For Immediate Release: January 9, 2018
Contact: Brian Rothgery, 414-278-4230 or brian.rothgery@
Lipscomb Applauds County Executive’s Turnaround on Emergency Homeless Shelter Funding
MILWAUKEE – County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, Sr., applauded action taken by County Executive Chris Abele’s administration today to restore his cuts to emergency homeless shelter funding, which Abele’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) proposed cutting by $200,000 just a month ago.
“I’m thrilled that the County Executive has agreed to abandon his proposed cuts to homeless shelters, and implement the policy we adopted last month, which called for maintaining 2018 shelter funding at the same level the county board authorized previously,” said Lipscomb. “I applaud County Executive Abele for his turnaround on this issue and for following through on the public commitment his DHHS Director made in December.”
In December, the Interim Director of the Department of Health and Human Services sought County Board approval for eight homeless shelter contracts for amounts totaling $200,000 less than what the County Board budgeted for previously.
After several hours of discussion with members of the Board’s Finance and Audit Committee, who opposed the proposed cuts and repeatedly pointed out that the County Board did not reduce shelter funding in the 2018 county budget, Interim DHHS Director Jeanne Dorff told members of the committee that she would be able to manage her department’s budget to restore the proposed cuts.
At the same meeting, Supervisors adopted an amendment authored by Chairman Lipscomb which noted that the 2018 county budget maintained shelter funding at the same level as the previous year, about $718,000, and ordered the restoration of funding to the shelters:
It is the expectation of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors that the Interim Director and the County Executive will execute, or present to the County Board for approval, supplemental contract amendments for emergency shelter funding that equal the amount of $718,399 provided in the 2018 Budget.
Amendment 1 to item #21, File 17-761
