(This story has been updated to add new information.)
The anti-poverty agency Newcap announced March 31 that it will close amid financial trouble and ethics concerns stemming from Cheryl Detrick’s tenure as CEO.
The move worried service providers who feared for the livelihoods of those relying on its programs.
In a March 31 news release, Newcap said there was no way to sustain the nonprofit after trying to stabilize operations through cost-cutting measures, like reducing staff and “alternative funding and partnership options,” to address “significant and ongoing financial challenges.”
The finances of the agency, which saw over $2 million deficits in both 2023 and 2024 after posting the highest revenue in its history in 2021, “increasingly affected (Newcap’s) ability to continue providing services,” the agency said.
“This is one of the most difficult moments in our organization’s history,” said Deb Barlament, interim executive director of Newcap in the news release. “Our thoughts are with the individuals and families who depend on these services, as well as with the staff who have dedicated themselves to this mission. We pursued every realistic option available to prevent this outcome.”
She continued, “This closure represents not only the loss of an organization, but a significant loss for the community it has served. The needs that brought people to Newcap remain – and, in many cases, continue to grow.”
Barlament did not immediately respond to requests for an interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
The timing of the move, first reported by WLUK FOX 11, surprised service providers. They thought Newcap would stay open until June 30, or “until all funding sources expired,” according to Josh Benti, who heads the Greater Green Bay Blueprint initiative to end homelessness.
Tara Prahl, head of the Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition, said she heard informally from people familiar with the organization that the closure was immediate.
“This is much more sudden than anything any of us have anticipated,” Prahl said.
Newcap had served 10 counties in northern Wisconsin – Brown, Forest, Langlade, Vilas, Oneida, Florence, Marinette, Oconto, Menominee and Shawano − offering services to low-income families like clinical exams, job training, and fixing up homes, all programs whose availability changed from county to county, serving tens of thousands. It reported in its 2014 tax filings that its grant-funded services helped about 90,000 individuals who accessed programs like food assistance and maternal and child health care, as well as gave about 2,700 months’ worth of rent assistance.
In 2025, the nonprofit served about 25,000 households and employed about 140 people, Detrick told the Press-Gazette in January before being placed on administrative leave in February.
Newcap’s board of directors for several years had voted to approve Detrick’s contract with a provision to give her a bonus equaling 1% of all new money the agency received. That provision earned her $50,000 in 2022 after the agency received a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund.
Laurie Styron, head of the independent national charity watchdog foundation Charity Watch, previously told the Press-Gazette that the practice was an inherent conflict of interest.
Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for an investigation into Newcap’s alleged misuse of taxpayer money first reported by WLUK FOX 11, including Republican U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil of Janesville and Tony Wied of De Pere, Democratic state Sen. Jamie Wall of Green Bay, and Democratic state Rep. Ryan Spaude of Ashwaubenon.
The state’s Department of Administration on March 13 told Newcap it would no longer renew a grant meant to help families weatherproof their homes because of the nonprofit’s financial situation, state Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, wrote in a March 31 letter to the state’s Department of Justice asking for an investigation “to uncover any instances of fraudulent activity” at Newcap.
The chairmen of the state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee − state Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, and state Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia – are also beginning an audit of Newcap’s management of taxpayer money, sending a letter on March 31 to Wisconsin’s Department of Administration for documents between the department and the nonprofit.
“This (situation) is going to have all types of unintended collateral damage,” Steffen said, pointing to the public’s trust in nonprofits. He said there would likely be more skepticism, as well as time and money needed for oversight that would have gone to programming.
The consensus among service providers and legislators had been that the nonprofit’s closure was a done deal given Newcap had little money in the bank to administer any of its grants, largely frozen in the case of its federal grants.
Service providers have been working for weeks to transition families who rely on Newcap’s programs – especially those needing housing assistance – to the care of other agencies.
Newcap announced in early March it would close three of its homeless shelters at the end of the month, according to an email from Prahl to Brown County housing coalition members on March 30. Prahl continued in the email that “More recently, it was shared that the organization will be closing entirely in the near future.”
Executive members of the housing coalition were trying to “better understand the scope of this situation,” Prahl wrote in the email, saying the anticipated closure had “created significant concern” about how families would be impacted. She was unsure of how the updated closure announcement would impact transferring grants and families to the care of other nonprofits.
About 61 households in Brown County could be left without a roof over their heads, Prahl wrote in her email. There would be 10 families immediately impacted, on March 31, the expiry date of a housing grant, according to Prahl.
Efforts by Carrie Poser, head of the Wisconsin Balance of State, to transfer federal homelessness grants given through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development remained stalled, she told the Press-Gazette. HUD, which has delayed the typically bureaucratic transfers to other organizations, confirmed with Poser that her transfer paperwork was received and under review. Service providers have said further delays could risk homelessness for all 134 families served through housing grants given to Newcap across the 10 counties it serves in northern Wisconsin.
“As you can imagine, things are a little chaotic right now,” Poser told the Press-Gazette.
How to get help
The Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition responded to the closure news by mobilizing support of those directly affected. If you’re experiencing homelessness, you can contact the coalition’s No Wrong Door partner agencies for help:
Those in need of assistance or property owners seeking help can email the Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition at bchomelesscoalition@gmail.com.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. He also writes a weekly column answering reader questions about Green Bay. Contact and send him questions at 920-834-4250 or jlin@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Newcap to close over financial challenges, worrying service providers
Reporting by Jesse Lin, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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