Across the country, stable housing is becoming more and more impossible to attain. 

Right now, the Wisconsin State Legislature is considering a law that is directly targeting the unhoused — AB631 / SB621 would create an entirely new crime allowing people to be fined or jailed simply for sleeping outside.

This bill effectively criminalizes being unhoused. It bans people from setting up temporary shelter on most public property and subjects them to criminal penalties after a warning. For people with nowhere else to go, that means forced contact with the criminal legal system, new criminal records, and even greater barriers to housing and employment.

Instead of offering real housing solutions, AB631 / SB621 mandates a system of state-controlled camping sites. When these sites are full, people may be placed on a waiting list — but they are still barred from sleeping anywhere else. This creates an Orwellian predicament, risking being punished simply for existing without shelter, all the while waiting for a spot at a state-sanctioned camping shelter that doesn’t yet exist. 

The evidence is clear: criminalization, citations, and jail are more expensive and less effective than housing and social services. Punishing people for being unhoused does not solve homelessness — it makes it worse. 

Please sign the petition and urge your WI lawmakers to oppose AB631 / SB621 and instead invest in proven solutions: stable housing, outreach, case management, diversion, and shelter.