MILWAUKEE — Mary Lockwood is the downtown outreach coordinator for Milwaukee County.
Her job is to work with those struggling with homelessness in Milwaukee’s downtown area.
She starts her day at her office, where she gathers things such as socks, water and snacks.
“I head out pretty quickly after getting in, just to try and connect with people at their sleep spots,” Lockwood said.
Lockwood said before she even heads out the door in the morning, she has a good idea who she will interact with.
According to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the number of people struggling with homelessness in Milwaukee County and in the city rose from 832 in 2022 to 1,056 in 2023.
The data also showed that rates of homelessness in Wisconsin are much lower than national rates in the United States.
“Some people have gone into housing; some people are really close to housing, but I would say it has been really kind of, there has been a lot of turnover this year,” Lockwood said.
Lockwood has been working with Milwaukee’s homeless population for five years.
Lockwood said, when it comes to people she interacts with, she knows their needs and issues they face.
“It is super important doing this work that we are positive and we are focused on housing as the end result because it is the only thing that ends homelessness,” Lockwood said.
Throughout the morning hours during Spectrum News 1's ride along with her, Lockwood met with a variety of people.
That included a man living in the woods who was just days away from being placed into housing, a man who needed a fresh shirt for work and many new faces who spent nights sleeping on sidewalks, park benches and picnic tables.
Despite the troubling situations these people found themselves in and the long winded, sometimes hard to hear stories they would tell, Lockwood listened and she said kept a positive attitude throughout her entire shift.
“We are serving people because we care and it is a long engagement,” Lockwood said. “ I mean, we know our folks. We are well engaged and we are here to serve.”
Lockwood said her goal is to get people into housing and once she does that, she continues to check on them for two weeks to make sure everything works out.