Wisconsin`s rural homelessness crisis and the ongoing fight to do `more with less`


Wisconsin`s rural homelessness crisis and the ongoing fight to do `more with less`


Homelessness in rural Wisconsin, while often unseen, is increasing, yet a grueling funding landscape, among other challenges, poses obstacles for local shelters and rural providers.

Last winter, Eric Zieroth dressed in as many layers as he could and stayed beneath a down blanket each night. He learned it was the best way to keep warm while living in his car in far northwestern Wisconsin.

During those cold months, he and his then-20-year-old daughter Christina Hubbell had to wake, start the vehicle and blast the heat a few times a night before shutting it off again.

For over a year, the pair regularly parked their PT Cruiser — a car older than Hubbell that Zieroth, 47, called “a shoebox on wheels” — in a corner spot at a public boat landing on Long Lake. The lot is less than a mile from the rural city of Shell Lake, with a population of less than 1,400...


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- - Volume: 25 - WEEK: 2 Date: 1/10/2025 10:17:56 AM -