Mayor, County Executive Announce Winter Warming Shelters, Homeless Services

Repairers of the Breach, 1335 W. Vliet St. Photo taken Nov. 21, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

With winter approaching, Milwaukee’s top officials are trying to raise awareness about the services available for people experiencing homelessness.

Warming rooms, day and night shelters, meal sites and healthcare clinics are all available in various locations across the city and the county. Winter is a busy time of year for many of these organizations, as people facing homelessness look for places to escape the freezing cold.

Last winter, more than 1,500 people accessed a warming shelter, which was a 36% increase from the previous year, Mayor Cavalier Johnson said Friday during a press conference with County Executive David Crowley. The duo gathered to raise awareness for warming shelters and other services for people experiencing homelessness.

With growing need documented last year, officials are trying to reduce the strain on local shelters with new strategies to more quickly get people into housing. The Milwaukee Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (MCHH), led by the city, is rolling out new “attachment services” to rapidly connect people experiencing homelessness for the first time with housing when they first come into contact with the shelter system. The MCHH maintains a full list of shelters and meal sites across the city.

“We know that funding cuts and this year’s really historic flooding that took place in August have left more residents displaced,” Crowley said. “But by implementing this new prevention strategy, we’re working proactively in order to make sure that we connect people to long-term housing and minimize the strain that then would happen for the warming centers.”

The county is taking a similar approach, with a Homelessness Prevention Hub at the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center, 1230 W. Cherry St.

The county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) found that 30% of people accessing warming shelters have never come in contact with the human services system before, Director Shakita LaGrant-McClain said. This winter, anyone coming to shelters will be directed to the Coggs Center, where staff will assess their needs and try to connect them with the array of resources the department oversees, ranging from housing to substance abuse.

“Warming centers can be that entry point into the broader human service network through [DHHS]’s no wrong door model of care,” Crowley said.

Just a few blocks from the press conference Friday, Repairers of the Breach, 1335 W. Vliet St., is preparing to operate both daytime and nighttime shelters beginning Nov. 24 and running through March. It is the only organization in the city that will operate shelter space 24 hours a day. The facility has space for 140 people during the day and 50 people overnight. For the next four months, Repairers of the Breach will be pulling “double duty,” as Executive Director Pastor James West, Jr. put it.

“So it’s our busiest season,” West Jr. said. “But it’s challenging, but it’s a very rewarding time.”

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