Salvation Army

We understand that available emergency housing in Milwaukee is of critical concern.

So at the beginning of the show, I talked about some of the things that Salvation Army as a whole focuses on.

But recent reports show that almost 5,000 people were experiencing homelessness in Wisconsin, with almost 900 in Milwaukee County alone.

Since 1979, the Salvation Army has had an answer to that challenge with a respite care facility called the Emergency Lodge.

So tell us more about that and who you serve there.

Yeah, we are very fortunate in this community to have this long-standing history of providing that short-term solution to perhaps a longer-term issue.

So a lot of people that come to the emergency lodge never expected to be in a situation where they needed short-term housing.

But when they come to stay with us, we're able to walk with them through that difficult season.

So our emergency lodge actually provides a number of needs.

So when a single or a family needs that short-term stability, they're able to move into a place where they receive some privacy or some semi-privacy I'll talk about in just a second.

Mm-hmm.

And some case management, some support for their children, some medical care, and then certainly a lot of hope and some fun thrown in there, too.

So we operate out of a building that was originally built to be a motel, which is actually unique for shelters because a lot of times, at least for me, when I would picture a shelter, I would kind of picture a large room with lots of bunk beds and cots or something like that.

and a big shared bathroom you know or something but in this situation we are able to provide some normalcy and some dignity and we find that to be especially crucial for people who are coming out of trauma or coming out of a situation where they've been victimized where having a door that they can lock or a bathroom that they can have to themselves is really critical and And another unique, to me anyway, I've been a part of the Salvation Army since 1998, and I've not witnessed a situation like this before, but this particular facility in Milwaukee has a respite care center.

So if you or I were in a hospital and we needed some additional care afterwards where we might need to go back to the hospital or a clinic or something to receive some ongoing care, We would do that and we would probably have family who could provide a safe place for us and help us get there and all those things.

But we find that a lot of our neighbors who have been experiencing homelessness or are in unsafe living conditions may not have that safe place to go back to or transportation to get back to a care facility or something.

So we've actually partnered with several hospitals within the area.

We have volunteer doctors.

We have nurses who are committed on our staff who provide that in-house care in our house, if you will, for those residents at the time.

And that is a unique and critical service that we're able to provide.

And how many would you say you can serve at any given time?

It depends on the number of beds that we have available.

But I believe right now we're up to 21 beds that we can offer for that.

So that is, and we're looking to expand that all the time.

But just living within the cinder blocks of what we have, it's an incredible service to offer that I never would have considered would be a need, but it absolutely is.