Stevens Point City Hall. MWC file photo by Mike Leischner
STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) – The Mayor of the City of Stevens Point is calling on residents to come together and help the city solve concerns over public safety and the seemingly rising homeless population.
Over the weekend, an estimated 45 protestors for individuals who are homeless gathered in Stevens Point to protest the placement of what they call “anti-homeless devices” on downtown park benches. These devices are known as armrests to many, and the group accused the city of purposely placing them on the benches to deprive homeless individuals of a place to sleep.
Mayor Mike Wiza responded to the protesters’ claims against the city by saying, “The city has been working with our health officers, the Salvation Army, and lots of non-profit groups whose sole mission it is to provide services, shelter, and food for those who are in need or at risk of needing those services. So the city, I think, has a pretty good track record of doing that, so I wanted to get the city’s side of the story there rather than letting the group that met yesterday say that the government is working against them because I don’t see that as being the issue.”
The mayor also cited several complaints of threats and improper behavior from residents who have told his office that they feel unsafe around town, especially during the evening hours. One complaint he cited involved a mother whose daughter attends school in the city and works late-night shifts as a waitress in downtown Stevens Point. She complained that despite her daughter’s walk home being short, she has to pass people who are on the streets late at night, sometimes sleeping on the sidewalks, which made her feel unsafe. She also told the mayor’s office that some individuals she had to pass had even yelled at her.
“This really has nothing to do with being homeless, it has to do with being disrespectful of other people’s rights, and as I said in my statement…your rights stop when it infringes on the rights of someone else,” Mayor Wiza continued.
Wiza also noted that the city worked with Evergreen Community Initiative to increase the capacity of a local warming center, that the center is expected to be at over capacity this year, and that more resources, such as volunteers, will be needed to help with those growing numbers.
The rising issue of homelessness and improper community behavior in Wisconsin has not been limited to just Stevens Point as numerous communities’ including Wausau have been working to find solutions to this nationwide problem. Most notably last week, Milwaukee County addressed community concerns at a community meeting about homeless encampments in county park-and-ride lots.
According to Fox 6, one homeless individual living at Holt Avenue park-and-ride lot told them, “A place to live. That’s all I keep wishing for and praying for.” Milwaukee County unanimously enacted a resolution back in 2020 recognizing a “right to shelter”—providing refuge to persons who are homeless or do not have access to a safe place to live. The resolution aimed to increase the number of shelter beds and create two second-shift positions in the Housing Division of the Department of Health and Human Services.
HUD estimated that 582,462 persons in the United States were homeless by the end of 2022, while private state and municipal records revealed that homelessness numbers has climbed each year since 2014 in several major American cities, with 40% increases in 2017 and 2019.
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