Data to Inform Action

Learn more about homelessness in Brown County and current efforts at state policy change that affect youth experiencing homelessness. Discover ways you can take action to support these efforts in our community.

Data and Reports on Homelessness in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Point in Time Count

This resource includes data on length of homelessness, total clients experiencing homelessness, clients exiting to positive destinations, new clients entering homelessness, and returns to homelessness by county.

Fact: On one day in January 2025, 252 people with children, and 22 unaccompanied youth were experiencing homelessness in Brown County.

Fact: In one year (from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024), 1,905 people experienced homelessness in Brown County.

Local Homelessness Data from the Blueprint

Fact: 1 in 4 people who experienced homelessness in Brown County in 2024 was a child under the age of 18.

Wisconsin Policy Forum - Student Homelessness Data

This document contains data from the state Department of Public Instruction related to students experiencing homelessness who are enrolled in Wisconsin public schools.

Fact: 20,195 students at public schools in Wisconsin experienced homelessness in 2024.

Wisconsin Interagency Council on Homelessness

2025 Annual Report

This report lists the efforts of the State of Wisconsin Interagency Council on Homelessness during the year 2025. The council makes the argument that the number one cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing, and provides examples of how they have taken action to prevent and end homelessness.

Statement from this report: "In 2026, the Interagency Council on Homelessness looks forward continuing to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable in Wisconsin by persevering in the face of threats to federal funding and inaction by the State Legislature to address the homelessness crisis despite numerous requests and proposals from Governor Evers."

Data and Reports on Youth Sex Trafficking in Wisconsin

Reports of Child Sex Trafficking Allegations and Substantiations to Child Protective Services (2023)

This report includes data and information on the allegations and demographics of the victims of youth sex trafficking in Wisconsin. It also includes a statement from The Division of Safety & Permanence (DSF) describing their efforts to address and reduce child sex trafficking in Wisconsin.

Fact: In 2021, there were 445 allegations of child sex trafficking across Wisconsin. 55.1% of those allegations involved a child between the ages of 14-17. This age group represented 64.1% of all sex trafficking allegations statewide that year.

Wisconsin Human Trafficking Statistics - National Human Trafficking Hotline

This resource includes documented data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) and cases they have identified in Wisconsin. They say that NHTH works closely with service providers, law enforcement, and other professionals in Wisconsin to serve victims and survivors of trafficking, respond to human trafficking cases, and share information and resources.

Fact: 111 cases of human trafficking were identified in Wisconsin in 2024. Of the 111 cases, at least 26 involved victims who were minors under the age of 18, equivalent to about 23% of all trafficking cases identified by NHTH in Wisconsin that year.

Who is Most Vulnerable to Child Sex Trafficking? - National Child Traumatic Stress Network

This document identifies some circumstances that a child may experience that makes them more vulnerable to becoming a victim of sex trafficking. It is important to note these factors so that we can be more aware of educating our youth of sex trafficking and ways to be safe in any situation.

Highlighted vulnerabilities: System-involved youth, youth experiencing homelessness or leaving placement without caregiver permission, LBGTQ+ youth, youth experiencing poverty and economic factors, youth of color, youth with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, and immigrant and refugee youth. These factors can all make a child more vulnerable to being trafficked.

Data and Reports Related to How Housing is Healthcare

Health and Education Impacts of Homeless and Housing Services in Brown County

This resource is an executive summary of data collected to determine how the services of Brown County participating housing and homeless service agencies have impacted health and education outcomes in the community. By understanding the impact that these agencies have, further advocacy efforts will be supported and future policies will be more informed.

Fact: 319 youth that received housing services showed a 76% reduction in their use of the Emergency Hospital visits in the years after they left the housing program.

Housing as a Social Determinant of Health - National Alliance on Mental Illness

This source speaks on the correlation of housing instability and unaffordability and

an individual's mental health. It says that safe, stable, and affordable housing

"supports recovery, and helps prevent hospitalizations and involvement in the

criminal justice system."

Fact: "Homelessness has a profoundly negative impact on mental health, and

children are especially susceptible to the psychological effects of homelessness

and housing instability."

Without Affordable, Accessible, and Adequate Housing, Health Has No Foundation - National Library of Medicine

This article examines the dimensons of housing unnaffordability, inaccessibility, and inadequacy as a major public health issue that has significant negative impacts on households, neighborhoods, and cities.

Fact: "Public health research has provided strong evidence on the connection between a neighborhood's social, economic, and physical environmental factors such as poverty, access to healthy food, and levels of crime to various mental and physical health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, heart disease, and stroke."