Three Green Bay-area state legislators intend to introduce a bill meant to keep a state-funded homeless veterans shelter in Bellevue open after the facility was slated to close due to a lack of funding in the adopted state budget.
Currently being circulated in the state Legislature for co-sponsors, the bill is sponsored by state Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, and state Reps. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D-Green Bay, and Ryan Spaude, D-Ashwaubenon. They pointed to the essential service the shelter provides to veterans.
“In the face of federal cuts that just passed in Congress, it’s disrespectful to leave those who have served our country out in the cold, at a time where they have the most need. Our veterans deserve better,” said Rivera-Wagner in the July 16 news release.
The bill would do what Gov. Tony Evers had looked to do in his proposed state budget, which was to include $1.9 million for the statewide Veterans Housing and Recovery Program under which the Bellevue shelter operates. The state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau had said the state’s three total homeless veteran shelters could not all keep running without additional funding.
Wisconsin’s Veterans Housing Program’s Bellevue location at 2500 Bel Meadow Drive is set to close by Sept. 30 after no additional funding in the state budget.
According to the bill, the $1.9 million would be given in two chunks, with $900,000 for the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program in the 2025-26 fiscal year and $1.05 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year. The money would go toward the funding the supplies and service costs not only at the Bellevue location but also the state’s shelter in Chippewa Falls that was also slated to close, as well as the Union Grove location that was not scheduled to close.
The bill further said that the money would go toward leasing a different facility in Chippewa Falls as the current location had “space and facility deficiencies.”
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay legislator bill meant to keep homeless veterans shelter open
