Green Bay Homeless Shelter Seeks Approval to Expand Capacity and Operate Year-Round for Women

A homeless shelter in Green Bay is asking the city for permission to expand its capacity and operate year-round by next spring. St. John’s Ministries, which runs a women’s shelter, wants to help more people over a longer period of time.

The shelter is currently open only from November through April and has a capacity of 58 people. St. John’s is seeking approval to expand its emergency shelter capacity to 70 and to operate throughout the year. The request is part of an amendment to the shelter’s conditional use permit.

Tony Schneider, Director of Community Engagement at St. John’s Ministries, said the organization has become effective at its current work and wants to build on it. “We’ve become really good at what we do right now, and now that we’re good at that, let’s start to add another piece to the puzzle and start to improve on that so we can become an even better agency,” Schneider said.

Schneider said the expansion would not involve construction. “There’s not going to be an expansion of the building. There’s not going to be a new building or anything of that nature. Simply, what we’re trying to do is allow us the permission to shelter up to 70 women, should it get to that point,” he said. To accommodate 70 people, the shelter would not add beds or rooms but would place mats on the carpeting.

The source cites the Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition, which reported 86 unsheltered people living in Brown County in 2024. Schneider said that last winter, St. John’s saw more than 50 people seeking shelter on 16 occasions. “We are expecting the numbers to rise, as they have for the past decade, as far as women served, and the expansion allows us to serve more during the shelter season,” he said.

If the Green Bay Common Council approves the request, services from May through October would be more program-based rather than a continuation of emergency shelter. The shelter would have certain eligibility requirements and policies for the women who use it. William Peters, Neighborhood Development Specialist for the City of Green Bay, said, “We need to make sure that we’re taking care of all our residents in the city of Green Bay, including those who are unsheltered and facing hard times. So it’s important that we work together as partners in this.”

If the city approves the expansion, St. John’s would likely begin a pilot program in May 2026. The amendment was presented to Green Bay’s Plan Commission on a recent Monday night and was approved, so the request will advance to the Common Council for a vote the following week.

Source: Read the original report