Anna Kessler and Jamie Kansier felt they had to leave La Crosse or fall further into chronic homelessness.
Both Kessler and Kansier struggled with substance abuse issues for years leading up to their departure. When Kessler finally got into a treatment program out of town, she realized it was best to stay out of La Crosse for her own good.
"I don't want to even put myself near temptation where I know anybody, and I've established myself here, even if I don't have a huge group of friends or this or that, I'm still content with my life here," Kessler said.
She moved into her new Waukesha home about a year ago after half a year at a sober living house, and Kansier followed her to her new apartment a few months later.
Now in southeast Wisconsin for the foreseeable future, the two have rapidly improved with a clean slate away from temptations and unhealthy relationships to their former community.
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Kansier was moved to a La Crosse group home when he was 16 years old. When he graduated high school, he found an apartment and stayed in the city until he became homeless.
Kessler moved to La Crosse in 2010 from Beaver Dam, Wis., in order to find a better place to raise her son and take care of her father near the Tomah Veterans Affairs office. In 2015, her father's condition worsened and she was taking care of him full-time.
The surmounting personal struggles proved too much a burden on Kessler, who soon became homeless as well.
Both Kansier and Kessler worked through the streets for almost a decade each. They struggled with their options limited to the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities warming center being the only viable options for overnight shelter most of the time.
"I know these organizations do amazing things, but it's hit or miss, you know. If they don't have room, they don't have room and that's it," Kessler said. "You just kind of got used to camping."
With camping becoming the new normal, survival and adaptation took precedence over trying to climb out of their respective situations. For both of them, the cycle of homelessness spiraled the longer they were left on the streets.
Kessler said it became hard to shake the "homeless" label as she fell deeper into the cycle.
"When other people, especially in La Crosse, are homeless, they spot you a mile away, and you are treated 100% differently," Kessler testified. "You can be consistent with a place to eat, a place to shower and you can't walk off the street and say, 'I'm homeless, I live in a tent. You can rely on me,' and people are going to believe you for a job."
The WINN van
What did help Kansier and Kessler was Sue Graf. The two first met Graf in 2019 when she worked as a coordinator for the Franciscan Hospitality House. The house offered drop-in services for homeless and marginalized people in the region.
When the house shut down right before COVID-19 pandemic measures started up, Graf kept the cause going in her own way with What I Need Now.
Started out of the back of Graf's personal car, Graf upgraded to a bright yellow van in 2022 to hand out food, clothes, toiletries and whatever else people in hardship requested. The bonus to having a van is Graf could meet people where they were instead of asking them to toil over town to get the right resources.
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"I knew if I needed something, that I at least had an option that I can try and I wouldn't just get turned away right away without even being considered," Kansier said.
Even when Kansier was moved out of La Crosse, Graf sent him a Walmart gift card to purchase work boots so he could get started at his new job.
It was the only service they said helped substantially in their quest to get off of the streets. While others outdoors benefit from a myriad of services, Kessler and Kansier dug deep within to crawl out of the vicious cycle.
"If something were to happen to that woman, it would - I don't even know, but like, even though people that are still homeless, they would protect that woman more than anything on this planet," Kessler added. "Sue is so important, and everyone in the homeless community respects Sue."
Moving on
Kessler moved out of La Crosse and into the help she needed with a sober living program. After an arrest in Aug. 2023, her mom paid for her to get residential treatment at WisHope Recovery in Waukesha.
She stayed in the WisHope sober living house for half a year before she was cleared to move on. Falling back on her experience taking care of her father, Kessler responded to a Craigslist ad looking for a home health caretaker in Waukesha.
Her current home health client has cerebral palsey, and Kessler spends 90 hours a week making sure her needs at home are met.
"She is an amazing person because she knew my background and still gave me a chance," Kessler said.
Kansier's final straw was spring flooding in the La Crosse marshes. He woke up in his tent during a rainstorm and had a change of heart as his tent and others around him flooded.
"I was one of them people. I am one of them people," Kansier said, referring to others around him who were living outside. "I just made the decision to put in the extra work to get myself out of it. If I would have continued with how I was, I never would have changed."
He bought a bus ticket to Waukesha and moved out of La Crosse with everything he needed on him. Now, Kansier has a printing job at the Waukesha Freeman, a Milwaukee area newspaper.
Hard restart
Both Kessler and Kansier said they don't see themselves moving back to La Crosse any time soon. For them, the town is full of temptations and unhealthy connections to enablers.
While they are on some state assistance programs such as FoodShare, they now pay their own rent, utilities and other bills completely on their own thanks to their steady jobs.
With their philosophy lifting them out of homelessness, they believe that people living outdoors should put in similar efforts if they wish to rise above housing insecurity.
"I mean, if you're just going to take the assistance and just basically just throw it away, then those are resources that can be used on somebody that is willing to actually use them and, you know, have the possibility of being successful," Kansier added.
Now that they have a roof and are working hard, they're finding they can enjoy the simple pleasures and wants of their lives again.
Saturday nights are date nights since it's the one day both Kessler and Kansier have off. They've gotten into movies and the theater a lot with their new planned weekend time.
"It's nice to know that when we're going to go spend $40 on a movie, or, you know, we're going to go shopping for clothes and, like, dictate what this money gets spent on, we have the money to do so because we're actually planning and budgeting correctly," Kessler said.
The next step for the happy couple is upgrading their home. They're already looking at bigger apartments with their new rental history. Kessler is even looking at the housing market for potentially buying a new home for them.
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