Damakant Jayshi

The Wausau Police Department put forward a suggestion for a transitional housing pilot program to serve single homeless women in the area, a proposal that was discussed this week by the Public Health and Safety Committee.

CW Solutions, which calls itself a “private human service company,” created a two-step plan to help people move from temporary living situations to stable, long-term homes. The first year’s estimated budget is nearly $588,000, with more than 80 percent covering program staff-related expenses. About $97,000 in funding would be used to cover rent, utilities, transportation and other costs for five clients.

Police Chief Matthew Barnes told the Public Health and Safety Committee said that women are victimized at a higher rate than other unhoused residents of Wausau.

“We asked CW Solutions to come up with a pilot program…to be able to address the gap between, like shelter at the Catholic Charities, and being housed in an apartment they live in independently because we aren’t seeing the success there that we would like to see,” he said.

Wausau’s Community Outreach Specialist Tracy Rieger said the most recent data show local shelters served 363 unduplicated guests, 103 of whom were women. Often, women who do not have permanent housing struggle with mental health issues, alcohol abuse and drug abuse and they face additional barriers to finding appropriate living arrangements, she said.

Rieger, who works under the police department and provides monthly updates on the homeless population to the committee, said she recently interviewed five unhoused women to gauge their interest for the transitional housing program and all expressed a willingness to participate.

CW Solutions Program Manager Melissa Walsh said the company will serve as the leaseholder and the program will cover the cost of the security deposit, monthly rent, utilities, and basic home furnishing for the women participating in the program during the first phase. Each participant will live in a separate, single unit apartment at the scatter-site adjacent program location, according to concept material.

Given the additional barriers and challenges women face, wraparound intensive support ranging from three months to a year would be provided, with each participant receiving tailored case management. The cost is high, she said, because more staff support is required in this phase. Program staff would be on site from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily including weekends and holidays.

In a second phase, participants would see help getting a lease for their own apartment outside of but nearby the units reserved for first-phase participants. Second-phase participants would be responsible for all their own living expenses but would receive case management staff support.

CW Solutions envisions a three- to five-year pilot program.

Public Health and Safety Committee Chair Rasmussen said having a longer duration made sense since it will be difficult to measure results in a matter of couple of months.

Barnes suggested the proposal be sent to the City Council to gauge support before the measure heads to the Finance Committee to explore funding options. If approved by the council, funding options from the state and federal government, along with local foundations, would be sought.

The committee approved the concept of transitional housing but without any explicit funding commitment from the city.