UMOS will continue providing food, housing and health services for low-income residents in Milwaukee County through June 30, 2027.
This is the result of a contract extension that the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families says is aimed at preventing gaps in care while a permanent community action agency is found.
Last November, the state contracted the South Side-based nonprofit to be an interim provider of anti-poverty services with the remainder of federal block grant funding originally allocated to the Social Development Commission.
SDC served as Milwaukee County’s community action agency for over 60 years, helping residents file their income taxes, get job training and more before it reported financial problems in 2024 and stopped offering services.
The Department of Children and Families removed SDC’s community action agency designation in November 2025, which was upheld by a federal office. This ended SDC’s eligibility to receive funding through the federal Community Services Block Grant, a reimbursement-based grant that can be used to leverage funding for anti-poverty services.
UMOS had until Sept. 30, 2026, to use $2.1 million in 2025 Community Services Block Grant funding, which the organization put toward food, rental and mortgage assistance and health services for low-income residents in its Community Pathways Program.
Going forward, UMOS can utilize $1.4 million, the remainder of available funding for the service region from federal fiscal year 2026, according to the contract.
The department had already awarded an additional $729,000 to the nonprofit’s contract in May because UMOS was serving more individuals than initially projected, according to a department spokesperson.
Services outlook
Marjorie Rivera-Torres, vice president of social services for UMOS, said the nonprofit’s finance department in October was still closing out the original grant period and confirming how much funding it used for Community Pathways Program services.
Rivera-Torres said it used $1.38 million for the housing assistance part of the program where residents could apply for up to $1,800 in rental, mortgage or property tax assistance.
From January through September, UMOS reports that it served 899 individuals with housing assistance, exceeding the original goal of 325 households by 574 households, and completed 492 behavioral health referrals and 513 physical health referrals, according to Rivera-Torres.
At the UMOS food pantry and partner locations, the program distributed a cumulative total of 1,068,862 pounds of food, which served 9,133 households, according to Rivera-Torres.
Community members can contact UMOS to apply to the Community Pathways Program. However, UMOS is pausing the housing assistance program for October while it updates the requirements for winter and will reopen it on Nov. 1, Rivera-Torres said.
“For us, it’s really important to be able to support families when the weather is not the best,” she said.
UMOS will continue to work with Silver Spring Neighborhood Center, Northcott Neighborhood House, Wellpoint Care Network, Outreach Community Health Centers and the Medical College of Wisconsin as partner agencies, and it is finalizing new partners, Rivera-Torres said.
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