GREEN BAY (NBC26) — A community event Wednesday night brought around 200 people together for a discussion with state and local leaders about how to address the needs of Brown County's unhoused community.
- The event was put on by Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay), Green Bay city councilors, Brown County supervisors, the City of Green Bay homeless outreach team, Green Bay Police and local non-profit organizations.
- Dozens of community members spoke about their opinions, stories and suggestions.
- The discussion centered around prevention, safety, affordable housing and meeting basic needs of those experiencing homelessness.
Community members packed the room at Union Congregational United Church of Christ in Green Bay Wednesday night.
"The fact that we are coming together here to look and see how it is that we can be a good community with and for our unhoused neighbors is remarkable," Rev. Bridget Flad Daniels said.
The City of Green Bay homeless outreach team, the Green Bay Police Department, the Green Bay City Council, state and local representatives and non-profits leaders led the meeting.
"Our goal is to figure out where there are gaps, where there are challenges, what's missing, what are innovations, and also the concerns of everyday residents who do believe that we all should be able to enjoy our parks," Rep. Rivera-Wagner said at the meeting.
Dozens of people took the time to speak on the issue - sharing personal stories, voicing their opinions and offering solutions.
"A lot of people who are homeless... they have a desire to work and to make an impact," local resident, Sally Van Rens, said.
Many people spoke about the need for affordable housing and more support for those who are unhoused.
"They are human beings and have the right to be treated like a human, deserving of basic needs, of food and shelter," one resident said.
Others voiced concerns about negative impacts to public parks– saying people who are unhoused are breaking the law and causing safety issues at city parks.
“I am unsafe, and obviously there’s much more concern about the homeless people than there is about the tax payers," one person said.
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Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis said he recently heard a complaint of someone publicly urinating in front of a local preschool.
"Obviously we don't want that to happen, so how do we find some balance," he said.
Still, he said finding people who are unhoused and breaking the law is uncommon.
"I wouldn't say it's rampant. I work downtown, and I don't see it much, you see it occasionally," he said. "I think this is an issue that you'll see in any city... This is a nationwide problem, and this is something that you will see especially when you have people living outside."
Several people speaking during the meeting suggested placing port-a-potties or public restrooms in public parks. They also suggested creating designated, overnight parking areas for people living out of their cars.
Jeremy Pingel, a homeless outreach case coordinator with the City said, based on a July Brown County count, there are currently 556 people experiencing homelessness in the county – 350 are in a shelter and 206 are unsheltered.
"We want to work together to find some solutions, some options," he said.
Rep. Rivera-Wagner said they plan to use the suggestions from the meeting to create a list of possible solutions and action items. He said he hopes to present these ideas at a second meeting before the end of the year.
“We’re going to bring all of those things together, try and capture the different things that we heard, and we’re going to present that at another meeting for people to chew on and give us feedback," he said. "We wanted to make sure that before we presented solutions in broad strokes that everyday people... the people of this community... got to chime in before we presented a suite of solutions.”
