Wausau Chamber of Commerce Supports Plan by Police Department to Combat Homelessness

Wednesday, April 10th, 2024 -- 8:01 AM

(Thomas Schumacher, WSAU) The Wausau Chamber of Commerce has come out in support of a proposed plan by the Wausau Police Department to combat homelessness in the city, according to Thomas Schumacher with WSAU.

According to a press release from Dave Eckman, President and CEO of the Chamber, “The number of homeless in Wausau is accelerating, and the Police Department’s plan to bolster their CART team with additional officers best addresses this impact on our community."

"As Chief Matt Barnes described in his request to the city’s Finance Committee, there is a small window of time to develop a strategy, implement new initiatives, and improve our situation before the effects of this issue result in long-lasting social, economic, and health consequences.”

While discussing if Wausau is seeing or will see a similar surge in homelessness like other communities across Wisconsin, Chief Barnes says it may happen sooner than many think based on estimated totals from recent data.

“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.”

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’s plan asks for the addition of two sworn officers to help reduce the mounting difficulties associated with the growing number of homeless individuals in downtown Wausau.

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