McKenzie Urbina, left, Lyric Glynn, right
As housing has been deemed a critical issue in the city of Sheboygan, an often-overlooked effect of that is a rise in individuals suffering from homelessness.
McKenzie Urbina, a Community Social Worker for Family and Neighbors Together, and Lyric Glynn (Glenn), Supportive Housing Program Director at Lakeshore Community Action Plan (CAP), recently gave a presentation on homelessness to the City of Sheboygan’s Committee of the Whole.
This presentation involved statistics, initiatives, programs, and more as they pertain to addressing homelessness in the city, county, and beyond.
Glynn explained that, as part of the Sheboygan County Housing Coalition, they are working on many things.
“Really just educating the city and county local government officials on the state of homelessness in Sheboygan,” she tells SeehaferNews.com. “Because they have had a huge increase in homelessness and it’s very visible.”
Homelessness can be caused by a wide variety of circumstances including job loss, abusive relationships, or debt amongst many others, however, Glynn attributes the rise in homelessness in Sheboygan to a different circumstance.
“The lack of housing to put people in, so we just don’t have homes to put people in,” she explained. “It is kind of hard to house people when you don’t have a place to put them. Everybody is like ‘Oh my gosh there are so many apartments going up.’ There are, but it’s still not enough to meet the demand.”
That recent increase was seen in the Point-in-Time (PIT) count performed by Lakeshore CAP, which provides a snapshot of homelessness in a specific area over a 24-hour period.
The January PIT count revealed that there were seven times as many unsheltered individuals in Sheboygan as compared to 2023.
Furthermore, it showed that 96 individuals were at an emergency shelter, nearly doubling the amount from 2023.
However, the work of Lakeshore CAP and the Sheboygan County Housing Coalition has been providing some positive impacts on the community and those suffering from homelessness, including the creation of the Mr. Wendal’s Collaboration.
“There’s a group called the Mr. Wendal’s Collaboration and Lakeshore Cap, different members of the Housing Coalition, and Downtown businesses got together,” she noted. “The Downtown businesses were concerned, they were like ‘We see homelessness is increasing, we want to be able to help.’ We created a toolkit for downtown businesses just to be more empathetic, trauma-informed, and caring towards the homeless population.”
Another aspect of the positive work that Glynn said is being done revolves around removing the stigma surrounding homelessness.
She tells SeehaferNews.com, “We are meeting with a lot of different people, whether it’s Lakeshore CAP or the Housing Coalition, and offering training opportunities and just a better opportunity for people to understand what actually happens in the community.”
While a lot of work still must be done in the Sheboygan community to address the rising issue of homelessness, Glynn has said collaboration between the City and county, continued destigmatization, and introducing a housing response team would go a long way in addressing this issue affecting hundreds of people in Sheboygan.
