Chippewa Falls Hope Village Hosts Governor Evers Visit

Governor Tony Evers visited Chippewa Falls this week, highlighting Hope Village’s work in addressing climate change and affordable housing.

The site features a number of tiny home transitional housing units and affordable apartment units, as well as community spaces for Chippewa Valley residents struggling with homelessness. Following a tour of the site, Governor Evers outlined some ways the state could help to ensure those individuals can get the assistance they need and vouchers to qualify for those tiny homes.

“We have to do a better job with that,” he said. “And frankly, some of it’s going to be wrapped around, some of it’s federal, some of it’s state and, you know, people that need those vouchers that would make it easier for people to live here and to actually be here. It’s always, whenever you get the two governments having a piece of the pie, it makes it more difficult. But we have to do a better job, let’s put it that way.”

Much of the power for the housing units comes from solar arrays installed at the site. Members of the Chippewa Falls High School “Green Team” contributed to Hope Village’s Solar Project, and were also present for the visit. Governor Evers praised both the organization’s work and the students working to fix an issue they care about.

“You think about what Hope Village is doing here as far as taking care of people, getting them in a place where they can be safe,” he said. “And on top of it they’ve worked with young people that frankly, are really doing a good job around the issue of making sure we have, you know, they care about the climate change, they care about all sorts of things that frankly people in Washington D.C. have decided they’re not really excited about.”

Hope Village is also working on a larger housing project at the site of the former Indianhead Motel in Chippewa Falls. That project will see the addition of nearly 30 affordable efficiency units and will open later this year.