(Editor’s note: Oct. 10 is World Homeless Day, and multiple news entities across the state — including NEW Media — are shining a light by looking at Wisconsin’s homeless situation, featuring those who have experienced homelessness and those who are trying to combat the epidemic. This article will also be featured in other newspapers throughout Wisconsin.)
Many homeless people try to avoid the gaze of the public, just as many in the public would prefer not to look upon folks who find themselves without a place to live, without a roof over their head.
Not Matthew Klein, though.
The Shawano man has been down a dark path in recent years after running afoul of the law and then, after paying his debt to society, finding himself out on the street and no one in his life to help him out. Like many in the Shawano area residents who find themselves bereft of resources, Klein found his way to Shawano Area Matthew 25 — a Christian organization that operates an emergency shelter, free clinic, thrift store and resource center on East Richmond Street for those in need.
For 10 months, Klein did not have a place to live due to his criminal record, but that has since changed. However, Klein hopes to help others who have been in a situation like his and help them return to a sense of normalcy.
He does so by volunteering with SAM25, as well as constantly approaching the Shawano Common Council with ideas on how the city can help the homeless. Most recently, he suggested that the city could set up a tiny homes village similar to one in Oshkosh to provide shelter when SAM25 can’t and help the people as they seek better ways to live.
Finding himself in trouble
Klein said things became difficult for him about seven years ago. In a short amount of time, his grandfather died, his parents divorced and his girlfriend left him.
Unable to handle the stress, Klein turned to drugs. He said it started from abuse of prescription medications but then he turned to harder drugs like heroin and methamphetamine.
“The last house I was living, it got raided by the police because I had meth in there, and I had marijuana,” Klein said. “I lost my house, and I had a mortgage on it, so I lost that, too.”
As a result of the drug bust, Klein was sentenced to spend a year in the Kettle Moraine Correctional Institute in Glenbeulah. He was released from prison about 10 months ago.
“They had someone come from (the Wisconsin Department of) Corrections, and they brought me to Shawano,” Klein said. “They just basically dropped me off in town. When you’re in prison, you get a case worker, but the case worker didn’t have any knowledge of where I could go or someplace I could stay.”
Most others released from prison usually have friends or family members to stay with. However, Klein’s family wants nothing to do with him after he stole from them to help fund his drug habit.
“When I was addicted to meth, I didn’t care about who I took advantage of,” Klein said. “It was about my next fix, getting high.”
Finding the way to SAM25
When Klein found himself on the streets, he turned to the Shawano Police Department, the same agency that busted him and had him sent to prison. Officials there told him about SAM25 and the emergency shelter SAM’s House that it operates. He recalled going there and being greeted by Chris Ciucci, the shelter manager.
“Most of my life, I’ve been around toxic people,” Klein said. “Chris was my first positive peer I ever ran into.”
Ciucci did a background check on Klein, as the shelter does not take in violent criminal offenders or registered sex offenders. The check showed he had a criminal record but did not involve any violent charges such as assault or attempted homicide, so Klein got in.
Klein said Ciucci told him that many homeless people hang out at the Shawano County Library, where there are resources for people to find jobs. It was also a place to connect with other people who were in the same situation as he was.
“That was the first time I’d gone to the library in the 13 years I’d been here,” Klein said.
For a time, Klein’s situation was spending nights at SAM’s House and spending days at the library. On Sundays, when the library wasn’t open, he went to First Presbyterian Church for its Sunday fun days, he said.
Although Klein was seeking work, employers wouldn’t give him a chance, he said. His criminal record was one factor. The other was that he was in a homeless shelter.
Then the end of April came, which meant the shelter was closing for the season. When SAM25 was founded in 2012, it was to address the issue of homelessness, particularly in light of some deaths due to exposure to Wisconsin winters. That prompted the establishment of an emergency shelter in 2015, and since then, the shelter has operated from Nov. 1 through April 30.
That meant Klein had to find another place to live.
Finding a way off the streets
When May came around, Klein was provided a tent, which meant he had to find a place to rest each night. He said many of the places were in wooded areas in the Shawano Industrial Park, behind Walmart and behind the Shawano office for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
“That was really challenging, because I was used to relying on the library and SAM25,” Klein said.
He could still utilize SAM25 for other things, as the resource center operates year-round. He could get a shower, occasionally get a bite to eat and work with Ciucci to look for housing and employment.
Klein applied for and received Social Security disability payments to provide some source of income, so he applied to the various apartment complexes around Shawano. Once again, his criminal record was a hindrance, but this time, it was partnered with his lack of a job.
Klein knew the untenable situation needed to be remedied, so he decided shortly after leaving SAM25 to approach the Shawano Common Council about it in May. He spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting, which doesn’t allow for council members to engage in a dialogue at the time. By the time the meeting ended, aldermen were asking for the situation to be looked into and for the conversation to continue.
Every month since then, Klein has continued to attend the council meetings and, in the three minutes allotted, make suggestions on how the city can help the situation. At the August council meeting, he recommended the city look at what Oshkosh has done with its tiny homes village and see if that could be a good fit for Shawano.
“I went from being homeless to advocating for the homeless,” Klein said.
Finding help for those in need
Klein’s situation is one of many that can cause people to become homeless. Ciucci, the shelter manager, and Kendra Brusewitz, SAM25 executive director, noted that some people who are homeless are gainfully employed, but the job does not pay enough to cover food, rent, utilities and other necessities.
“It could be mental health, addiction, not enough affordable housing, loss of a job,” Brusewitz said.
Ciucci added that affordable housing is the biggest problem when it comes to providing security and peace of mind for people. She said many people in the community are living paycheck to paycheck, and one emergency or tragedy is all it would take for those people to find themselves on the streets like Klein.
“You see it all the time,” Ciucci said. “Somebody has a job. They’re going to work; they’re living paycheck to paycheck. The car breaks, and they’ve got to decide: ‘Do I fix the car, or do I pay the rent?’ They have to fix the car in order to get to work, so they get behind on rent, and they get evicted.”
Several families with children in the county are currently living out of their vehicles, Ciucci noted.
One segment of the population Ciucci is seeing grow in terms of homelessness is the elderly.
“This dispels the thinking that everyone is an addict or this or that because they’re homeless,” she said. “What’s happening with the elderly is they’re on a fixed income, landlords are coming in and raising rents, and a lot of them are taking care of their grandchildren, too. A lot of them have lost a spouse, so they’ve gone from a two SSI (Supplemental Security Income) income to a one SSI income.”
Officials with SAM25 would like to provide shelter year-round, but that would require much more commitment from the community and supporters of the shelter, according to Ciucci and Brusewitz. Brusewitz said that fundraisers and community donations make up the organization’s existing budget.
“Just very primary numbers that we crunched based on budget and staffing, supplies and electricity and all that, just for the six months it would be another $120,000,” Brusewitz said.
“That’s just basic emergency care,” Ciucci added. “That’s not taking it to any other level.”
The shelter moved into its current location at 105 E. Richmond St. in 2020 after outgrowing a former city building on East Green Bay Street, but it appears to already be outgrowing the facility after five years. The current SAM’s House has 21 beds, but Ciucci said in early September that SAM25 has counted at least 38 homeless people in the city limits.
“This facility alone can’t even take care of the numbers that are out there,” Ciucci said.
SAM25 has made one step to help the situation. The shelter will be opening this season Oct. 15 and will remain open until May 15.
Brusewitz said SAM25 is lucky to have a community that steps up to lend a helping hand, but she feels more people will be required to facilitate any measurable change.
“We need a few more key players,” Brusewitz said. “We’ll never be able to eliminate homelessness, but no organization can tackle it alone. The thing is that we need to come together, work together by coming in and volunteering and finding out what SAM25 is about.”
Finding the homelessness solution
The city of Shawano has continued to hear about the local homeless situation, including an offer from Newcap, Inc., which helps with a homeless prevention program, among other things in the community. The Shawano facility is offering to allow homeless to camp in its wooded area and has proposed bringing portable showers twice a week for homeless people to bathe and clean up.
As far as permanent solutions, that could be harder to resolve. City Administrator Eddie Sheppard is working on developing a task force to bring forth ideas and ways to help those in the community without a permanent place to live. He’s hopeful that Newcap, SAM25 and Shawano County can be among the representatives that come forward to continue the dialogue.
“I’ve been aware of it,” Sheppard said about homelessness in Shawano. “I was here when the conversations about SAM25 first came up. I think they showed people a lot of things that they weren’t aware of. Obviously, it’s sad. You feel for those people.”
Homelessness has many variables that make it a complicated issue, Sheppard said. One of those is that municipalities like Shawano don’t have the budget for social service workers to help with this and other societal issues.
“What we can be is a facilitator,” Sheppard said. “That’s our strength — bringing people together. We are not necessarily equipped to handle these issues on our own. There are really good organizations in the community.”
Even with those organizations, resources are limited, Sheppard noted, which is why coming together is a solution in itself. Despite the groups dealing with homeless issue, the question remains: What can be done during the summer months?
“My fear is that if we don’t do this, SAM25’s opening is just around the corner, and the next time we’ll talk about this is next year,” Sheppard said. “It’s important not to lose those conversations and continue those conversations over the winter.”
Finding a home and hope for future
Klein finally caught a break in August when a landlord with a home on Picnic Street was willing to look beyond his past and offer him the place to live. He currently lives there with two roommates who were previously homeless like him as he works on his next moves.
“(The landlord) described to me that he’s basically looking for people to help out, homeless people or disabled people,” Klein said. “He said if I wasn’t either one of those, he really didn’t want me staying there, because he’s trying to help people who are in need.”
Klein is still seeking employment and hopes the fact that he has a home now will tip the scales in his favor. The job is necessary as more than half of his disability check goes to rent. Also, he is currently without a motor vehicle, instead riding a bicycle to get where he needs to go in town.
“I’ve got Social Security disability, but that’s only $1,100 a month,” Klein said. “Rent alone for me is $600 a month, so after you buy groceries and pay your phone bill, it’s like you’re broke every month. You don’t have any money leftover.”
Klein’s outlook has changed in recent years. He spent most of his life as an atheist, but he found God in prison, and one of his personal projects has been going to the various churches around Shawano to see which one he can call his own. He said he’s been attending Bible studies and hopes to be rebaptized.
Klein has been drug free for two years, and he said he intends to stay that way.
“Reform started for me in prison, and it woke me up,” he said. “I started associating drugs with prison. I see a drug or something, and I think of prison.”
Grateful for all that’s been done, Klein volunteers with SAM25 two to three days a week and continues his efforts advocating for the shelter and the homeless people that it helps. He plans to continue speaking to the council and other entities about homeless issues, noting he recently spoke to representatives with the Shawano Area Food Pantry and Resource Center about providing meals that don’t have to be cooked for those who are living outside.
“Kendra at the homeless shelter, every week I’ve got a new proposal for her,” Klein said. “The reason I turned into an advocate is because I appreciate everything they did for me. Everybody else failed me — my family and my friends. SAM25 was there for me.”
AT A GLANCE
WHAT: Jesus March for World Homeless Day
WHEN: 10 a.m. Oct. 10
WHERE: Starts at Memorial Park, 901 S. Lincoln St., Shawano. Continues along Main Street and turns onto Green Bay Street, stopping near IHOP.
FYI: Participants are invited to bring a cross, whether it's a necklace or a life-sized cross, as a symbol of hope and love. Participants do not have to walk the entire route and are welcome to just walk segments of the route.
