In hopes of taking their residents from “living to thriving,” Milwaukee’s Center for Veterans Issues (CVI) is renovating and expanding their Vets Place Central location in a $21 million project.
Located on Milwaukee’s west side and operated by CVI, Vets Place Central, at 3330 W. Wells St., has provided housing and other wrap-around reintegration services to veterans for nearly 30 years. However, the aging facility has limited how many veterans CVI can care for and hampered their experience, CVI leaders said.
CVI held a groundbreaking celebration Friday for the project, which will include a 53,000-square-foot rear expansion that will increase the nonprofit’s capacity to 81 single-room occupancy units, up from the current 32.
Currently, Vets Place Central provides housing for 74 veterans who are unhoused, often doubled-up in rooms intended for an individual.
“Sometimes we were five, six, seven people per room,” said John Cornell, board chair of CVI. “Our residents were living, but they weren’t really thriving. We want to be able to give them the privacy, the space that they need and deserve.”
