(Brown County, Wis.) – Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach’s 2022 budget proposal plans to utilize $84,000 to create the position of a Housing Navigator within the County’s Community Services Division.

“Homelessness has drastically become a major concern in Brown County,” says Streckenbach. “This position is needed to help connect individuals our staff comes in contact with to safe places to stay in order to achieve improved outcomes. It’s one piece of a larger puzzle that Brown County is trying to help address.”

This position will provide direction for individuals experiencing housing instability and homelessness who intersect with other available county services, focusing on people experiencing mental illness.

“Navigation means connecting people to resources that exist in the community or that are specific to our department,” says Erik Pritzl, Brown County Health and Human Services (HHS) Executive Director.

HHS has become increasingly more involved in working with people who are homeless, and connecting them to other services in the department. These services can range from crisis intervention to more intensive services such as inpatient hospitalization. In 2021, HHS served approximately 175 individuals who identified as homeless. 45 of those individuals served did not have a prior documented service episode and were most likely “new” to the department.

You can view Executive Streckenbach’s 2022 budget proposal online at: https://www.browncountywi.gov/government/county-executive/general-information/county-budget/. The entire Brown County Board of Supervisors will be holding its annual budget meeting on October 27th, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. at the Resch Expo.

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