People working to support homeless veterans say a bill advancing in the state Capitol would provide much needed funding. But they also say it doesn’t address a housing need outside of southeastern Wisconsin. 

This week, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee unanimously approved funding for the bill, which would provide $1.9 million spread out in $25 per diem payments to nonprofits that house veterans. 

Greg Fritsch is president of the Center for Veterans Issues, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit that provides housing and supportive services for veterans throughout the state. Fritsch told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the bill is a step in the right direction.

“It’s not enough, but it will go a long way,” he said. 

Besides safe housing, the Center for Veterans Issues program offers support programs and meals to veterans. Fritsch said his group typically operates on a yearly $500,000 deficit, which the bill’s funding would help alleviate. 

“Costs never stop going up,” he said. “This will go a long way to helping us provide more beds to veterans.”

Fritsch said his program currently houses 81 men and five women in sites around southeastern Wisconsin. 

Currently, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs provides about $85 in per diem payments to nonprofit veterans support organizations for housing and care.  

While Fritsch said his organization provides some services like rental assistance statewide, its transitional housing work is only happening in southeastern Wisconsin.

Joey Hoey, assistant deputy secretary at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, told “Wisconsin Today” there is clearly a problem in finding safe housing for veterans, and funding is part of that problem.

Hoey said the $85 per diem payments from the federal VA “is barely enough to house (veterans), let alone provide the kind of counseling and education to get people back on their feet.”

In September of last year, the state VA closed two of its Veteran Housing and Recovery Program facilities, one based in Chippewa Falls and the other in Green Bay. 

The bill advanced by the finance committee would not provide the state VA with money to reopen the centers. Instead, it goes toward nonprofit programs which are currently based in southeastern Wisconsin, according to Hoey. 

“We fully support these nonprofits — they’re our partners and they do great work. But they’re in Madison, Janesville and Milwaukee,” he said. “It means that none of this money is going to help, no matter what some might try and tell you. This money is not going to help homeless veterans in the northern and western parts of the state.” 

Hoey said he previously warned lawmakers the closures of state facilities in northern Wisconsin would happen without proper funding in the state budget. The compromise budget between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature didn’t include funding for the state VA facilities. 

“The Joint Finance Committee did this knowing full well that we would have to close those two facilities,” Hoey said. “When the Legislature voted the final vote and didn’t put that money back in the budget, we had to make the tough decision to figure out how much money we had, and we could only keep one of the sites open.” 

The state VA still operates a veterans care facility in Union Grove in southeastern Wisconsin. 

The Visa & Main platform will continue adding resources, programming and local activations, the company said in a Thursday (Feb. 5) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

“With Visa & Main, we’re connecting Visa’s products and in-house knowledge with the expertise of our clients and partners to provide small businesses with flexible financing opportunities and customer acquisition and technology support,” Kim Lawrence, regional president of North America at Visa, said in the release. “It’s a platform built to meet small business owners where they are — in our local neighborhoods and at community events across the country.”

To expand small business owners’ access to financing, Visa has launched a $100 million working capital facility with community-focused lender Lendistry. Visa & Main will add more grant opportunities and financial support programs in the coming months, according to the release.

To help entrepreneurs reach more customers, the platform offers marketing support, signage, digital guides, workshops and other resources, the Thursday press release said. Resources will be available for both everyday marketing and big events that may come to the small business owner’s town.

To assist small businesses with their digital transformation, Visa & Main will provide training for, and easier access to, digital payment acceptance tools, expense management and money-movement capabilities, risk and fraud-mitigation solutions, and digital enablement and financial education support, per the release. The platform will also include everyday savings programs and offers.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Global Digital Shopping Index: SMB Edition,” which was commissioned by Visa, found that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are 45% less likely to offer a seamless cross-channel shopping experience than large merchants.

SMBs also offer eight fewer digital shopping features, on average, than large merchants, even though shoppers want to use the same digital shopping features regardless of channel or merchant size.

Visa & Main joins several other programs the company introduced to help businesses in a variety of sectors. Visa said in November that it is investing in, and providing specialized financial tools and resources to, content creators. The company said it aims to help creators scale their businesses locally and globally.

An Australian bank has apologised to its customers after telling them it was “pleased” to swiftly pass on the RBA’s latest rate hike this week. ME Bank is among the quickest lenders to pass on the interest rake hike, with customers to start incurring the higher level of interest from Saturday.

Understandably, most customers did not welcome the news. A sentiment that the was perhaps compounded by the bank’s cheery tone and apparent delight.

While a rate hike was widely predicted by the market and economists, ME Bank’s team apparently weren’t quite as prepared, seemingly using the same correspondence from the previous rate cuts last year.

On Wednesday night shortly after 9pm, the bank again emailed customers saying it was “really sorry” about the correspondence and any confusion it caused.

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“This email was sent in error, and does not reflect ME’s commitment to communicate to you with clarity and empathy.

“We understand that rates increases can be challenging, and we’re here to support you.”

The mea culpa came five hours after the bank’s initial correspondence, with plenty of customers taking to social media to poke fun at the gaffe, with some even claiming it was enough for them to think about switching lenders.

Yahoo Finance contacted ME Bank to ask about the error.

Most major lenders will not start charging the higher level of interest until late next week, or the week after, according to an extensive roundup from consumer group Finder.

ME Bank customers will be among the earliest to be subject to the higher rate when it takes effect from Saturday, February 7.

Borrowers with BOQ, which owns ME Bank, will be hit from tomorrow, February 6.

ING Bank customers will be effected from Tuesday, February 10.

ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and NAB customers will be impacted from Friday, February 13. The same day as Bankwest and Suncorp customers.

Westpac borrowers will see their interest increased a few days later on February 17. Some of the other subsidiaries of the Big Four lenders will also pass it on that day, including St George, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA. It’s the same date for Teachers Mutual and Uni Bank.

Meanwhile Macquarie Bank will pass it on from February 20.

A majority of mortgage borrowers didn’t reduce their payments after the recent rate cuts, so the RBA’s move this week might not cool the economy to the degree it wants. For that reason, forecasters are predicting further rate hikes to come for borrowers this year.