County and city form Housing Our Neighbors Planning Collaborative to draft homelessness response plan

County and city human‑services staff and community partners presented a new cross‑sector Housing Our Neighbors Planning Collaborative during a June 9 council work session and described initial data, outreach and next steps toward a community homelessness response plan.

Angie Weidemann, Eau Claire County human services director, and Angie Stokes, assistant director, said the collaborative has been meeting for about nine months. The group’s stated goals are to create a shared understanding of current conditions, build a foundation for collaboration and produce a community plan that reduces homelessness by making it rare, brief and non‑recurring.

Presenters summarized local data the collaborative used to assess need: a 2024 community health assessment flagged lack of affordable housing as a top issue; an ALICE report was cited showing roughly 36 percent of county households cannot afford basic expenses; coordinated‑entry lists and shelter data were presented as evidence of rising need (presenters cited a coordinated‑entry list count in the range of 256 individuals and school‑district reports of hundreds of students experiencing…