In 2025, about 2.2% of Fond du Lac County’s population lived in subsidized housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
That’s north of the state average of 1.9%, which by itself should illustrate the importance of the work Holy Family Warming Shelter is doing at 73 E. 1st St. in Fond du Lac.
There’s another key number: 40. That’s roughly how many people the shelter serves each month during its Nov. 1 through April 30 season — many of them patients recently discharged from SSM Health hospitals in Fond du Lac, Ripon and Waupun with nowhere to go.
Then there’s seven — the total shelter staff, five of whom are seasonal.
That’s why Agnesian HealthCare Foundation’s recent $50,000 gift will go a long way to support shelter operations for people in need, but it will cover more than that. For example, according to Erin Cobb, Holy Family Catholic Community director of human concerns, some of those funds will go toward roof repair.
The bottom line, though, is that the needs of housing‑insecure people in Fond du Lac County will be met over the shelter’s upcoming fourth season. But what circumstances make a person housing insecure?
Turns out, there are many.
“Lack of housing, low income or unemployment; sometimes it’s unexpected financial emergencies,” Cobb offers as common examples. “It could be disabilities or chronic health conditions. Mental illness problems that haven’t been addressed. Sometimes it’s a domestic violence situation and now they are in this place. How do they move forward?”
Those are all less‑than‑desirable positions to be in, and homelessness is something Laura Nakielski has seen firsthand. On the night of July 22, for example, the SSM Health community health manager participated in her sixth Point‑in‑Time Count, a twice‑annual HUD‑required homeless census.
“You learn something new every time,” Nakielski says. “You see a lot of people sleeping in cars and you can have a preconceived notion of what an unhoused person would look like, but someone who sleeps in their car overnight feels so vulnerable.”
That’s why it’s good news that Nakielski and Cobb are on the phone virtually every other day to marshal the combined resources of SSM Health, including the SSM Health Samaritan Clinic within St. Agnes Hospital at 430 E. Division St. in Fond du Lac, and the Holy Family Warming Shelter.
At its heart, the process of getting a housing‑insecure person from a hospital bed to the shelter isn’t difficult. That bed could be at St. Agnes Hospital, Waupun Memorial Hospital or Ripon Community Hospital.
“If they are inpatient at St. Agnes Hospital, they would hopefully bring up their concern to their care team,” says Mason Gravelle, Agnesian HealthCare Foundation philanthropy director. “They would be referred to Samaritan Clinic and then would have its whole bag of resources.”
That includes travel from Waupun or Ripon to Fond du Lac if necessary, Cobb adds.
Once at Holy Family Warming Shelter, patients are provided three meals a day, she says. In the morning, a continental‑style breakfast is served and they depart the shelter with a bag lunch and a bottle of water. A warm meal is served in the evening, typically by a nonprofit group or local family.
Employment is another important sidelight of the shelter’s work, Cobb says.
“If we hear of places that are hiring, we will let them know,” she says, adding the Wisconsin nonprofit Forward Services Corporation can help provide employment, training and other services.
“A lot of people work,” Cobb says. “They just can’t make enough to maintain an apartment for themselves. Few have full‑time employment but some work at grocery stores, retail, a lot of them work in our fast‑food industry.”
Transitioning people to permanent housing post‑hospital stay is a major challenge, and it’s crucial that Cobb and her team look at each person as an individual and try to pair them with a landlord that can help.
“We try to find them a year‑round shelter that can help them work through a complex situation,” she says.
Gravelle points out that you can’t do the work the Holy Family Warming Shelter does without brick and mortar, which includes that problematic roof. Cobb says that at the conclusion of last season, there was a bad storm, which revealed that the roof was slowly decomposing.
It’s going to cost about $80,000 for a new roof, she says, and some of that $50,000 from Agnesian HealthCare Foundation’s gift will go toward that end, with the rest dedicated to daily operations — operations that are making a big difference in Fond du Lac County, Gravelle says.
“Every time I leave there, I’m more and more impressed with what they offer and how they stood up to fill that void in the community,” he says.
Holy Family Warming Shelter
Phone lines open 7 a.m.‑ 5 p.m. at 920‑921‑0580 ext. 301
or from 5 p.m.‑7 a.m. at 920‑952‑9366
hffdl.org/warming‑shelter
