BizTimes: Pathfinders has served Milwaukee’s youth for more than 50 years. Tell us about that work.
Tim Baack: “Pathfinders provides housing, basic needs resources and intensive case management to young people, ages 11 to 25, who experience homelessness, sexual exploitation and crisis. Annually, about 1,000 young people access our intensive services and 5,000 engage with our street outreach team. We prioritize an invisible population who are experiencing deep and complex trauma. Pathfinders offers innovative support, often starting with addressing their housing instability.”
BizTimes: Milwaukee County & United Way have prioritized ending chronic and family homelessness, respectively. How could ending youth homelessness complement these efforts?
Baack: “Everyone deserves a safe place to call home and Pathfinders is a proud partner in these existing efforts. Many adults experiencing homelessness first faced housing instability when they were children or young adults. If we can help young people gain stability now, it will significantly reduce their likelihood of future, of lifetime, homelessness. And it will have a positive effect for generations of families.”
BizTimes: What are the factors that lead to instability for the young people you serve?
Baack: “Black and Brown youth and/or those who identify as LGBTQ+ disproportionately experience homelessness. Young people aging out of foster care are also at enormously high risk, as are single-parenting youth and those living in poverty. Housing costs and secure employment are also huge barriers. It’s not coincidental that we see marginalized communities overwhelmingly represented in the homelessness system. Until we address the systemic issues that cause homelessness to move across generations, it will continue to exist.”
BizTimes: How does youth homelessness impact the broader community?
Baack: “When we prioritize the needs of young people experiencing homelessness, the whole community becomes stronger and safer. First, young adults will no longer experience the kind of homelessness that leads to a lifetime of instability, exploitation, violence, substance dependency and mental health crisis. Second, we will see cost savings in other systems when we reduce homelessness; Pathfinders services cost about $52 per day to house one young adult. Milwaukee’s Secure Detention Facility costs $216 per day per person and the Milwaukee Mental Health Complex costs $659 per day per person. When young people are housed, stable and independent, we decrease their need for lifelong housing resources.”
BizTimes: Where do you see your organization in 5 years?
Baack: “Pathfinders is in a strong financial position with an eye toward continued strategic growth in response to the demand for our services. In the next five years, we plan to provide stable housing to more young adults along with wraparound support to address their trauma, educational and employment goals. All of which will create a future for young adults who now have nowhere else to turn and give them a chance to make their way forward.”
4200 N. Holton St., Suite 400 • Milwaukee, WI 53212
(414) 964-2565 • PathfindersMKE.org
