Wausau Police Chief Matt Barnes Asks Public To Get Involved As City Sees Growing Homelessness Population

A tent in Wausau's homeless camp. Image courtesy: WAOW TV

WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – Like many communities around the U.S., Wausau is experiencing a rise in homelessness. Police Chief Matt Barnes is asking community members to get involved as the city continues to discuss possible solutions.

Barnes has held the position of chief of police since August 2023. He says the issue of homelessness in the city has begun to become a major part of his department’s daily routine, saying, “I think it’s a fair statement to say the average patrol officer that comes to work and works their shift is dealing with issues associated with this topic multiple times a day, and that’s for both our night shift and day shift, and for me personally, a significant portion of my day is spent working through solutions, working with partners and our staff on expectations, and making sure we maintain our professionalism and being respectful.”

Chief Barnes stated that the behavior issues the department sees daily don’t apply to every person experiencing homelessness in the city but that every resident should be held to the same standard of behavior that’s “acceptable in this community” and implored residents to get involved with local charities and attend city meetings to become more engaged with the issue.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are 4,907 people homeless on any given night in Wisconsin, and the overall number of homeless people in the state climbed by almost 70% between 2022 and 2023, with places like Madison seeing a 16% rise in homelessness since 2018, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Milwaukee fared better in prior years until 2023 when the city also experienced a surge in homelessness of 430%.

2022 La Crosse homeless encampment takes over Houska Park. Photo by WEAU

While discussing if Wausau is seeing or will see a similar surge in homelessness like other communities across the state, Barnes says it may happen sooner than many think based on estimated totals from recent data, saying, “From our warming shelter run by Catholic Charities, we saw between 330 and 350 unduplicated individuals seek shelter last year, which is a great metric for us to be able to measure how many people had experienced the issue at different times in our community,” and he believes that number will rise in 2024, saying, “I think when we look at the number of new people we’ve seen in just the first few months of this year, I would expect that number to double.”

The department recently proposed the idea of creating a team of officers that would work with an outreach professional who finds living situations for those experiencing homelessness, and Barnes laid out three things he believes could play a role in helping solve the growing crisis, including continuing to promote AODA (Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse) resources, making mental health resources more robust and effective, as well as addressing housing issues facing the state and county. He cited a recent study that showed Marathon County is currently thousands of housing units short for the county’s growing population.

“Our mission statement for the police department is that we partner with the community to enhance the quality of life, and it’s going the other way in this community through my lens; we’re not enhancing the quality of life; we’re looking at the quality of life going down here,” and “the average community member might not be aware that city staff every single day go into our parking ramps where the unhoused population is sleeping and hanging out, and they have to clean human feces and urine every single day out of our parking ramps,” Barnes continued.

Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake) and Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee) recently proposed a bill known as AB 689 in Madison, which passed the state assembly in February and was referred to the state Senate’s Housing, Rural Issues, and Forestry committee. It would limit the locations of potential homeless encampments in Wisconsin, such as public property not designated for recreational camping or as a structured camping facility. Those who violate that possible law may be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $500 and a 30-day prison sentence.