Employment Grants Program

​​​​​​The 2017-2019 Wisconsin State Budget (2017 Wisconsin Act 59) created the Employment Grants Program.  Under the program, a municipality will use grant funds to connect homeless individuals with permanent employment. Preference for funding will go towards municipalities that partner with a nonprofit organization to provide additional employment and support services to homeless individuals participating in the program and will use the funding to pay the wages of the program participants.  

Eligibility:

The program is competitive. Under the program, DEHCR will likely award one grant per year. Awards are annual grants of up to $75,000. Grantees are required to provide at least $10,000 in matching funds and receive preference for funding if they partner with a non-profit organization to provide additional employment and support services to homeless individuals participating in the program. Grantees are strongly encouraged to apply for $75,000 in funding.​

The program limits eligible recipients to municipalities; "municipalities" are defined as a county, city, village or town. Recipients do not need to be existing Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) subscribers; however, program funds may be used to pay for HMIS-related costs. Priority for funding will be provided to municipalities that utilize grant and matching funds to pay the wages of homeless individuals participating in the Employment Grants program. Grantees must include in their application a description and examples of the services they would provide under the grant.

Application:

A link to the full application, which includes information on target recipients, reporting, and invoicing may be found here​​​.  

Notice:

2021 grant application due date is extended to December 10, 2021.

​The founding legislation is statute chapter 16.313​.