Competing bills aim to save homeless veteran assistance facilities from closing

Two facilities providing housing and substance abuse counseling for veterans are slated to close by the end of September. Now, a pair of bills from Democratic and Republican lawmakers aim to save them with around $2 million that was cut in the bipartisan state budget deal they voted for.

The facilities in Chippewa Falls and Green Bay provide temporary housing, substance abuse counseling and job training with a goal of helping veterans become stable enough to find permanent housing options. They’re funded through the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program, or VHRP, which is administered by the state Department of Veterans Affairs office. 

Because of unexpected rising costs with the program, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers requested an additional $1.95 million for the VHRP in his 2025-27 state budget proposal. That request was rejected by the GOP-led Joint Finance Committee in June.

Republican leaders of the committee said Evers never mentioned the VHRP during negotiations that led to a bipartisan agreement between the governor’s office and state senators from both parties.

With the clock ticking, competing bills from Democrats and Republicans aim to restore the veteran housing funding before the facilities in Chippewa Falls and Green Bay close by the end of next month.

The first was coauthored by Wisconsin Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, and would direct $1.95 million toward the VHRP program. He told WPR the funding for the housing program shouldn’t have been stripped from the budget, but was “overlooked” by Evers, Democrats and Republicans as the budget deal was struck in July.

“We’ve got to stop playing that finger pointing game, and let’s just get this back in there and do the right thing,” Smith said.

Another bill coauthored by state Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franklin, directs the same amount to the program. But it also expands eligibility for a property tax credit for disabled veterans and surviving spouses and directs the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Missing In Action Recovery and Identification Project to focus its efforts on recovering remains of Wisconsin veterans.

Jacque told WPR he was somewhat frustrated by the volume of bipartisan senate votes that led to the state budget deal passing soon after it was announced, because it “really took away some of the leverage that I had with some of my priorities being on the veterans issues because of the surplus of votes.” 

“But there also needs to be opportunities for a longer discussion and, you know, I think it’s just something that I did not want to exclude from that discussion,” Jacque said of the veteran housing funding.

For his part, Smith said he’s frustrated that Republicans who control both the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate are “not going to consider a bill that a Democrat writes.” He said he prefers a “clean” bill restoring the veteran housing funding without the additional measures in Jacque’s bill.

While both Smith and Jacque voted for the budget compromise, which didn’t include the new money for the veteran housing program, they supported a last minute amendment that would have restored the funding and expanded the property tax credit for veterans. That amendment was narrowly rejected by Republicans in the Senate.

Without the additional $1.95 million in state funds, Evers and the Department of Veterans Affairs say the housing and recovery program offices in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls will close by Sept. 30.