Two Wisconsin shelters that once housed homeless military veterans have sat empty for nearly a year, and the political fight over reopening them still has not ended.
Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls and a leased facility in Green Bay closed their doors on 30 September 2025 after Governor Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature failed to agree on an extra £1.39 million ($1.9 million) needed to keep both running.
Evers blamed lawmakers on the Legislature's budget committee for stripping the money from the state's 2025-27 budget. Republicans countered that the funds were already available and that the governor chose not to spend them.
A Budget Impasse Closes Klein Hall and Green Bay
Klein Hall opened in 2007 on the grounds of the Northern Wisconsin Center, named for Bill Klein, who founded Wisconsin's homeless veteran shelter programme before he died in 2003.
The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program offered residents transitional housing, job training, healthcare coordination and substance-abuse counselling, with stays typically lasting six to ten months.
The programme drew funding mainly from federal per diem payments and the state's veterans trust fund. Residents could also be charged rent, capped at 30 percent of their income.
The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected the programme would run a roughly £2.2 million ($3 million) deficit through 2027, and Evers had requested an additional £1.39 million ($1.9 million) to close the gap.
When Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee stripped that request from the budget, only Senator André Jacque of New Franken crossed party lines to support restoring it.
By the time the facilities closed, most of Klein Hall's roughly twenty remaining residents had moved to the state's other veterans home in Union Grove, more than four hours away, or into housing programmes in Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis and other cities.
'We are here, fighting for veterans,' Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said at a press conference, adding that Democrats had been ready to vote for the funding in committee and again on the floor.
She also said the closures cost the state 41 shelter beds heading into that winter. Republican Senator Eric Wimberger disputed the framing directly, saying the closures were the governor's decision alone, not the Legislature's.
Democrats and Republicans Trade Blame Through the Winter
The dispute grew increasingly partisan even as a local, bipartisan fix briefly emerged.
In August 2025, Chippewa Valley Democrats Senator Jeff Smith and Representative Jodi Emerson introduced companion bills to direct £1.39 million ($1.9 million) toward the two facilities, drawing support from area Republicans Jesse James and Clint Moses, but neither bill received a floor vote before the funding lapsed.
Separately, an analysis circulated by national Democrats noted that U.S. Representative Derrick Van Orden, whose district includes Chippewa Falls, had not included Klein Hall among his federal earmark requests for the year.
Hesselbein said the closures were simply the outcome of a documented timeline of Republican votes, not partisan finger-pointing.
Wimberger maintained the opposite, saying lawmakers had appropriated sufficient funding and accusing Evers of holding back federal pandemic relief that could have covered the shortfall on its own.
New Money Flows to Different Shelters as Klein Hall Stays Dark
In February 2026, Wimberger and Representative Benjamin Franklin authored legislation redirecting the same £1.39 million ($1.9 million) into a new grant programme paying nonprofits £18.32 ($25) per veteran housed each day.
'We increased VHRP funding by 15 percent in the budget,' Wimberger said in a statement announcing the bill, obtained from the Wisconsin State Legislature.
The money went to four organisations in southeast Wisconsin: Porchlight in Madison, Rock Valley Community Programs in Janesville, the Center for Veterans Issues in Milwaukee and Guest House of Milwaukee, none of which operate the shuttered Chippewa Falls or Green Bay sites.
Senators Jamie Wall and Jeff Smith proposed a floor amendment specifically to reopen the two closed facilities, but it failed along party lines. 'Republicans once again turned their backs on homeless veterans,' Wall said afterward.
Evers signed the new grant bill in April 2026 regardless, leaving Klein Hall and the Green Bay site empty. Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs official Joey Hoey said reopening Green Bay could happen relatively quickly if a funding bill passed and its landlord had not re-let the building, but Chippewa Falls would need a fresh federal grant application, with money unavailable before 1 October 2026 at the earliest.
Nearly a year after the doors closed, no funding has been approved to reopen either shelter, leaving Wisconsin's homeless veterans one grant cycle away from beds that used to be theirs.
