Central Wisconsin is experiencing a disturbing pattern as winters are warm and people are typically plain. Stevens Point, Wis., a capital of , fewer than 30, 000 people, is adopting the same confused, inadequate policies on poverty that have plagued America’s largest progressive towns.
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What was once a community of common perception is now migrating through a fog of intellectual jargon, bureaucratic red tape, and intellectual posturing that serves much more purposes for headlines than for people.
It appears as though someone sent a box of San Francisco’s worst thoughts to Portage County and said,” Try these on for size.”
From Concrete to Slogans:” Unhoused” in the Heartland
The terminology is the first indication of the move. No more do people call themselves “homeless.” Now they are “unhoused citizens”. They are “behaviorally prone,” no “driving lovers” or “mental ills.” Because they refused to provide house, they are “housing anxious,” so they are not sleeping in a vehicle quit.
You might think this language weakening was confined to the coastlines, but Stevens Point has thoroughly absorbed it. What started as small-town leadership in affluent elite universities has since been transformed into small-town leadership, and anguish is being displaced even in rural Wisconsin.
This pattern extends to all types of cover. Consider other current euphemisms: “birthing people” instead of family. Instead of being a fugitive, justice-involved entity. instead of thirsty,” Food-insecure.” These phrases audio barren, as if plucked from a policy report written by someone who has never missed a food, not begged for shelter, and always walked past anyone shivering on a sidewalk without feeling shame.
Stevens Point and California’s Crisis: Comparing Statistics
Let’s be clear: Stevens Point is no San Francisco. The level is unique, but the mindset is dangerously similar.
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California, the poster child of progressive failure on homelessness, now accounts for roughly 28 % of all homeless people in the United States, despite making up just 12 % of the population. California has, according to the 2024 HUD Point-in-Time matter, over 187, 000 homeless people. Of those, over 67 % are unsheltered, meaning they sleep in tents, cars, or directly on the street.
Over 7, 700 people have been left homeless in San Francisco alone, a figure that has remained stubborn despite more than$ 20 billion in state spending between 2018 and 2023. These are not only figures. They are an accusation. a certificate. Evidence that kindness without framework causes conflict, and that hurling money at a social crisis does not make you free from fixing it.
Wisconsin, by contrast, recorded , 5, 037 poor individuals , in 2024. The figures in Stevens Point, which is located in Portage County, are in the hundreds, not thousands. The same issues persist perhaps on a smaller size. Individuals are slipping through the holes. Shelterers are overburdened. And the state’s answer resembles international guidelines that have already failed.
Why do Stevens Point buy a cracked model?
The Downtown Breaking Point
The alarm rang not from the town council, the president’s office, or the school. It was  , little business owners , on Main Street who endured decades of hawking, loitering, people urine, and yet verbal abuse. Some store owners reported losing clients, and another locked their doorways during business hours.
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Finally, the city proposed a no-camping legislation when their collective message was no longer being ignored. In other words, a plan may be implemented to discourage overnight camps in public parks and firm regions.
It’s a stop, but it’s not very good. Not because it lacks significance, but because it lacks faith. It came just after open pressure, no from a moral imperative.
It’s reactive, not proactive.
And it reveals a troubling truth: Stevens Point’s residents suffer more from their suffering than the discomfort of the storekeepers.
The Mayor’s Tiny Idea
Mayor Mike Wiza has proposed a well-known liberal answer: small homes. He suggested Stevens Point might consider adopting a similar type after visiting Oshkosh and attending Urban Alliance sessions. The concept is not without significance. In some locations, little home villages have provided dignity and temporary housing.
But the design remains the same. There is no page, funding, timeframe, or necessity.
When metaphor overshadows material, this is how politics operates. Great tips are thrown around, attention is flung, and then everything stops.
The Academic Cloud of the Housing Taskforce Report
The standard Housing Taskforce Report for the city appears to be written by someone who is more concerned with language than results. The document is dominated by words like” proper alignment,” “data-informed structures,” and” collaborative processes to housing equity.” What is strikingly absent are practical timelines, legal action steps, or fair acknowledgement that some individuals reject help immediately.
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If a man sleeps in a post business, he is not interested in your “framework.” He requires a blanket, a pillow, and a path that fosters sympathy and responsibilities. Democratic cities usually falter in that last portion, accountability. Stevens Point is also starting to exhibit the same lack of strength.
The Truth About Refusing Shelter: No A Wants to Say It
In April 2024, SP Metro Wire published a revealing part about a reality some city officials dare to challenge: some unemployed individuals in Stevens Point have refused help. Not all of them are requesting assistance. Some people received it, and some rejected it.
They may be dealing with untreated mental illness. They might be addicted. They might have simply chosen to live elsewhere.
This doesn’t make them monsters — it makes them human. Beyond simply” building more homes,” it also makes the issue more complicated.
It’s dishonest to assume otherwise. A solution is not a solution if it does not account for noncompliance, it is a press release.
Rent Ready: Despite the Noise, Quiet Competence
A neighborhood nonprofit called Rent Ready quietly works while the city is ruggling. In three years, they’ve helped over 100 families find housing, navigate applications, and stay afloat. They counsel, deal with ugly situations, and follow up.
They demonstrate that action is more important than optics.
But like most nonprofits, Rent Ready is , underfunded and underappreciated. Rent Ready is stumbling together resources to prevent families from freezing while city leaders attend task force meetings and draft “narrative transformation” plans.
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That is not just ironic, either. It is immoral.
The University’s Influence
The city’s approach to homelessness is not diminished by the presence of UW-Stevens Point. The university environment often promotes the language of sensitivity and inclusion. However, this intellectual setting can turn into a trap. Pragmatism is replaced by theory. Good intentions become a substitute for follow-through.
Real leaders have to choose whether to lead a city or moderate a discussion in the classroom at some point.
The Future We Don’t Want: Lessons from San Francisco
It took years of denial in San Francisco before the consequences became too large to ignore. Businesses sagged, tourist traffic slowed, crime increased, and families fled. Only after the economy felt the strain, did city officials change their course.
They started clearing encampments and reinstating enforcement, but the damage was deep by then. The relationship between residents and the government had weakened.
Stevens Point has some time left. But only if it stops copying failure.
A Small Town, a Bigger Warning: A Final Plea.
Stevens Point is more than just a case study of small-town mismanagement. It is a warning shot.
What was once isolated to the coasts is now drenched in big-city optimism, reincarnated in small-town charm. Homelessness is reframed as housing insecurity. Vagrancy is dressed up as a vulnerability. Refusing treatment is portrayed as autonomy. All of it is disguised as compassion and wrapped in bureaucratic buzzwords.
But compassion without results is not a virtue. It is vanity.
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This ideological detour from San Francisco or Portland was once anticipated. But Stevens Point? A middle-class, wooded, and common sense-based town in central Wisconsin? This ought to have been the most recent area to fall for soft language and flimsy policies. And yet, here it is — floating tiny home proposals without plans, holding listening sessions while people sleep in stairwells, and using language so sterilized it erases the urgency.
There is no one ZIP code that can be used to teach. This is how the national issue manifests itself: one well-intentioned town at a time. One university’s language guide. One task force for the city council. One way to rename the world. And before you know it, the same hands-off, optics-driven homelessness crisis that crippled California is knocking on every town square in the country.
The rest of the nation would be wise to watch closely. Stevens Point, Wisconsin, is a place where it can occur.
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