Over the summer, new residents settled down in Milwaukee’s loneliest park. In the shadow of the County Safety Building and the neo-classical County Courthouse, around 20 tents sat under the trees in MacArthur Square. Clothes were hung up on barriers, trash spilled out of overfilled cans and curfew signs were set up at the entrances. The occasional policeman walking through the park with a dog gave the scene a dystopian feeling.

A woman in a hoodie sat among a group of tents, folding clothes. She said that she had been living in the park for three months and planned to move when the temperature drops. It was October and the leaves on the trees were beginning to turn yellow and red. A man walked in from the northwest corner of the park holding a train ticket and talking excitedly. The name on the ticket read Ray Cosby. Cosby said he was grateful for the ticket, which he got from a local ministry.

An Illinois native, Cosby said he had spent four months living in the tent city and a month in the county jail before that for a crime he didn’t commit.

“Look at this. You’d never see this in Chicago,” Cosby said as he pointed to the overflowing trash spilling onto the grass. There weren’t any restrooms for the people of the tent city to use, Cosby explained. The only place was the Public Library – and that was closed at night.

An Old Issue Is New Again

As the seasons changed and the temperature dropped, the cold concrete of downtown offered no protection from sharp winds that cut through tents and froze flesh.

The number of homeless people in Wisconsin has been dropping since 2012, but the tent cities in MacArthur Square and under the highway show that this is still a pressing problem in Milwaukee. According to a study by the Milwaukee Continuum of Care, 871 people live without a permanent home in the city. More than 550 people live in emergency shelters and 161 live unsheltered, sleeping on benches or under bridges.

At a press conference with Milwaukee Aldermen Bob Donovan and Mark Borkowski on November 20, a few protesters showed up to voice concerns. Standing in front of one of the freeway pillars at 6th and Clybourn, retired MPS school teacher Patricia Crerar held a cardboard sign reading, “Homes for the Holidays!” next to the press podium.

<figure class="wp-block-image"><figcaption>Patricia Crerar holds up a sign at Alderman Bob Donovan’s press conference.</figcaption></figure>

The high temperature that day was 35 degrees, with a low of 28. “People are sleeping under bridges and sleeping bags in this kind of weather,” she said. “That is not acceptable.” Breath was visible, exposed skin froze and the wind cut through jackets and pants.

• <figure></figure>
• <figure></figure>
• <figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" data-attachment-id="174" data-permalink="https://jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/20181120_102434/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20181120_102434.jpg?fit=2048%2C1152&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2048,1152" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"1.9","credit":"","camera":"SAMSUNG-SM-J327A","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1542709474","copyright":"","focal_length":"2.47","iso":"40","shutter_speed":"0.0015105740181269","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="20181120_102434" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20181120_102434.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20181120_102434.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20181120_102434.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1" alt="" data-id="174" data-link="https://jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/20181120_102434/" class="wp-image-174" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20181120_102434.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20181120_102434.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/jams602fall2018.mediamilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20181120_102434.jpg?resize=