Wisconsin Homelessness Rises Again in 2026
Changes at federal level could make it difficult to expand programs that have proven so successful.
A homeless tent encampment on the edge of MacArthur Square. File photo by Jeramey Jannene.
While Wisconsin remains ahead of most of the nation in addressing homelessness, it has begun to backtrack: The rate of people experiencing homelessness has increased for the fifth year in a row.
Between 2015 and 2025, homelessness across the country increased by 32%, but in Wisconsin, it decreased by 13.4%, with Milwaukee County driving a large share of the overall decrease.
A new report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum (WPF) finds Wisconsin and Milwaukee County continue to report lower rates of homelessness compared to peer states and cities in the Midwest. But recent year-over-year growth, albeit slow, may require new strategies or greater investment to maintain the downward trend of the 2010s.
In Wisconsin, homelessness programs are administered under four regional Continuum of Care (CoC) organizations representing Milwaukee, Dane and Racine counties, and then the rest of the state. Among the four CoCs, Milwaukee County has the largest population of homeless people but the lowest rate of homelessness relative to its overall population. Dane County has the highest rate of homelessness, according to the WPF report.
The decade-long drop in homelessness in Wisconsin coincides with the widespread adoption of the housing-first model, which acknowledges the role mental health and substance abuse challenges play in homelessness and provides stable housing first, then helps someone address the other challenges in their life.
The rise in recent years may not be attributable to one factor, but the WPF report posits that the end of pandemic-era funding and programs that expanded supports for rent and income, as well as rising housing costs, could be contributing to the rise. Public policies focused on addressing homelessness have not changed much, the report notes.
The recent increase in people experiencing homelessness has not wiped out the gains made over the past decade, but it may require a new, or at least more robust, public policy response by the county, according to the WPF.
Expanding housing programs or prevention efforts may prove difficult under the administration of President Donald Trump. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is the primary source of funding for homelessness and housing programs in the country, and under the current administration the agency is attempting to roll back housing-first programs that have had such success for communities in Wisconsin and shift funding to a “treatment first” model.
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