness it went from two individuals experiencing homelessness. So this is these are people sleeping outside to 14 in January 2025. And then in emergency shelter it also rose from 51 to 96. That is a huge jump for Joshua Boon County. Currently, we are sitting as top three in the state of Wisconsin for sheer increase in homelessness, excluding Milwaukee, Dane, and Brown County because it's kind of hard to compare to those large populations. So, current homelessness data in addition to that. So, Lakeshore CAP, we have a generalized supportive housing application that kind of just anyone experiencing housing instability, that's how we intake. We received 554 applications in 2024. These are dduplicated. So there's some households that
012applied several times. Um from those the average income around 13,000 but actually 12,657 over 50% were single adults or adult households with no children in them. So anyone 18 or younger. 60% so 300 can't see 386 applicants were identified as female. And then these are the two interesting statistics that I found really interesting for Plymouth is every applicant who was at risk of losing their housing. Um there wasn't like they weren't being evicted due to damages to the unit or other people moving in. It was always non-payment of rent. It was for the simple fact that they just couldn't afford to keep paying their rent. A life crisis happened. They lost their job. They had a medical bill happen. they couldn't pay the medical or they had to choose between medical bills or rent. And
013then the other one is all Plymouth residents who applied and were experiencing homelessness. So this is anyone sleeping outside an emergency shelter. They were all chronically homeless. So that means that they were on the night they were applying, they had experienced homelessness. And then they were also homeless three or more times on four separate occasions either continuously in the past 12 months or in the past 36 months and they have a current diagnosed disability. So individuals that typically are experiencing chronic homelessness have a lot of mental health issues. There's a lot more going on but for that length of time to be homeless in the community is astonishing. Um, and they all reported of being like long-term residents in Plymouth. And then the other interesting synopsis is vacancy rates. I'm sure all of you have
014heard of vacancy rates because it's a hot topic right now. Um, in Shbboen or the state of Wisconsin is at 5.1%. And then Shboen County as a whole is about 3.3%. This is as of 21 and we expect it to be flawed because the housing study that was done during that time it was off of like 2019 2020 before the pandemic and that really surged our homelessness rates. So healthy county data the there was a current study done it's done every few years and it's called the CHO the community health assessment that community health assessment kind of gauges like the biggest health vulnerabilities in our community currently that is what they make then into the chip the community health improvement plan and it has like different areas what that need to be tackled for like
015county health. So um the this just goes through like the age of respondents. So 28% were 18 to 34 and then kind of going less less in age. The gender respondents were mostly women but there was 25% male. But what's really interesting to me is these are all educated young adults. 99% have a college or a college graduate. Some have been to high school or had some post high school education. Um, and then some are high school graduates or less, but 49% have graduated college and have a degree. So, what makes this interesting is you're looking at individuals, those 417 surveents, over half of them indicated that the cost of rent was too much. So that's saying you have young adults who are college educated who can't afford to live in your communities on top
016of that. So 29% indicated that it was the cost of their mortgage. 15% indicated that they just needed some permanent housing. So there is sleeping somewhere, couch hopping, going around from friends and family's houses or they were in emergency shelter experiencing homelessness. The median al household income in county was 71,000. And then 10% of households report having at least one of one of four severe housing problems. So overcrowding, high housing costs, lack of kitchen facilities, and lack of plumbing facilities. And then the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, they report on different issues surrounding housing. Um, so 128,340 affordable housing units are needed to ensure that anyone below extremely low income in the state of Wisconsin have some place to live. And then additional 75,000 units needed for those at or below 50% of the area median
017income. Um, and 90% of extremely low-income renter households are cost burden in the state of Wisconsin. 73% of households are severely costburdened. So when you're looking at these numbers, and I was kind of shocked when I looked at them because I'm like, "Oh, I've never I have not looked at this chart, but I know kind of what the area and median county incomes are." Um, but you think we received 554 applications at Lakes Shore Cap with the average income being around 12,657. However, extremely low income for the state of or for Shabboen County was 21,000. So that means people are not making enough to meet their needs. So and this goes kind of into the vulnerabilities and why this is happening. So first thing is employment, the cost burden of being experiencing homelessness, long-term health
018impacts, and then the stigma. So employment county has some amazing paying manufacturers and it's always crazy to me that we have a homelessness issue considering we have really good highpaying jobs. However, if you do not have a car, how are you going to get to your second and third shift job without a 24/7 bus? How do you get home from your second shift job at 11 12:00 at night? How do you get to your third shift job that late at night? How do you get to your job when the buses don't run outside of the city of Shboen? Well, Polar Falls, but outside of like the main area of Shabboan, we do have manufacturers in the city limits. However, there's really good manufacturers outside the city limits as well. So, the other piece of that
019is not having permanent access to showers, haircuts, personal hygiene. A person can't go in without a haircut being presentable to an employer and be like, I need a job. That will likely not happen. Um, the cost burden, it is not cheap to experience homelessness. I mean, you have to think like high cost and food cuz you're constantly eating out. You can't you don't have a refrigerator. There is no like if you're not able to access employment, how are you paying for things? There's long-term impacts on the communities. So like where they're staying, it can deteriorate community centers. Um and then long-term health impacts. So if people are eating out every day, probably not the most healthy food. Um mental health issues start to arise. Individuals experiencing homelessness are more likely to experience violent crimes against
020themselves and be the perpetrator of a violent crime. And then I'm going to stumble that into stigma. So there's always this idea that all individuals experiencing homelessness are addicts. They're alcoholics. They can't function without a drug. They all are seriously mentally ill. Well, there is a lot of mental health issues that arrive with that. That's a huge stigma because there's a lot of individuals who come to Lake Cap starting to experience homelessness, but they're completely sober. However, they might start drinking to cope with the trauma they're enduring on the street. So, I remember this wasn't a story that happened to me. One of my first employees, she was two weeks on the job doing a case management program with a gentleman who was sleeping in attempted shuen and he was near the beach and she
021was helping him just clean up some garbage, making sure the area was clean so he wouldn't get a citation for anything. And then a car drove up. They weren't doing anything wrong, just cleaning up some garbage. and started cussing him out and saying how he was a worthless human being. He didn't deserve to be here. And it was the first it was her first time ever working in homelessness. And she comes back to office, she's like, "I didn't know it was that bad." I'm like, "That's an everyday occurrence for people." So, just some of the community impact work happening. So, there's a lot of different resources. You have a county warming center. It functions as the only low barrier shelter in county. And it also is only for single adults. The Salvation Army takes in
022families and uh single adults. Safe Harbor is for women and with children or just single women that are fleeing domestic violence. Bridgeway is transitional housing as I kind of mentioned before for single moms. Lakeshore CAP while we provide the oversight to a lot of grants. We also have grants dedicated towards like permanent housing, permanent housing solutions. Like we're not we're not an emergency shelter. We don't pro provide emergency assistance, but we help individuals that are in those scenarios move into permanent housing solutions if there is permanent housing. If there is, and I can tell you we've offered about 50 housing vouchers to this point in April and not a single person has been permanently housed. Um, and there's like a waiting list of over 400 with the housing authority, which is three different buildings that
023operate out of Shabboan. The warming center houses approximately 50 people every night. They closed they closed now um tomorrow is their last night that they're open. But of course, we're moving into the summer, right? So, it should be easier to be homeless in the summer and not have any place to lay your head. There's also the community cafe. They provide free lunches Monday through Saturday. Um, and it's open to anyone in the community, mostly frequ frequented by individuals experiencing homelessness, but it's open to anyone. Sometimes I'll go there just to get out of the office. It's a nice break from all like the busy policy work. Pay it forward. They did have a building. They are looking for a new building but do not have one yet. But they do offer um a community meal
024on Sundays since the community cafe can't. Partners for community development. They are kind of the aim of affordable housing. They've kind of set the standard of what we should look for. And then Habitat for Humanity has taken a big leap into the affordable housing. They've done like the home buyer programs for years. Um and they're looking to grow that capacity. These are like so the next list are individuals that or organizations that are serving people experiencing homelessness but aren't dedicated programming to individuals experiencing homelessness. So Lakeshore Community Healthcare is a huge supporter of our housing needs in our community. United Way of Shuen County and they actually serve as the fiscal agent for the housing coalition. St. Vincent Depal and then Lighthouse Recovery Community. Um, and then just kind of the different, they're not nonprofits,
025they're not organizations, but coalition work happening. So, the Shuen County Housing Coalition, which is us, obviously, you kind of heard about us. And then the Mr. Wendle collaboration, it is a group of downtown businesses from the city of Shabboan. And it kind of came up as they they were having issues with individuals experiencing homelessness coming in and not really not abusing the store but like using the chargers and plugging their phones for hours a day or just some just some inappropriate behavior that maybe shouldn't been happening and they didn't know how to address it and they wanted to lead with curiosity and care and they didn't want to be judgmental but they also wanted to set those good and healthy boundaries. So that group kind of started that and now we just do some like
026working education opportunities aimed at the downtown neighborhood worship wagon but it can be open to anyone. We've done we did like an affordable housing kind of conversation and not not to cut you off but you have two minutes. Oh that's okay. They did an affordable housing conversation about the need for it and then some government impact work is partners for community development and the acquisition of properties and then the support for new affordable housing. Shabboan started the city of Shbuan started a correspondent program that pairs mental health workers with Shuen police department and then the community health improvement plan and the community health assessment geared towards housing initiatives. Couple of things that I want to just rest on if I could. Okay. Um the community health assessment, the chaw and the chip. We need to
027remember that that's something that the community, the Shabboan County people said that housing needed to be one of the priority things that were addressed. So that's part of why the Shabbo County Housing Coalition got involved. But it was from a healthy impact study that it was noted that housing needed to be lifted. Okay? So I I want that to be remembered. I also want you to remember that what we're dealing with, even though a lot of statistics are coming at you, it's people. I encourage you whenever you can to take a a time and work at the community cafe and meet part of that community. The warming center closes tomorrow, but I encourage you when it opens again later in the year, take a shift there. Learn what we're talking about when we talk about
028helping the unhoused. But remember that our whole housing issue is not just unhoused people. We're looking at a large portion of people getting to the point where they cannot afford the housing that's out there right now. Um, I know from a personal standpoint can't afford to sell my home and move into anything that you've built here in the Plymouth area. It's out of my price range. So, I encourage you when you look at building houses, bring everybody to the table, not just a small snapshot. Bring everybody from the unhoused all the way up to the big places that you want to want to build. But get that mix of people. I also encourage and challenge you to get together with your county people, the city of Shabboan people that want to start a housing task
029force and be part of the county um coming up with a solution to the housing issue and not each city aiming for what they need, but as a county look at what your people need and help your people. And then real briefly, I'm afraid we're going to have to ourange cut you off. I just want to address that range to show you just from this group here what kind of a range we have in rent for a month. Okay? And then you add that income of 12,700 and calculate that down to what 30% per month will be. something around maybe 320ome bucks and add that as your low end. Don't forget about them. Thank you very much. We appreciate you. We appreciate your time and your presentation. It certainly is a very needed element in
030in our community. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So move to second. We have a first and a second. All