Eau Claire Organizations Launch Task Force on Homeless Issues

The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce, Department of Human Services, and Health Department launched a task force to solve housing issues.

According to a press release from the Chamber of Commerce, the new task force is looking for community-led solutions to the growing and increasingly complicated problem. The creation of the task force was announced just days after a known unhoused individual fatally stabbed a man at the Do Dodge Inn over the weekend.

Addressing the growing unhoused population has become a major focus for local government agencies and businesses. The Chippewa Valley has seen a drastic rise in the unhoused population over the last year, with most of that growth coming from Eau Claire County.

Just last week, the City Council passed an advisory resolution calling for more state and federal aid to address those issues. Government officials have also proposed ideas like a street ambassador program and limits on short-term rental properties to provided needed support now while setting up longer-term solutions to the driving factors behind rising homelessness.

In the press release, CEO of the Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce David Minor said “We recognize that past efforts to address homelessness have faced challenges, often due to misalignment and a lack of shared vision. This new cooperative approach is about resetting the conversation and building the relationships and strategies needed to create sustainable change.”

The task force held its initial leadership meeting on Wednesday and shared their main focus for their work. Their main objectives include building a data-driven understanding of what drives homelessness, exploring sustainable and impactful solutions to those problems, creating a shared vision for what the task force is hoping to achieve, and creating a unified and actionable plan to reach those goals.