Grand Rapids is testing an elevated citywide homelessness response, an effort which leaders say will coincide with—but is not directly due to—a surge in downtown visitors for the city’s annual ArtPrize festival.
The 2026 installment of the internationally acclaimed art competition will begin this Friday and will extend through Oct. 3. The event regularly draws over 1 million attendees to Grand Rapids and acts as a major stimulus to the local economy.
City leaders dubbed the 2026 installment of the festival the “biggest ArtPrize yet” in a release issued Tuesday, adding the most artists have submitted entries since 2018. In that release, the city said that it would expand “key services” and pilot others with the intention of ensuring “a great experience for visitors and to support residents and businesses.”
Among the expanded services is the Homelessness Outreach Team, which will include evening and weekend shifts. The Grand Rapids Police Department will add three additional members to its community policing team. The addition of officers is permanent and is part of a larger effort to staff up GRPD.
A second-shift cleaning crew will also expand hours until 9 p.m. regularly to keep “key walkways, alleys and underpasses clean during high-traffic hours.”
The city says the officer additions only happened ahead of ArtPrize by coincidence.
“Unrelated to ArtPrize, three additional [community police officers] have been permanently assigned, so three service areas (West, South, and Central) now have two [community police officers,]” a police department spokesperson told The Herald via email. “While this increases capacity, the work itself will not change.”
That spokesperson added that “existing in public spaces, whether one is housed or not, is not a crime.”
The city did not specify when it plans to scale back the elevated services, if at all.
Several ArtPrize installations are placed in or around areas with known homeless populations. Veterans Park, where several art pieces are already placed, was the scene of a stabbing earlier this summer. A nearby business owner told The Herald he believed both the assailant and victim were homeless who regularly gathered in the park.
Fire Chief Chad Brown specifically mentioned city parks as an area of interest in his remarks in the release, noting “We want people to feel safe everywhere they go whether they’re attending a concert, walking between ArtPrize venues or visiting one of our parks.”
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