Damakant Jayshi

Marathon County secured more than $300,000 in funding for a pilot project on finding safe transitional homes for families with the ultimate goal of attaining permanent housing.

Throughout Wisconsin, about 10% of children are removed from their home due to unsafe housing when there is no other viable option. Information available with the county’s Department of Social Services shows that some children are unsafe in their homes “either because parents are using drugs themselves in a way that is unsafe to their children or they may be living in a house where others are using drugs and have criminal background that could be unsafe for young children to be in.”

The project, called Family Keys, is part of the Marathon County Child Welfare Housing Collaborative and Demonstration Project. This is the first of its kind, Marathon County’s Department of Social Services director, Vicki Tylka, told the Board of Supervisors during an educational briefing Thursday.

The two-year grant totaling $327,100 is attached to the federal Family First Prevention Services Act. Tylka said the federal government aims to decrease the number of out-of-home care days because it produces better outcomes for children. The money would be available in July.

Director Tylka said even when officials encounter situations where children may be unsafe due to abuse and neglect, by law they are required to try to keep families intact. “Certainly, we will never leave a child at home if they are unsafe but we need to increase our services…to support children in their families even when there is an element of safety that has to be addressed,” she said.

According to the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act or FFPSA, “the focus of the current child welfare system (is) toward keeping children safely with their families to avoid the trauma that results when children are placed in out-of-home care.” 

In addition to Marathon County, the project will be launched in Wood and La Crosse counties. Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families will likely replicate the program statewide if results are positive, she said.

As a result, families do not have many alternatives.

Tylka highlighted what many affordable housing advocates have been saying for a while now: that the City of Wausau and Marathon County lacks affordable housing. Another problem, the director said, is that a number of landlords are selling their homes to large corporations that in turn increase rent, making affordable housing further out of reach of families. This is a nationwide trend now, with big investors buying homes from local landlords. But some homeowners are fighting the big companies.

“What we wrote for in our grant was to have transitional housing for our child welfare families,” Tylka said. “As I said, some families could have their children back right now if they only had a place to live.”

The grant would allow social services to support families with rent, utilities and furnishings. They plan to start with three families.

Tylka said the department found space to accommodate all three families with their own individual bedrooms and a congregate kitchen and living room.

Replying to supervisors’ questions about the continuation of the program after two years, Director Tylka said the project, if successful, could then get a larger grant.

(For the presentation on the project, click here, and go to page 9.)