Wisconsin Homeless Shelters

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Safe Harbor offers help to homeless men:When homeless men need a place to go to rebuild their lives, our Safe Harbor offers comprehensive services to help them. Services include food, shelter, long- and short-term help, and assistance for recovery from substance abuse.Specifically, our Guest Ministries program assists men in crisis with food and shelter. Our LifeSkills program offers help to men who want to overcome their addictions and rejoin the community. And our FOCUS program helps LifeSkills graduates build on their personal achievements. By offering troubled men a step-by-step path to better lives, we increase their potential for long-term success and spiritual growth.

Joy House offers safety to women and children :When homeless women with children arrive at our door, they are often seeking shelter from a storm that goes far beyond the discomfort of rain, wind, and snow. Today, nearly 40% are fleeing from domestic violence. Often drug addiction, job loss, fire and basic poverty are driving forces. And they generally have nowhere else to turn.When they arrive, they find a range of short- and long-term solutions in Joy House. We offer residency, training programs, child care, and educational programs. Our goal is to help families become self-sufficient and stable.

The Guest House provides the opportunity for every man who enters our emergency shelter to make a commitment to fully addressing the problems that led to his homelessness. It is our goal that every man who participates in the transitional housing program departs with independence—meaning permanent housing and self-sustaining income.

Hope House is an emergency and transitional living facility as well as a true community center located in the near south side of Milwaukee. Opened in 1987, Hope House was created to provide a safe, temporary refuge for people needing a place to sleep

Homeless individuals and families often face multiple burdens such as unstable living situations and inadequate support networks. Research has demonstrated that housing linked with services is the only strategy that is successful in reducing homelessness. The Chrysalis Project is designed to meet the transitional housing and developmental needs of homeless families and their children, as well as single women. The project involves five elements: extended shelter and supportive case management services; comprehensive assessment of strengths, resources, and needs and development of a guest-driven, applicable plan for services and programming; practical onsite educational opportunities for guests; frequent reinforcement of newly learned positive behavior; and referral and linkage to community-based services and supports. The goal is to decrease homelessness, improve individual functioning, and enhance community-based support networks of participants.

The Transitional Living Program's mission is to provide a safe and supportive environment in which individuals who are homeless can move toward greater self-sufficiency and independence. Our goal is for residents to make the transition into stable permanent housing.

The Guest House operates 230 units of scattered-site supportive permanent housing for people who are homeless with disabilities. Participants in this program have very significant barriers to independence and therefore require long-term support to maintain an apartment in the community.

For many years, Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Housing kept the homeless, mainly men, off the streets and in housing.  However, most local SRO housing was torn down in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and as a result, homelessness spread in the 1980s. The Surgeon’s Quarters Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Program is a joint project of Hope House of Milwaukee, Inc., the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Friends of Housing.  The project consists of a 13 bedroom, Section 8 SRO program that provides permanent housing to adult men and women in a communal setting. Along with an individual room, each resident is provided with shared kitchen, living, and bathroom areas. In addition, a case manager works closely with the residents to assess, refer, link and engage each in the necessary supportive services to help maintain stable housing, such as transportation assistance, mental health and substance abuse counseling, educational opportunities, healthcare, and emergency food distribution