County accepts grants for shelter, Lasata upgrades

The Ozaukee County Board accepted roughly $2.8 million in grants last week that will go toward building an emergency homeless shelter and make renovations to the Lasata Senior Living Center July 7.

The first $1,013,784 Community Development Block Grant for building improvements at Lasata Senior Living Center in Cedarburg was the result of an application the county Health and Human Services Board submitted on Jan. 6.

The grant also included $108,000 that will be spent on ADA improvements at both Hawthorne Hills Golf Course and HH Peters Youth Camp.

Funds for the Lasata improvements became available to the county after Ozaukee County’s revolving loan program closed, which for years had been used to help businesses start or expand.

The federal government decided to get out of the program in 2019, leading to the state giving counties and municipalities the option of continuing the program on their own or cashing out on contributed funds.

During a June 22 meeting where the Health and Human Services Board recommended the Board of Supervisors accept the funding, administrator Jason Dzwinel said the grant would go toward projects like renovating apartment units in the senior living center, making energy improvements like installing LED lighting, installing a new boiler and replacing the facility’s thermostat controller.

Dzwinel said the county has already begun working on some projects and is ready to implement the grant funds.

“We have been actively working on all of the projects that we’ve identified so we are ready to hit the ground running,” he said.

The second grant the county was awarded, totaling $1,785,000, was also a CDBG the county applied for on Feb. 3.

The award was greater than the county originally expected when applying for the grant.

“We initially applied for a $1.3 million grant and were ultimately awarded $1.785 to implement an emergency homeless shelter with Family Promise,” Dzwinel said.

The funds will be used to acquire property at 1505 Sunset Road in Port Washington for no more than $430,000 and build an emergency homeless shelter there.

Family Promise of Ozaukee County, a shelter and resource center for homeless in the county, will be partnering with the county as a subgrantee on the project.

The county will form a subgrantee agreement with Family Promisee that will place the nonprofit in charge of acquiring the property, staff the new shelter, report and monitor performance of the facility, insure the shelter, and operate the facility as a homeless shelter for 15 years following the initial seven year grant period.

Dzwinel said while it is unlikely if Family Promise were to go out of business, the county would assume some obligations for operating the facility.

“There is some inherent risk here. Should Family Promise close its doors, the county would be obligated to operate the facility in some capacity for a period of seven years,” he said.

Because Family Promise has provided services to county residents for some time and it has expended approximately $15,000 per month to house homeless individuals, the risk is viewed as minimal.

The current operational budget is estimated to be $325,000 and a limited operation budget would total approximately $92,000.