Marathon County moves toward working with Wausau on homelessness

Damakant Jayshi

Marathon County’s Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday directed the county administrator to work with Wausau and form a joint task force on homelessness.

The committee issued the directive after Administrator Lance Leonhard shared a draft charter of the task force. Leonhard said he will hold discussions with Mayor Doug Diny and City Council President Lisa Rasmussen to refine the draft so that they all agree on the task force’s goals, its mission and its composition.

The move comes two weeks after Wausau leaders expressed interest in working with county officials on dealing with homelessness in the city and surrounding municipalities. During several recent meetings, some alders said that the county must be part of any solution to homelessness, which is not solely the city’s challenge.

At a July 15 Committee of the Whole meeting, city alders pledged to explore potential funding sources for tiny homes and other modes of emergency shelters as they seek to address the issue.

While discussions on how to manage the growing homeless population has been ongoing for years, the matter took on new urgency in recent months in light of a June 28 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that cities can prohibit people from people sleeping outdoors, such as in parks and a city’s parking ramps. The decision said the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment banning cruel and unusual punishment was not applicable even when cities do not offer alternative places to sleep.

Leonhard was among the officials who spoke during the Wausau COW meeting two weeks ago and shared the county’s work on providing support to individuals without permanent homes, especially those dealing with mental health problems and substance abuse.

On Wednesday, the county administrator told the Health and Human Services Committee that he has held discussions with committee Chair Matt Bootz and Vice Chair Jennifer Aarrestad, Sheriff Chad Billeb and Wausau Police Chief Matthew Barnes on homelessness. He said Wausau officials are concerned that homeless people from neighboring municipalities were coming to the city.

“They’ve expressed some desire to better understand the potential roles for other municipalities, particularly those surrounding the city of Wausau that have, and understandably so, transported individuals that have housing instability to the city to access services,” he said.

Leonhard has suggested short-, intermediate- and long-term deliverables for the yet-to-be-formed task force.

In the short-term (30 days), the advisory body will recommend to the City of Wausau and Marathon County governments “whether acquisition of the Annabelle apartments housing complex should be pursued to ensure its preservation as a transitional housing asset.” The Bridge Street Mission currently uses the apartments as sober living space for individuals struggling with homelessness and addiction. The group is moving to a bigger space, saying it intends to provide services to a larger number of people.

In the intermediate term, the task force is to recommend whether the demographic data they gather “necessitates the development of a formal mechanism to engage surrounding municipalities relative to resource sharing.”

For the long-term, the task force is expected to explore the specific roles of other local municipalities, “particularly those surrounding municipalities that have transported unhoused individuals to the City of Wausau to access services” and developing a sustainable system of services.

The draft charter also proposes getting information from Wausau Community Outreach Specialist Tracy Rieger about “the demographics and needs of the homeless population in Marathon County, with a particular focus on understanding employment status/history, age, gender, justice-involved status, community of residence, and other pertinent demographic data.”

The funding for several of these initiatives is yet to be determined, Leonhard said.

Members of the committee will have elected officials from the city and the county and representatives from non-profit organizations serving the homeless population and mental health and substance abuse treatment providers. Representatives from the business community, from faith-based organizations involved in homelessness initiatives, and homeless population advocates will also be part of the initiative, along with government agencies responsible for behavioral health services, law enforcement, and housing.

Leonhard said elected officials should be chair or at least co-chair of the task force since it is a local government body.

Some parts of the proposal could change after the city officials review it, he said.

Supervisors in the HHS Committee supported the idea of forming the joint task force. Committee Chair Bootz called the draft a work-in-progress and said several people in the community “would like to get into this type of thing.”

The county administrator is expected to bring back the revised charter draft at the committee’s meeting next month.