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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Grants Pass, Oregon is about the same size as Wausau – 40,000 people. Grants Pass has an estimated homeless population of 600.
Their city has an anti-camping ordinance. It’s illegal to pitch a tent in a city park, or on a sidewalk and stay there overnight. Whether such an ordinance is constitutional was argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday. A ruling will come this summer.
Of course a community has a right to regulate where people can and cannot camp.
Imagine that camping was a free-for-all in Wausau. How do you feel about a homeless encampment in the field next to the tennis courts outside the entrance to Wausau East High School? Your kids can walk past in on their way to school. Teenage girls can be cat-called as they come and go from class. How about camping on the 400-block? We can watch business owners, who’ve invested their lives’ finances into their shops, go out of business one-by-one. Wausau has built a nice gazebo on the west side of the Wisconsin River. I assure you that you won’t take your kids there. It’s become a hangout for the marijuana-smoking, drinking from a paper bag crowd.
Wausau already has a camping ordinance of-sorts. If you want to camp at Marathon Park, there’s a number to call. An automated system allows you to reserve a camp site. If they’re full, you’re out of luck. Should your experience be ruined because the part is overrun by the homeless? Of course not.
Grants Pass made its case a little harder to win. During the camping ordinance debate, one of the city alders suggested that the law would “make it a little more difficult to be homeless; maybe some of these people will move down the road.”
I actually agree with the sentiment. As I’ve said before, Wausau’s homeless population drops to zero during the winter months. They go somewhere; probably taken in by friends and family who live in warmer climates. Our outreach should be to identify where the homeless go, and send them there. Of course, our city is not a free-for-all for anyone who wants to pitch a tent.
Chris Conley
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