Walworth County hears public pleas and staff update on Twin Oaks homeless shelter

Residents, volunteers and county staff on March 19 urged Walworth County Health and Human Services (HHS) Board to do more to support Twin Oaks Shelter in Darien, describing persistent demand for shelter and the facility’s disrepair. County staff outlined past uses of federal ARPA funds and said legal limits constrain direct county funding while Community Action looks for alternative sites.

Deborah Gild Oregon, a Twin Oaks volunteer from Elkhorn, told the board she has seen “the trauma of homelessness” firsthand and said Twin Oaks provides rooms, food, clothing, case management and training for residents trying to reach self-sufficiency. “There is a continuous wait list of up to a hundred or more,” she said, and supplied photos of mold and other maintenance issues at the shelter.

The board then discussed a staff memo summarizing county support. Carlos (county staff) said the county has used American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds since the 2022 budget to support shelter construction efforts and acknowledged both capacity and structural deficiencies at the current Twin Oaks building. He said efforts have focused on supporting Community Action’s work to find a suitable site for a new shelter.

Mark Perry, executive director of Community Action, told the board a parcel that had been gifted to the agency encountered “significant opposition” that prevented the zoning needed for a build. He said the agency decided to sell some adjacent property to a private developer after concluding the gifted site could not be rezoned. “My backyard pushback is real,” Perry said, noting longstanding community resistance to shelters, workforce and low-income housing in both Walworth and Rock counties.

County staff explained funding constraints. A county presenter described a statutory limit on how much the county may directly provide to the Community Action Agency because the agency was created by county resolutions and delegated certain authorities and funding access. That staff member said the county’s figure for 2024–25 was set to approximate about 20% of estimated annual operating expenditures for Community Action, yielding a reduced two‑year allocation of $185,000 (described in the memo as spread across two years). The staff member said the board has funded prior assistance with ARPA but that ongoing, larger direct operating support would require a change and, in practice, would not appear until the 2026 budget cycle.

Board members agreed staff should provide periodic updates. A county staffer offered to provide quarterly updates from Community Action and to bring Mark Perry to future meetings when developments occur.

Ending — Next steps: Community Action will continue searching for alternative sites; county staff will provide periodic updates and the board may consider budget changes during the 2026 process.