With the closure of a homeless shelter in Kenosha just days away, a task force started to make plans on just how to go about helping the population that’ll soon be turned away by First Step, a low-barrier shelter on 63rd St. that over the past 14 years has accepted almost anyone, even if they’ve been drinking or using drugs.
First Step’s leaders decided to close their doors rather than fight attempts by the city to pull its license to operate.
The task force is an arm of CUSH---an acronym for Congregations United to Serve Humanity.
Meeting at First United Methodist Church Monday, about two dozen task force members discussed who else to invite into the process. A meeting with the mayor is high on the list, even though he’s said in the past that homelessness should be mostly a county concern.
Task force chair Florence Hammelev said the panel is working on both short term and long term solutions, a job made much more difficult by the city’s refusal to re-license First Step for at least another year in order to give the group time to identify solutions. "Our goal always was to just extend the license until we could get something in place," said Hammelev. "That did not happen."
First Step will lose its license this weekend.
Some task force members said Monday that any replacement shelter needs to be run by professionals with strategies in place to deal with the mental health needs of clients and any substance abuse issues they may have.
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