‘There’s nowhere for them to go’: Newcap closure leaves northeast Wisconsin counties scrambling to prevent more homelessness 14%
By Astrid Code0% Wisconsin Watch14%
7/16/2026, 11:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 35 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Appeal to Authority, and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 27.4% saturation with 688 hits. Analysis detected 4,120 faulty-reasoning hits from 2,507 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 30.1% and a BS Rank of 14% (14,380 of 16,550 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 86.90% of the article peer group.
Newcap was a leading provider of homeless services for 10 counties: Brown, Florence, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Shawano, Forest, Langlade, Oneida and Vilas.
The organization’s abrupt closure in March left counties scrambling to fill the gaps.
In Shawano County, for example, residents no longer have a year-round homeless shelter.
Furthermore, Newcap took the lead in three regional homeless coalitions, and its staff served in key roles, fulfilling responsibilities for Coordinated Entry, the point-in-time count and federal and state funding.
Newcap’s Brown County federal grants have been transferred to House of Hope and Foundations Health & Wellness.
It’s been more than three months since the anti-poverty nonprofit Newcap closed , laying off 90 employees and leaving more than 100 low-income households on the brink of homelessness.
For Shawano County residents, that means losing their only year-round homeless shelter.
At Safe Haven domestic abuse shelter in Shawano, Executive Director Mindy Lohff started getting dozens more crisis calls and observing more unsheltered people on the streets or in wooded areas.
“We’ve seen an increase in our shelter stays directly, we’ve seen an increase in the calls for looking for shelter,” Lohff said.
“Unfortunately, if they aren’t actively fleeing domestic violence or sexual violence, they’re not eligible (to) stay here, and there’s nowhere for them to go in Shawano County.”
It’s not just that Lohff has nowhere to direct unsheltered people in Shawano.
Newcap was a leading provider of homeless services for 10 counties — including Brown, Florence, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Shawano, Forest, Langlade, Oneida and Vilas.
In 2025, Newcap had the capacity to provide nearly 250 beds across those counties, from emergency shelter to permanent housing.
These mostly rural counties have been rocked by Newcap’s abrupt closure March 31, which came amid financial challenges and leadership changes.
Former CEO Cheryl Detrick was placed on leave shortly before the nonprofit closed its doors and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, revealing that it owed nearly $4 million to creditors.
The nonprofit’s closure reveals how the loss of a single agency can have a staggering effect, especially in rural areas where resources for the unhoused are already few and far between.
As a federally designated regional leader — or Community Action Agency — Newcap held the keys to funding for many programs and can’t be easily replaced by a single organization.
Working together on shelter solutions
Shawano Area Matthew 25 is a seasonal overnight homeless shelter open from Oct. 15 to May 15.
Newcap’s closure means Shawano County residents no longer have a homeless shelter to turn to during warmer months.
Newcap also led Shawano’s homeless coalition, meaning it controlled state funding for SAM25.
Executive Director Kendra Brusewitz said she’s still waiting on $12,000 in funds.
Over the summer, SAM25’s resource center is still open, providing food, showers, laundry and other assistance.
“We just continue to see an increase in the numbers coming through our resource center,” Brusewitz said.
“Not having a place to refer people, families to in the area during the summer months is challenging.”
Without Newcap, nonprofit leaders realized there was no longer a way for Shawano County residents to access Coordinated Entry – a prioritization list that matches people with housing resources throughout the state based on their eligibility.
The children’s space sits empty during the day at Safe Haven in Shawano, Wis., on June 19, 2026.
Newcap was a leading provider of homeless services for 10 northeastern Wisconsin counties, and the organization’s abrupt closure in March has left service providers scrambling to fill gaps.
(Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Safe Haven and SAM25 teamed up with Shawano Area United Way to form a coalition, educating local officials on housing needs and brainstorming solutions.
Brusewitz and Lohff took charge of signing people up for Coordinated Entry.
“We’ve actually had clients getting pulled for the housing assistance because they wanted to move to other counties, so that’s been great,” Lohff said.
They’ve also applied for grants to fund a housing coordinator for Shawano County and collaborated with Bonduel middle and high schools to make hygiene kits.
The coalition’s efforts aren’t funded, nor are they part of anyone’s job description.
But Shawano community leaders feel it’s necessary.
“A lot of us have lived here, grown up here, and we’re so passionate about it, so some of (the work) may be slightly out of the scope, but it’s so important,” Lohff said.
Support for survivors
Newcap’s grants allowed victims of domestic violence in Shawano and neighboring counties to obtain permanent housing, which is vital since Safe Haven is an emergency shelter, Lohff said.
So far, no agency has been identified to permanently take on the grant.
“The financial assistance for them to be able to obtain the housing has vanished,” Lohff said.
“Within the realm of domestic violence, so many of our clients experience financial abuse … and that’s one of the reasons why they don’t leave that abusive relationship, is because their abuser holds finances over their head.”
Rainbow House, a domestic violence shelter serving Marinette and Oconto counties, was similarly left as one of the area’s only providers after Newcap closed.
Executive Director Courtney Olson told Wisconsin Watch she’s received a “steady increase” in calls since then.
Like Safe Haven, Rainbow House cannot respond to general calls for housing.
As it is, its waiting list for domestic violence clients continues to grow, which means ensuring their safety in other ways.
“In response to these long waits, we are working hard to keep survivors safe in their own homes whenever possible,” Olson wrote in an email.
“That means offering more on the security side (cameras, cell phones, panic alarms, lock replacements, temporary restraining orders) and working with landlords to remove the person causing harm from a lease rather than displacing the survivor.”
Regional Continuum of Care programs distribute federal funding for homeless shelters.
Milwaukee, Dane and Racine counties have their own CoCs, while the Balance of State CoC oversees the rest of Wisconsin through regional coalitions.
Although based in Brown County, Newcap also served as the lead agency for the Wisconsin Balance of State’s Northeast Coalition — in Florence, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto and Shawano counties — and the NWISH Coalition – made up of Forest, Langlade, Oneida, and Vilas counties.
A sign for Safe Haven is posted on the front lawn on June 19, 2026.
Executive Director Mindy Lohff teamed up with SAM25 leader Kendra Brusewitz and the Shawano Area United Way to educate the community about housing issues and to brainstorm solutions.
(Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
The loss of Newcap comes at a time when national funding for Continuum of Care programs is already uncertain.
President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 fiscal year budget would eliminate the Continuum of Care program, reducing all homeless assistance funding by $400 million.
Meanwhile, the 2026 budget will require the Wisconsin Balance of State to compete with Continuum of Care programs nationwide for a greater portion of funding based on the Trump administration’s priorities.
An estimated 1,287 people could lose their housing in Wisconsin, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The Balance of State is acting as a temporary lead for the Northeast and NWISH coalitions, ensuring the “point-in-time” homeless count happens – an essential step to securing federal funding – and filling vacant board positions.
Balance of State homeless systems manager Ryan Graham said they’re essentially starting from square one, and they won’t be able to replace Newcap easily.
“Now, it’s about, ‘How do we rebuild some kind of homeless response in that area?’
because the agency that pretty much did all of that and provided the capacity to do it is no longer there,” Graham said.
“They were the coalition lead, they were the point-in-time lead, they were the state funding lead.”
Graham has been impressed by organizations like Safe Haven and SAM25 stepping up, but finding an organization qualified to take on Newcap’s responsibilities is still hard.
“It’s going to be a long, slow road, “ Graham said.
“Hopefully, it won’t be too slow, but we’re really starting from scratch in a lot of areas, especially in the Northeast and NWISH Coalition, as far as building a homeless response system.”
Federal grants transferred to Brown County nonprofits
Even in Brown County, where organizations do exist to take on Newcap’s clients, it’s still not that simple.
When Newcap closed, the 134 households that depended on federally funded programs were immediately put at risk of homelessness.
Public officials advocated to get four federal grants transferred to local organizations and waited nearly a month after Newcap’s closure to receive confirmation from the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
House of Hope in Green Bay will take on three of the four grants, but Director of Community Engagement Beth Hudak said it’s collaborating with multiple Brown County agencies to manage cases for Newcap’s former clients.
“One of the biggest lessons we learned … is that when one agency holds all of the funding – does all of the work – when something happens, our community is devastated by it,” Hudak said.
“What we really want to make sure we’re emphasizing in the future is having many, many more organizations involved in all of this work.”
A truck pulls out of a Wolf River access point in Shawano, Wis., on June 19, 2026.
Since Newcap closed, Shawano County residents no longer have a year-round homeless shelter.
(Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
House of Hope’s primary mission is to serve homeless youth — not to provide permanent housing for adults, which some of the grants stipulate.
But according to Hudak, HUD said House of Hope was the only agency qualified to take on the grants.
“I don’t think we really had an option … HUD said that it was either us or the contracts would go to other parts of the state,” Hudak said.
House of Hope will personally take over a $440,000 grant for youth rapid rehousing in Brown County.
Through working with other agencies, it hopes to find subrecipients for a $1.1 million permanent supportive housing grant for individuals in Brown County.
The third grant was specifically designated for supportive housing in rural northeast Wisconsin.
Hudak said House of Hope is working closely with the Balance of State’s Northeast and NWISH coalitions even though they have yet to receive access to the grant funds.
Foundations Health & Wholeness , also based in Green Bay and primarily serving youth, will take on the fourth direct federal grant from Newcap, which provides nearly $300,000 for a youth mobile outreach program.
Jackie Baumgart, director of Foundations Youth Services, said the grant fits into the work they’re already doing: engaging with homeless youth where they’re at since their access to transportation is often limited.
“Why we were approached for this is because we do community-based services, and we don’t have specific offices where everybody works,” Baumgart said.
“So our staff are out in the community … Our hope is to have a counselor go out and do a mental health check-in with young people that wouldn’t otherwise be able to access these services.”
The organization will also take over Coordinated Entry for the NWISH and Northeast coalitions, filling another gap left by Newcap.
Baumgart said her nonprofit plans to operate with more transparency and collaboration with other organizations.
“My vision for what to do versus what has been done is to change it up a little bit and make it a more publicly known list for housing … I really want to make sure that we are teaching other organizations how to use it, when to use it, how to take people off of it, when to put people on, so that it’s not us doing all the work,” she said.
A bedroom sits empty during the day at Safe Haven on June 19, 2026.
The emergency shelter has fielded more calls for service since Newcap closed.
“Unfortunately, if they aren’t actively fleeing domestic violence or sexual violence, they’re not eligible (to) stay here, and there’s nowhere for them to go in Shawano County,” Executive Director Mindy Lohff said.
(Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
In Green Bay, Newcap’s closure has made way for a unique new homeless shelter that takes in people who have been banned from other shelters in Brown County.
Although controversial, Safe Haven Hope Center received a permit in May to use one of Newcap’s former buildings to shelter 19 individuals.
Safe Haven technically rents the property from Newcap, which means Executive Director Cathi Oreto isn’t sure if it will be able to keep the property as Newcap liquidates its assets.
But for now, she’s moving forward with a harm-reduction approach, offering a community-centered shelter with an extremely forgiving policy.
“We know that we’re going to have to ask people to leave, but when we ask them to leave, we’re going to ask them — and we have asked them — to leave for today and come back tomorrow,” Oreto said.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the first time, 10th time, or one millionth time, our exit strategy is the same.”
Meanwhile, a Brown County coalition is making sure the point-in-time count still happens on the night of July 22.
Although Newcap led the point-in-time count for the past five years, Hudak said some Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition members have participated for decades.
“I think we have it pretty well handled,” Hudak said.
“One of the biggest issues that we’re coming across is just sort of a lack of data transfer, so some of the more in-depth information that Newcap had, we don’t necessarily have access to because of how quickly they closed.”
In the future, Hudak said they’ll make sure the entire coalition has access to PIT documentation, instead of just one organization.
It’s part of a broader effort to build interdependence between local anti-poverty nonprofits to minimize the impact of one closing.
That network includes community members, too.
Hudak said volunteers are always needed, and anyone who cares about homelessness can provide a fresh perspective.
The NWISH and Northeast coalitions are also looking for members.
“All of our coalitions are always looking for more people to be in and support the work, and you don’t have to be a service provider to do that … Having outside perspectives is hugely, hugely important for making sure that we’re doing the best work that we can for the people that we serve,” she said.
Northeast & NWISH Coalitions: Contact Abby Ries at abby.ries@wibos.org .
Brown County Homeless & Housing Coalition: Register to volunteer at the point-in-time count at bchhcwi.org or join its monthly meetings.
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‘There’s nowhere for them to go’: Newcap closure leaves northeast Wisconsin counties scrambling to prevent more homelessness is a post from Wisconsin Watch , a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009.
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