When Wendy Weckler came to Milwaukee, she came for an education.
She stayed to make changes.
After spending 26 years at Hope House, a nonprofit emergency homeless shelter and rapid rehousing facility, Weckler is now the Continuum of Care director for United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County.
Continuum of Care is a coalition of local agencies, housing providers and government entities that coordinates resources to help prevent and end homelessness.
United Way is a nonprofit organization that mobilizes local donors, volunteers and corporate partners to address systemic problems like poverty, homelessness and educational inequality across Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties.
Weckler’s new role encompasses systemwide improvements for homelessness in Milwaukee.
“In layman’s terms, (Housing and Urban Development) awards x amount of dollars to communities throughout the nation. So Milwaukee gets maybe $15 million,” said Nancy Esteves, homeless management information system manager at the Institute for Community Alliances. “Wendy’s role is to make sure that agencies that are funded are collaborating, working together and working towards the success of the client, whether that be permanent housing or transitional housing.”
Landing in Milwaukee
Weckler came to Milwaukee to attend Marquette University. She said she didn’t expect to spend the next three decades helping shape the city’s response to homelessness. But Milwaukee quickly felt like home.
“I grew up in a really small town in upstate New York,” Weckler said. “Milwaukee just felt right. It’s a city that’s not too big. You can know people and you can really make real change happen, but it’s not so small you’re tripping over everyone.”
After graduating from Marquette with degrees in broadcasting and political science, she worked briefly on political campaigns before deciding she wanted “to do whatever the opposite of that was.” She answered an ad for a neighborhood outreach organizer at Hope House and never looked back.
Weckler said she was motivated by a desire to understand how systems could work better for people. In her outreach role, she spent time in residents’ homes, listening to their experiences and needs.
“My brain works like, how do you make all of this work better,” she said. “That gave me a chance to really try to implement things that could help people make their lives better.”
Hope House
Over the years, she held nearly every position at Hope House.
Overseeing education programs, supervising case managers and eventually serving as executive director. Through it all, her commitment to housing stability remained constant.
“Housing should be a right for people,” she said. “I don’t think any mother should have to think about where their kid is going to lay their head at night.”
Weckler said the work can be emotionally difficult. Watching families struggle, return to homelessness or experience personal tragedy never gets easier. Yet, she remains inspired by the people around her.
“There’s people that really care about this work, care about the people they’re working with and want to make people’s lives better,” she said. “That’s amazing.”
In her new role, Weckler is excited to focus on the broader system rather than a single organization. She recently convened partners to establish goals that include preventing first-time homelessness, reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness and strengthening staff training across agencies.
“Within the housing system everybody knows Wendy and everybody’s super excited that she’s the new director of the Continuum of Care at United Way,” said Steve Bauer, CEO of Guest House of Milwaukee, a nonprofit shelter and service provider. “There’s not anybody else in the system that could have stepped into that role with the same sort of knowledge and sort of leadership skills as Wendy.”
Bauer said when he started his role at Guest House, Weckler was instrumental in helping him get settled.
“I came to Guest House as CEO three years ago. It was my first foray into housing, and I met Wendy,” he said. “But was quickly impressed by her thoughtfulness, her system focus, and she was tremendous at helping me navigate my onboarding here at Guest House.”
Outside the office
Outside work, Weckler is the mother of two children, ages 15 and 11, who keep her busy and grounded. She enjoys hiking and biking, often on the Oak Leaf Trail near her home.
“Wendy is a fantastic mom,” Esteves said. “She’s a kind, gentle soul. And so to know her is to love her, but she is so fun and humble”
Esteves said Weckler is a leader from within.
“You wouldn’t know that she’s a (Continuum of Care) director because she doesn’t consider herself one of those individuals that is like, it gets to their head type of ego person,” she said. “She’s the type of person that you will think, oh, she’s just one of us. She works with us. She’s coordinating with us. She’s a great leader and I feel like we just don’t sing her praises enough.”
Weckler’s children also influence how she thinks about her work and the future.
“You want to leave the world better for them,” she said. “But also help them understand that even if it’s not their world, it’s someone’s world.”
For Weckler, success remains straightforward, even if the path is not.
“100 percent success would be there’s not homeless people,” she said. “I don’t know that we’ll get there in my lifetime, but I hope we do.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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