Damakant Jayshi and Shereen Siewert

Officials in Wausau are grappling with how to provide services to homeless residents impacted by the abrupt closure of Open Door, which received funding this year to operate a daytime shelter.

What led to the closure remains murky.

Bob Grady, executive director at Open Door, resigned from his role and the agency ceased providing day shelter services about 10 days ago. Days later, city officials acknowledged the departure and said Grady resigned for medical reasons. Since that time, Grady was again at the agency “to assist with compliance reports” and perform other non-public facing duties, but stepped away completely on Monday.

In a letter sent to multiple city officials and shared with Wausau Pilot & Review, Grady on Monday said he had hoped he would be able to assist the agency without engaging in any direct contact with guests. But Grady, in his letter, said “that others are pretty firm and clear about this not being acceptable.”

“For the sake of everyone myself and the guests of Open Door included I have made a very firm resolve to avoid being present at The Open Door of Marathon County, without exception,” he wrote. “I have become aware of certain conversations being held as recently as today indicating that others do not feel comfortable with this arrangement which would involve me being on property.”

Grady said he was “neither asked nor coerced” into the decision.

“Thank you all for your consideration in allowing me to resign and step down for undisclosed medical reasons and in return will comply with any terms or conditions or stipulations which you deem necessary,” he wrote.

City officials are counting on the center to reopen soon after the agency can fill the director position, and for other organizations to step in and temporarily fill the gaps.

“There are other organizations that are looking at opening soon, at least on a temporary basis, to fill some of that need for unhoused people during the day,” Police Chief Ben Bliven told the Wausau Public Health and Safety Committee on Monday. He said it would be inappropriate to talk about some of those specifics at the meeting.

Committee member Lou Larson asked Monday about the July 7 closure of Open Door after Community Outreach Specialist Tracy Rieger offered the committee her June report on homelessness in Wausau. Rieger referred the matter of Open Door to the police chief.

Bliven also said that the board of Open Door is looking at a couple of people to potentially replace the director who resigned. When Larson asked whether the day shelter would reopen by winter, the police chief said he hoped it would reopen before then but added he could not guarantee it.

The Open Door day center was to run from March 1 to Dec. 31, 2024 and open on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. and then from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Saturday-Sunday times were set at 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. The kitchen with dining space can host 21 people at a time.

In March, Wausau officials allocated $50,000 in funding to support Open Door’s day shelter, which aims to relieve some of the pressure around the Marathon County Public Library and other places in the city where unhoused residents seek shelter when overnight spaces are not operating.

Now that pressure is likely to ramp up again, said PHS Committee Chair Lisa Rasmussen. She said the city should communicate to the public that “it’s absolutely our goal to continue as a city to partner on the day center to get services to people who need them.”

Rasmussen said she too was surprised by the closure. “It wasn’t something we or the director had planned. Things happen, so we hope they get the right person quickly.”

In her June report, Community Outreach Specialist Rieger said there were approximately 209 homeless residents in Wausau, though her data did not include numbers from the Salvation Army, which is experiencing a staff shortage. The numbers are not firm, as some people could be counted twice if they stay at two different shelters in a month.

While some efforts have succeeded in finding stable housing for those who have no other place to live, she said three previously housed residents were evicted, putting them back on the streets.