After chief’s call for help, volunteers begin to step up in Stevens Point

By Brandi Makuski

STEVENS POINT — Community volunteers are stepping in to help Stevens Point police address some of the cleanup concerns connected to homelessness that Police Chief Ed Orgon recently described during a tense city discussion.

Orgon said volunteers, including City Council President Marc Christianson and Gregg Hansel of Partnering Together Portage County, recently joined SPPD’s Community Service Officers for a cleanup on the south and west sides of the city.

“We really appreciate those folks who are stepping up,” Orgon said. “It’s going to take the entire community working together on issues like this, and their involvement and hard work with our officers needs to be highlighted.”

The cleanup follows Orgon’s remarks during a July meeting of the city’s Public Policy and General Government Committee, where residents and city officials debated proposed ordinances dealing with people living in vehicles on city streets and in municipal parking lots.

Several speakers characterized the proposals as “criminalizing homelessness” and questioned why police needed another enforcement tool when other city ordinances already address problems such as littering and abandoned vehicles.

Orgon pushed back strongly against that characterization, telling the committee the proposals were intended to address chronic problems and describing what officers encounter on a day-to-day basis, including repeated complaints from businesses and residents, trash and other cleanup issues.

“You don’t see it on a day-to-day basis,” Orgon told the committee. “The trash, the constant calls, the businesses calling us — you don’t see that.”

Orgon also challenged those questioning the department’s approach to spend time with officers and see the problem firsthand.

“You think it’s so easy?” he said. “Come on. The door’s always open.”

During the same discussion, Orgon said police had been working to connect people experiencing homelessness with resources and family members rather than simply relying on enforcement. He told the committee the department had helped six people return to family in places including Arizona, Arkansas, La Crosse and Milwaukee, with another expected to go to North Dakota.

The recent cleanup provides another example of that work expanding beyond the police department, with community volunteers now assisting city personnel with some of the conditions Orgon raised during the committee debate.