Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor, Times-Union:
Homelessness doesn’t begin at a shelter door; it starts with a missed paycheck or rent that rises faster than a family’s income. Wayne Township has the money to intervene long before someone ends up houseless — and year after year, it doesn’t.
According to the township’s 2024 financial reports, the township assistance fund opened with $777,862.43, spent $78,069.72, and ended with $700,242.71 still sitting in the account.
Over the last six years, the township’s assistance balance grew from $424,258.74 in 2018 to more than $700,000 in 2024, while the number of households helped fell. In 2019, the township reported $31,145 in direct assistance to 144 households. By 2023, that dropped to $19,900 for 46 households, even though the fund still held more than three-quarters of a million dollars.
Across this period, the township spent about $125,000 under its assistance category — only a fraction of which reached residents directly — while sending $140,000 from the assistance fund to Fellowship Missions. And like most shelters, it's at or near capacity. In practice, Wayne Township is paying more to respond to homelessness than to prevent it, while many residents are turned away from both systems.
Residents who ask for help are often told they may receive “around $200.” In 2025, $200 will not stop an eviction, restore utilities, or stabilize a family. Yet internal standards remain unchanged even as living costs rise.
The township’s own reporting shows how little meaningful aid reaches households. In 2024, it listed $61,132.97 in “assistance” — but $40,000 of that went to the shelter. Of the remaining amount, only $1,578.97 went to utilities, $9,954 to direct relief, and $9,600 to funerals and cremations. Very little prevented homelessness.
For a township this size, it’s common to see roughly 70 to 120 households fall into rent arrears each year, typically owing $1,200 to $3,000 — 1-3 months of rent. Using the township’s own year-end balance, here is what that money could have prevented:
Preventing 70 evictions at $1,200 each: $84,000
Preventing 100 evictions at $2,200 each: $220,000
Preventing 120 evictions at $3,000 each: $360,000
In every scenario, the township could have kept more than 100 families housed and still ended the year with hundreds of thousands left unused.
The community pays twice — once for avoidable evictions, and again for avoidable homelessness. Prevention is far cheaper than response; every avoided eviction saves taxpayers thousands in shelter costs, court processing, and emergency services. Prevention isn’t generosity. It’s basic governance.
Residents deserve answers: Why are assistance dollars left untouched while families fall through preventable cracks, and why haven’t standards been updated to reflect real housing costs? Township assistance should not function as a savings account; it is a lifeline the township is choosing not to extend.
The money is there. The need is clear. The question is whether leadership will act before more families face preventable crisis.
Evan M. Carter
Warsaw, via email
