GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – “The need is exceeding the availability we have.”
Brown County Housing Authority Executive Director Patrick Leifker said on Wednesday that the group would be pausing its applications for its Choice Housing Voucher program.
It leaves many in Brown County in a holding pattern until more funding becomes available.
“Once they’re on our program,” said Leifker, “The biggest element of it is the choice part of it, which is where they have their choice to secure housing, where they want to, and work with landlords in the open market, we come in and the part that we assist with a portion of their rent, to, to, as a subsidy for, for their living in that unit.”
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The housing authority uses the choice voucher program to help families get into a place to live.
Now, with a pause in the applications, it means that a tough decision had to be made.
“We don’t foresee opportunities to pull a lot of people off our waiting list currently. And then, yeah, with the federal funding,” said Leifker, “It just comes down to what HUD is going to appropriate for each housing authority, and or us that hasn’t been determined yet.”
HUD is the Housing and Urban Development Department within the US Government. It’s where the Brown County Housing authority get’s their funding for the program.
In 2025, they recieved $22 million, and they are expecting to know what this year’s budget will be in April.
For now, they have had to stretch the money to best fit the way they can help the community.
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“An important part of it is the direct assistance dollars. So the money that we’re paying directly to landlords on behalf of a tenant,” said Leifker, “That’s all coming directly to us through the federal government, through the Housing and Urban Development Department.”
More than 2,000 applications are currently for the program. Now, the housing authority is looking for a change to help them and the rest of Brown County find safe housing.
“Our funding matches the demand that we are seeing, right. I think that’s what every housing authority, throughout the state, would agree with and throughout the country would agree with as well, is that if we can get to addressing,” said Leifker, “Pulling off those individuals off our waiting list, that that’s the best case scenario, because we’re housing individuals who need assistance in our community.”
March 16th is the last day that applications can be turned in to the Brown County Housing Authority. There is no timetable for when the applications can be turned in.
