New goal in fighting homelessness in La Crosse could be group’s most challenging yet

Collaborative found 15 vets homes earlier this year 

The latest goal of the La Crosse Collaborative to End Homelessness may be the group’s most difficult to achieve.

The collaborative aims to find homes for 10 homeless families in the next 100 days and project manager Julie McDermid says that’s not the same as finding homes for single adults.

“Any time we have a household where there’s more than one person, we have to address each indivudal’s particular issues,” she said, “whether it’s mental health or substnace abuse or some other type of disability … making sure that as we place them, they’re in places they want to be for the schools they’re already in and the programs they’re already in.

Those 10 families may be just the tip of the iceberg, too.

McDermid says there has to be consideration for, among many other things, where children in homeless families are already going to school. She thinks 100 La Crosse school kids on any given day are homeless.

Last year, the collaborative found homes for 15 homeless vets and earlier this year, the organization achieved a goal of finding places for 20 chronically homeless adults.