Daytime Resource Center
Located at 1335 W. Vliet Street (on the corner of 14th & Vliet), the Repairers of the Breach Center is Greater Milwaukee's only distinctly daytime refuge and resource center for homeless adults. We purchased our current facility in Milwaukee's central city on Vliet Street in 1997— thanks in large part to the generosity of the Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation.
Our daytime sanctuary is open Monday–Saturday, 7AM–4PM and on several major holidays. We stay open overnight as an emergency warming room when wind chill temperatures reach a life-threatening ten degrees. We also provide a safe daytime sleeping place for homeless 3rd shift workers—those who work at night and sleep during the day, when overnight shelters are closed.
We serve between 70 and 150 men (86.5%) and women per day—as many as 2,500 individuals annually. Some of our members are unsheltered "street people"—those often completely outside of the homeless provider network, but for our center. The remainder stay in overnight shelters or are "doubled-up homeless" living in over-crowded conditions which are temporary, at best.
Click here to see some statistics about those we serve.
Center Calendar
Click here to view a printable version of the Center Calendar.
Center Governance
Our center is a sanctuary—a place free of gangs, drugs and alcohol. The homeless community keeps it that way by enforcing House Rules, which emphasize respectful behavior. Within this culture of respect, profoundly margin-alized persons encourage one another to move forward in their lives by using the resources available to them.
Those we serve are not passive "clients" or "guests," but rather active "members"—of a community of homeless men & women in transition to the mainstream. With nurturing & direction, the center is run primarily by members, who encourage one another with the ideals of “self-help” and "homeless helping homeless.”
Those we serve are not passive "clients" or "guests," but rather active "members"—of a community of homeless men & women in transition to the mainstream. With nurturing & direction, the center is run primarily by members, who encourage one another with the ideals of “self-help” and "homeless helping homeless.”
Center Resources
Our daytime resource center is a productive place—a "highway out of homelessness." Basic program services offered daily include, but are not limited to, safe sanctuary with a sense of community, even an extended family; "lifelines" in the form of a telephone/message service and a secure mail service (which also serves as a voter registration address); two private daytime showers and six toilets; continental breakfast, snacks and a warm mid-day meal through our licensed soup kitchen, the "Breach Café."
Several times per week members can participate in substance abuse recovery support groups; one-on-one or group counseling; a chance to "shop" for seasonal clothing and footwear in our large-scale clothing bank; register for a replacement birth certificate; a free medical clinic for the uninsured and under-insured of our community, and much more (see the complete list).
More to come: Our drop-in literacy program will resume soon, in the brand new Jim Heidenreich Learning Center. In an exciting new collaboration, Milwaukee Achiever Literacy Services will staff this vital mainstreaming program. A post-renovation Employment Assistance Center is also underway, for job preparation and support, with plans for soft-skills training for the never employed.
The Repairers of the Breach Center is a place to learn to fish.
Several times per week members can participate in substance abuse recovery support groups; one-on-one or group counseling; a chance to "shop" for seasonal clothing and footwear in our large-scale clothing bank; register for a replacement birth certificate; a free medical clinic for the uninsured and under-insured of our community, and much more (see the complete list).
More to come: Our drop-in literacy program will resume soon, in the brand new Jim Heidenreich Learning Center. In an exciting new collaboration, Milwaukee Achiever Literacy Services will staff this vital mainstreaming program. A post-renovation Employment Assistance Center is also underway, for job preparation and support, with plans for soft-skills training for the never employed.
The Repairers of the Breach Center is a place to learn to fish.
An Investment in Hope and Transformation - Campaign and Renovation
In June 2013, Repairers of the Breach completed a $2.2M capital funds campaign to renovate and expand our once sub-standard facility. Once cramped into part of the first floor and a dingy basement, we have nearly tripled our programming space, to almost 16,000 square feet.
The Walter and Olive Stiemke Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation provided several major gifts to our campaign, topping off at more than 11% of our goal. One major gift enabled us to restore the facade of our daytime center to its beautiful current condition (depicted above). Another major gift will beautify and protect the south and east exterior walls by covering the crumbling brick with the same stucco finish used on the front facade. (The total of all Greater Milwaukee Foundation gifts totaled 14% of our campaign!)
We celebrate another major donor, the Daniel M. Soref Charitable Trust, which contributed almost 10% of our entire campaign goal. Funds from this magnanimous donor were used for many purposes, including restoration of the crumbling brick on our exterior west wall.
New Windows Installed
Thanks to a generous donation by the Helen Bader Foundation, we were able to purchase and install new energy-efficient windows throughout our entire facility. You can see a slideshow of our beautiful new windows:
The Walter and Olive Stiemke Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation provided several major gifts to our campaign, topping off at more than 11% of our goal. One major gift enabled us to restore the facade of our daytime center to its beautiful current condition (depicted above). Another major gift will beautify and protect the south and east exterior walls by covering the crumbling brick with the same stucco finish used on the front facade. (The total of all Greater Milwaukee Foundation gifts totaled 14% of our campaign!)
We celebrate another major donor, the Daniel M. Soref Charitable Trust, which contributed almost 10% of our entire campaign goal. Funds from this magnanimous donor were used for many purposes, including restoration of the crumbling brick on our exterior west wall.
New Windows Installed
Thanks to a generous donation by the Helen Bader Foundation, we were able to purchase and install new energy-efficient windows throughout our entire facility. You can see a slideshow of our beautiful new windows:
See our complete list of capital campaign donors—including every foundation, corporation, individual and community group that supported our goal—a further celebration of the many who have contributed to the success of our renovation project.
New Flooring Installed
Our thanks to Tony Barzycki of Shannon Specialty Flooring and to Lippert Tile Company for the installation. And to our volunteer interior design professional Sheila Semrou.