Milwaukee City Wire

Milwaukee is in its second year of observing Homelessness Awareness Week (HAW), which is from Oct. 18-22.

Mayor Tom Barrett established HAW last year to shed light on one of the biggest problems affecting the city and the nation.

“Homelessness Awareness Week takes place Oct. 18-22 and highlights Milwaukee’s commitment to address homelessness with critical dialogue [and] solution-oriented action,” Barrett tweeted on Oct 18. “The Milwaukee Continuum of Care invites the community into this work with week-long events.”

According to the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County, the week began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Eviction Free MKE – Right to Counsel space, a press conference to discuss the city’s efforts to address homelessness, and a forum on the importance of housing and the impact of housing on health.

A forum on the importance of housing and the impact of housing on health, an event celebrating landlords who support their communities and a conference for agencies that work to reduce homelessness where there will be trainings on homelessness prevention round out the week, as of this writing.

The city heads the Milwaukee Continuum of Care, which is a network of over 100 organizations that are all working to alleviate homelessness.

A press release issued by Barrett’s office on Oct. 21 said the network reported a decline of homeless individuals in the MKE area of 43% between 2015 and 2019, with a goal to end family homelessness by 2025.

The reduction, however, has come into question.

The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reported that while Point-in-Time count found only 17 homeless individuals in the Milwaukee area in 2021, compared to 87 in 2020 and 114 in 2019, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty countered the figures to be inaccurate.

The numbers indicate homeless individuals they could find, the website reported.