Skyrocketing rent, lack of resources, sends residents to shelters in search of help

With the growing gap between rent and income for low and extremely-low income households, and a lack of affordable rental homes, many in Oshkosh and other areas across Wisconsin are cost burdened and facing issues such as home insecurity. In Oshkosh alone, there are at least 110 known individuals who are homeless. This number is even greater in cities such as Appleton, and in urban areas within the state. 

Jim Boehm, the executive director of Father Carr’s Place on Koeller Street in Oshkosh, has noticed this issue rise during his time as head of the organization. 

“I would say the need for housing is greater today than it was even a couple of years ago,” he said. “I would also say that evictions are becoming a big reason for why people are coming to us, more than when I first started.”

Denise Holz, the director of Day By Day Shelter on Ceape Avenue, has also seen evictions as a prevalent reason for why individuals turn to shelters. 

“Homelessness and evictions are definitely on the rise,” she said. “Whether that is developers buying places and then evicting current tenants, fixing up the units to get higher rent, or sometimes not even fixing them up and still getting higher rents.”

Eviction can occur for numerous reasons, but one significant cause is the rising divide between the cost of living and affording housing in comparison to income. It is estimated that around 5,800 households in Oshkosh are cost-burdened, or paying 30% or more of their monthly income on housing. In turn, this takes away from spending on other necessary expenses such as healthcare, food, and transportation. 

“We see almost 200 patients a month right now in our free clinic,” Boehm said. “It’s like an urgent care, but it’s free. We’re also a food pantry, we do housing, and a life enrichment program.” 

Holz similarly reported that she has noticed this rise of monthly rent through costs of rental apartments in the city. 

“The fair-market rent now in Oshkosh for a one-bedroom apartment is $789 a month, and we have a hard time even finding units at that price. It’s $1200-$1400 for units sometimes,” she said. 

In addition to overall costs being higher, evictions are becoming more common. This is because there are simply not enough resources in the community to supply those in need of housing. 

“Those who have been evicted are having a hard time finding apartments,” said Holz. “I was at a meeting just the other day and a landlord said that for every unit he has out there, he gets forty to seventy applications in a day.”

Due to the current difficulty in finding proper housing for those who have been evicted, many who are in need stay in shelters for prolonged periods of time, demonstrating that difficulty. 

“The people who live here at Father Carr’s don’t live here for a couple nights, or a week, or even two weeks. They live here for as much as six months or even a whole year,” Boehm explained. 

Unfortunately, even the housing facilities of the Fox Valley, such as Father Carr’s, Day By Day Shelter, and COTS of Appleton can only handle so much with the resources that they have. 

“Eighteen is where we cap it off for male capacity, that’s as much as we can handle,” Boehm said. “Capacity is not necessarily the amount of rooms we have, but rather dining, how many people we can feed, bathroom facilities, etc.”

To combat the issue of housing insecurity and homelessness, as well as relieve the strain on shelters, Oshkosh has put forth a number of policies and projects. For instance, the Oshkosh Kids Foundation has directed the construction of a Tiny House Village meant to house homeless families for a certain period of time. Boehm has familiarity with this project.  

“They started at around 13 little houses, and now they are in the 30 range. Right now, they are all full. I think they’ve been open less than a year, and they are completely full right now,” he said. “There are 20 guys living in COTS right now, around 50 living here, around 30 families living in the low-income little houses. It all makes a dent, but I don’t know if it is going to completely fix it.”

Looking into the future, the city of Oshkosh has plans to set up some more low-income housing downtown in response to the shortage. 

“I know there are some low-income units going up on Main Street in the next few years,” Holz said.

This issue of a lack of sheltering resources and housing insecurity is prevalent in Oshkosh, but the situation does not end there. According to Holz, the landscape looks even more dire in other nearby cities. 

“The wait lists for shelters in Fond du Lac and Appleton are higher than here in Oshkosh,” she said. 

Boehm spoke on an even broader spectrum when regarding the issue. 

“This problem goes all the way across not only the Fox Cities, but the whole state,” he stated. “I’m going to guess that in the bigger cities, like Madison and Milwaukee, it’s probably even worse.”

If the situation of homelessness were to continue to increase in Oshkosh, as it has since the start of COVID-19, it would pose a negative effect on the entire local atmosphere and economy, and cause an even greater shortage of resources. 

“If homelessness were to get worse, it would continue to overwhelm our already overwhelmed system, since we already don’t have enough resources in our community,” Holz said. “It would impact our downtown and our businesses. It’s just a stressful dynamic for the city, and there’s often no real, easy solution that everybody can get behind.” 

Boehm had similar viewpoints. 

“There are always going to be voids in society when trying to help 100 percent of the people,” he said. “We just need to identify what those voids are and pinpoint funds to take care of those voids.” 

Home insecurity is a large issue, and not one that can be fixed by a single individual or a single policy. But there are certain actions people can all take to ensure a better and more stable future in regards to housing. 

“We need awareness, and especially when we’re voting for policies,” Boehm said. 

Holz agreed and also emphasized the importance of volunteering for crisis shelters. 

“Awareness and education and volunteering are the biggest things that people can do to help,” she said.

by Phoebe Fletcher

Published on April 12024

Oshkosh West Index volume 120 issue VI