By David Gordon, Associate Editor
Poverty and homelessness – and a looming funding crisis that threatens both temporary and sustainable housing for people in need of it – were the focus of a Monday evening forum that attracted some 60 community members.
Panelists sketched a picture of Eau Claire County poverty that frequently goes unrecognized, and stressed the need for many more affordable housing units than are now available. The forum, at First Congregational United Church of Christ, was sponsored by JONAH (Joining Our Neighbors, Advancing Hope), a grassroots organization made up primarily of local faith communities and focused on various aspects of social justice.
Paul Savides, a long-time JONAH member who organized the program, challenged the audience to come to the next forum, on Apr. 23, ready to get involved. He asked that people identify activities they are willing to work on as part of a community-wide effort to combat poverty and homelessness.
“We’ve got money in this community for lots of things, but affordable housing is not one of them,” Savides said.
Lieske Giese, director of the Eau Claire City-County Health Department, provided considerable data on poverty in the county, including the fact that it is the third worst county in Wisconsin in terms of income inequality. She said that the median income here of about $51,000 was deceptive, because many people are working for low hourly wages that fall far short of that figure.
Two-thirds of the county residents who are living in poverty are employed, Giese said
By one estimate, some 47% of county residents are having trouble making ends meet, Giese said, and 41% of Eau Claire school children qualify for subsidized school meals. Part of the problem is the major increase in housing costs here, with the average rent in Eau Claire now at nearly $800 a month, she said.
Poverty is most widespread on the east side of Eau Claire County, but there is also a concentrated pocket in part of Eau Claire’s downtown area, especially where home ownership is low, Giese said.
Dr. Kenneth Adler, a founder of the Chippewa Valley Free Clinic and more recently active in regard to homelessness, spoke briefly about the need to raise funds from the community to continue the existing “rapid rehousing program.” Adler noted that a $269,000 federal grant to fund this program ends on June 30 and has not been renewed.
Unless those funds can be replaced, the program’s recent “bright spots” will disappear, Adler said. Those successes included the prompt movement of 60 families to shelters operated by Western Dairyland and Beacon House, and then to sustainable housing, he said.
Adler said that efforts are underway to plan and launch a fund-raising effort to meet this need.
Keith Johnathan, executive director of the Eau Claire Housing Authority, discussed the nine different federal programs that subsidize housing in the city – each with their own sets of rules and regulations. These include housing units for the elderly as well as for low-income families, and the demand exceeds the available number of units, he said.
Other speakers at the program included Jeanne Semb, Housing Services Coordinator at Western Dairyland Community Action Agency; Kelly Christianson, Executive Director of Beacon House; and Adam Pennekamp, who provided a landlord’s perspective on affordable housing. The program was moderated by Julian Emerson, a Leader-Telegram reporter who has written extensively about homelessness and poverty.
For a more in-depth look at what the loss of the $269,000 federal grant will mean for Eau Claire’s rapid rehousing program, see Julian Emerson’s very thorough article in Wednesday’s Leader-Telegram, which can be accessed here.