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Another choice: Burlington man wants you to write him in on Tuesday ...
Found: 2 Weeks 5 Days 15 Hours 36 Minutes ago
The Journal Times - TOWN OF BURLINGTON ?A fishing shack on the banks of Honey Creek in the Town of Burlington seems an unlikely place to kick off a presidential campaign....
Friends say Barlass was always involved
Found: 1 Month 58 Minutes ago
GazetteXtra - Friends say Barlass was always involved...
98th Assembly District: Campaigns focus on taxes, health care
Found: 1 Month 1 Day 2 Hours 23 Minutes ago
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Taxes vs. health care. ...
Preview: 98th Assembly District
Found: 1 Month 1 Day 5 Hours 29 Minutes ago
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Taxes vs. health care.The No. 1 priority for Republican state Rep. Rich Zipperer if voters re-elect him to the......
Marquette hires research leader
Found: 1 Month 2 Days 1 Hour 50 Minutes ago
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Marquette University has hired a Rutgers University executive to help grow its research program, a first step toward eventually having a technology transfer office, officials said. ...
Fallout from financial crisis nails housing
Found: 1 Month 5 Days 2 Hours 25 Minutes ago
Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter - WASHINGTON The nation is on track to build fewer homes this year than at any time since the end of World War II, adding to the woes of an economy that analysts said Friday has almost certainly entered a recession....
County, state population growing
Found: 1 Month 1 Week 4 Days 19 Hours 37 Minutes ago
Chippewa Herald - County, state population growing...
Obama backers blast McCain's health care plan
Found: 1 Month 1 Week 5 Days 14 Hours 13 Minutes ago
The Capital Times - After watching Sen. John McCain's polling numbers sink after the Republican presidential nominee's failed attempt to show leadership in the nation's ongoing financial crisis, Barack Obama's campaign in recent days has sought to further its advantage by going after McCain on another front: health care. Obama over the weekend blasted McCain's health care proposal as "radical," and the Obama campaign has used surrogates to hammer on the Republican's proposal, which they say will kick 20 million ... ...
County could contract out for forestry services
Found: 1 Month 1 Week 5 Days 19 Hours 43 Minutes ago
Barron News Shield - County could contract out for forestry services...
As economy sours, homeless shelters see more traffic
Found: 1 Month 2 Weeks 3 Days 23 Hours 29 Minutes ago
Leader-Telegram - House of Hope in Menomonie is seeing more and more families who need a place to sleep - and turning some away.Beacon House in Eau Claire is operating at capacity, increasingly with people who need shelter because they can't pay their rent.Grace Place in St. Croix County - in recent years one of the economic boom areas in the country - has more homeless people than it can handle, and the cash it budgeted to help the needy in 2008 ran out two months early.The economic woes that have plagued the nation for more than a year have begun to hit home at many of the emergency and homeless shelters in west-central Wisconsin.In recent months shelter directors in the region have seen a noticeable increase in the number of people needing a place to stay or a good meal.When the issue is a basic human need - a roof over your head at night - "any increase is significant," said Kelly Christianson, executive director of the Eau Claire Interfaith Hospitality Network, which runs Beacon House.Unemployment rates in west-central Wisconsin remain about 2 percent below the national average of 6.1, but that figure is deceiving because of the U.S. inflation rate.With inflation at 5.4 percent in the last 12 months, including 12.1 percent for transportation costs and 27.2 percent for energy costs, more and more people can't make ends meet."We have been pretty consistently full over the last 18 months," Christianson said."We're not seeing people whose homes have been foreclosed. We're seeing people who are in the rental market and weren't before. The families we tend to serve are finding it more difficult to rent."The economy is playing a part in it. Look at the price of gas, the price of food. For somebody making $7.50 an hour, that makes a bigger impact than somebody making $15 an hour," Christianson said.Jessie Strenke, 26, is well aware of that impact. A single mother of four, her youngest born a week ago, Strenke spent about six weeks at Beacon House in the spring when she moved to the city. Case workers there helped her find federally subsidized housing - she pays one-third of the rent - and a job.With child support, food stamps and state medical assistance, she's surviving financially but is concerned about what lies ahead."I don't have a vehicle so I can't complain about gas prices, but the electric and gas bill I've definitely noticed. It's $40 more a month than it used to be. I'm worried about the heating bill," said Strenke, who plans to return to work soon at a Subway restaurant.The trend also is apparent at The Community Table, which serves free meals to the needy in Eau Claire. Through September it had served 24,315 meals this year, up more than 2,000 compared with the same period last year.At Beacon House in downtown Eau Claire, there's room for six families in six rooms for up to 30 days - longer if needed. But with more people in need, federal funding stagnant and a waiting list for subsidized housing in Eau Claire, the shelter's job isn't getting easier.Beacon House is hoping soon to buy a duplex with $225,000 of federal money it received via the city, Christianson said. The duplex could house families for up to six months.Grace Place, an emergency homeless shelter in Somerset that serves Pierce, St. Croix and Polk counties, also is expanding. The Salvation Army-run shelter on Saturday is opening Serenity Home, a converted old county jail, in Balsam Lake. It also operates Faith House in New Richmond and House of Blessings in Osceola, both single-family homes.The additional space is sorely needed. The $110,000 Grace Place budgeted for its fiscal year ending Oct. 1 ran out in July. The house, a former convent, has room for 24 people but consistently has been full in recent months with a waiting list. In August people slept on the back porch."Our emergency needs have probably increased by 30 to 40 percent just this year," said Duana Bremer, Grace Place director. "Our shelter is full. It's people who are getting evicted (for not paying utility bills)."Along with inflation, one of the reasons people are being driven into the streets in St. Croix County is higher housing costs. The county is part of the greater Twin Cities metro area. Several hundred homes have been foreclosed in the county because of the subprime mortgage loan crisis.Even people with jobs are being pinched."When you're making minimum wage and have two kids or you're a single mom, there's no way you're going to make it," Bremer said. "In St. Croix County you need $24 (of income an hour) to break even. There just aren't jobs paying that kind of money."The people seeking help at Grace Place are local residents - not Minnesotans - and many of them haven't needed help before, Bremer said.The needy can stay up to 90 days at Grace Place and Serenity Home and then pay a stipend thereafter. All their personal items - including food - are covered, and they can get help with employment and education.Like the shelters in St. Croix and Polk counties, Dunn County's House of Hope in Menomonie has "been increasingly busy," said coordinator Mollie Jochum.The house, which has three apartments where people can stay for about a month, turned away 141 households between January and August."We're turning away more people. I've seen more people that have some income and more that are employed but can't make ends meet," Jochum said. "One of the biggest things I've seen is larger families. We've served 20 more children than last year."Two other homeless shelters have not necessarily seen more need for help. The Veterans Assistance Program at the Northern Wisconsin Center in Chippewa Falls had 26 residents last week, up from 18 in the spring. But that's not an unexpected increase given that the shelter just opened in December, said Director Phillip Sarazen. It has room for 40 homeless veterans.Hope Gospel Mission in Eau Claire, a men's homeless shelter, has had more inquiries as of late but not a significant increase in residents there or at its women's shelter, Ruth House. Director Gary Steward said the economy isn't solely to blame."We've got economic woes, but because of the choices people have made it's causing people to need help, whether it's alcohol, drugs, bad relationships, things of that nature," Steward said.Hope Gospel's emphasis is to help people change their lives via long-term counseling. "Our theme is lives rescued, rebuilt and renewed," Steward said.Homelessness in the Chippewa Valley isn't as visible as in bigger cities, but the need is real and likely won't decrease for some time. Last week, the U.S. Labor Department announced that employers cut 159,000 jobs in September, the biggest monthly cut in five years."The kind of homeless we have isn't so much people living on the streets or in cars. It's more people living with relatives," said Christianson, of Beacon House.Beacon House and other area shelters may be full and turning people away but they're not sending people out into the cold, Christianson said."We assess who's in the worst situation. We try to work with other agencies to get them in a safe environment."Poling can be reached at 830-5832 or jerry.poling@ecpc.com....
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