County committee backs homelessness coordinator, agrees to fund Wausau emergency shelter partnership

At a Marathon County Health and Human Services Committee meeting, Administrator Leonard said the committee directed administration to include a new public-health coordinator position in the 2026 budget to address homelessness and moved funding to support an emergency shelter partnership with the City of Wausau. The committee voted to advance the position request and later approved county funding to partner with the city’s contract for emergency shelter services, with the county share not to exceed $175,000 in fiscal 2026.

The action follows direction from a joint city–county homelessness task force and staff work drawing on La Crosse County’s Pathways Home model. "There was direction to move forward with putting into the budget a position to address homelessness," Administrator Leonard said. He told the committee he identified existing personnel funding, proposed defunding an existing nurse manager position’s funding to pay for the new public-health coordinator, and that the HR Finance and Property Committee had already approved the new-position…