Chippewa Valley Leaders Talk Homelessness with Lt. Governor

Chippewa Valley city officials and nonprofit leaders hosted a roundtable on homelessness with Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez on Monday.

Addressing the growing unhoused population in the Chippewa Valley has been a years-long effort amid the rising cost of essential needs like healthcare, childcare, and housing. During that time local officials have worked to expand the resources available for unhoused individuals now, while turning their attention towards more long-term solutions like creating more affordable housing.

One of the biggest challenges to reducing the unhoused population in Eau Claire is its low vacancy rate of about 4 percent, well below the state average and levels that would typically be considered healthy. With a lack of available housing at all currently, new construction is one of the few options available to increase aff0rdable housing stock in the region.

During the Eau Claire visit on Monday, representatives from the Housing Our Neighbors Planning Collaborative shared their strategy with Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez. The group had spent about a year researching the contributing factors to the rise in unhoused individuals and how to begin addressing those issues.

According to a report released earlier this year, the Housing Our Neighbors Planning Collaborative determined that Eau Claire County needed at least 336 new housing units to meet current demand. Constructing new housing is a timely and costly process however, so the plan would also include expanding access to currently available services like the new Day Resource Center and increasing collaboration between the various community organizations trying to help.

In line with that goal, the report identified six areas of focus. Their plan seeks to improve strategic data sharing between organizations and aligning their systems to work more collaboratively, preventing homelessness in the first place with early intervention efforts and ensuring that affordable housing is accessible for those who need it, and strengthening their outreach efforts as well as improving their community engagement efforts.

The Housing Our Neighbors Planning Collaborative says their goal is to make homelessness in Eau Claire County rare, brief, and non-recurring within five years.