Rep. Derrick Van Orden, D-Wis., arrives before President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) is trying to blame the shutdown of a veterans housing shelter in his district on Democrats, even as he personally balked at opportunities to save it.

In August, Van Orden called on Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) to find a solution to either save or replace Klein Hall, a shelter that offered veterans temporary housing and supportive services in Chippewa Falls, Wis., which is in Van Orden’s congressional district.

“The Evers’ administration needs to take homeless veterans seriously,” Van Orden told the local media in August. “When we have homeless veterans sleeping on the streets. It’s just not right.”

Evers included $1.9 million in additional funding for Wisconsin’s Veteran Housing and Recovery Program, which would have been used to either repair Klein Hall or find another building to lease. The amendment was rejected by the Republican lawmakers on the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee (JFC).

Klein Hall and another facility in Green Bay closed on September 30, with the last inhabitants forced to leave the facility. Evers slammed the GOP for rejecting his amendment and leaving more veterans without housing options.

“The bottom line is that there will now be fewer options for homeless veterans as a result of the Legislature’s irresponsible decision to reject the investments that I proposed,” Evers said in a statement in July. “To our Wisconsin veterans, make no mistake — we will not stop fighting for you.”

Both the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) and the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program oversaw Klein Hall. According to a report from Wisconsin Public Radio, the bulk of funding for the facility relied on daily reimbursements from the federal government in addition to state funds. During a press conference on Oct. 1, state Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) noted that Democrats tried to include funding for veterans shelters multiple times in budget negotiations, with no support from the Republican majority.

Hesselbein also noted that Van Orden could have requested additional federal funding.

“He could have requested the funds to keep the facilities open, and he didn’t,” she said of Van Orden.

Members of Congress have the ability to request Community Project Funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These requests can be used for “multipurpose community centers” like Klein Hall. However, Klein Hall was not one of the 15 earmarks Van Orden requested funding for in fiscal year 2026.

U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick (R-FL), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Neal Dunn (R-FL), Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) were some of the many congresspeople to submit funding requests for veterans housing and support centers in their respective districts this year.

Despite this being in his power, Van Orden doubled down on blaming the Evers administration.

“Klein Hall’s closure is the result of mismanagement by Governor Evers’ administration,” Van Orden’s office said in an emailed statement. “The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program is run and funded by the State of Wisconsin. Congressman Van Orden has consistently fought for Wisconsin’s veterans, visiting Eau Claire earlier this year to press Governor Evers and [Wisconsin Veteran Affairs Secretary] James Bond to take immediate action to protect the residents of Klein Hall. Governor Evers also turned down available federal grant money that could have kept the facility open.”

Joey Hoey, the assistant deputy secretary at the WDVA, refuted Van Orden’s claims during a phone interview with Heartland Signal. Hoey agreed with the notion that there is nothing the Evers administration could have done to get enough funding for Klein Hall and the other two facilities without the Legislature’s support. He also said there was nothing stopping Van Orden from requesting more federal money for the WVDA since Klein Hall was funded and operated by both state and federal money.

“The idea that this is the Evers administration or Secretary Bonds’ faults is ridiculous,” Hoey said. “The Republican legislature voted multiple times not to provide the funding that the nonpartisan legislative fiscal bureau told them we needed to keep all three sites operational.”

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau provided a letter to the Wisconsin JFC explicitly saying that additional state funding was needed to keep all three sites operational, but Republicans on the committee voted it down anyway and later blamed Evers.

Britt Cudaback, the communications director for Evers, said she did not know what Van Orden’s office was talking about in terms of federal grant money or claims about potential vouchers that could have been used this year. She noted that Evers’ office has repeatedly said it was up to Republicans on the JFC to fund Klein Hall and that they responded by funding only $2.5 million for veterans as opposed to the $41 million Evers asked for.

“This is not a partisan disagreement between Republicans and Democrats — it’s clear Republicans made a mistake in not approving the funding Gov. Evers requested to help homeless veterans, and they need to take responsibility and fix this by passing a bill approving Gov. Evers’ funding request that they should’ve approved months ago,” Cudaback said in a statement. “The governor remains hopeful that they will work quickly to do so.”

Evers had also previously used $500,000 in federal COVID-19 stimulus funds to offset unexpected cost increases and a budget shortfall in the WDVA, which has already been used.

Two bills in the Wisconsin state Senate have been introduced to implement the state funding needed to reopen Klein Hall and the Green Bay facility, one written by Republicans and one written by Democrats.

“If those bills pass and get signed into law, which the governor has said he would do, we could be up and running in Chippewa Falls probably in a year from now,” Hoey said. “We were beyond disappointed and frustrated when the money didn’t come through, and if the legislature gives us money, we will start working immediately to be able to be up and running as soon as we can.”