Soglin: Resources For the Homeless when Library Closes

Alder Rummel got this response from the Mayor. I, of course, have some comments. We were approaching the issue a little different, what things can the Mayor do that won’t cost any money and came up with our own list. If he’s going to talk about where to put resources, we better come up with a new list. 🙂

Here’s his response, with my comments.

There are a number of resources in this community where homeless individuals can reach out for support during the day, places where people can work on their issues and concerns, including:

A) Porchlight’s Day Time Resource Center, a daytime resource center for homeless persons to access employment and housing counseling, help in finding work, telephone and mail services. Located at 1490 Martin Street, it is open week days during the year and seven days a week from November to March. A shuttle bus runs every morning from the salvation Army and Drop-In Shelter for persons who want to seek out help to address their situation.

Inconveniently located, one shuttle per day?

B) The Hut at St. Vincent de Paul 1312 Culmen Street, Madison, provides access to health care to the homeless. They work to address barriers that underserved patients encounter include: medical illiteracy, limited transportation, lack of insurance or income, inability to afford medications, substance abuse, mental health issues, unstable housing and failure to access primary care.

Not a day shelter

C) Salvation Army Support Services for Homeless Individuals offers a variety of access points for homeless women and families including a medic and dental clinic, employment search, public health and incentive groups.

Not a day shelter

D) Off the Square Club, 4 N. Hancock Street, 251-6901 is a support and resource center. This social and vocational club is for adults with severe and persistent mental illness living in the community. They offer a variety of activities: recreation, meal programs, groups, reception team. It provides advocacy with housing and employment and references for members. This is a drop in club for members. To become a member, one must have a mental health diagnosis.

Must be a member and have mental health issues

There are other resources including the Book Club at Bethel Lutheran Church, Luke House and Safe Haven for persons with mental illness.

Serves only people with mental illnesses

The central library will still have some space available in the temporary location for use of the computers, which is a valuable resource for homeless searching for jobs and services. There continues to be a 2-hour limit for computer use, but it allows some time out of the elements for using the 26 computers available.

The City does fund a number of efforts to assist homeless persons on the street as well as homeless families with children, single women and accompanied youth. City staff in our Community Development Division participates in monthly meetings with other public and private funders serving the same population to coordinate efforts when possible. For 2011-12, the CDD’s investment is $1.6 million, not including stimulus funding, and breaks out as follows:

$920,559 to create/rehab supportive housing for homeless; Can’t create enough units
$35,500 for motel vouchers; Good, clearly need more given waiting lists and people turned away
$188,627 to prevent homelessness (plus an additional $814,000 in stimulus funding over 2 years);That stimulus money is looooong gone, we got rid of our $60K in a few months at the Tenant Resource Center. The other serves about 10 people per month
$190,834 in case management support;Good, need more
$12,973 for legal advocacy;Obviously, that doesn’t go far . . . is that what, 1/5 of a person? or less when you add in taxes and benefits
$120,818 for tenant education; Whoa! Where is that going?! TRC gets maybe half of that, but that’s not really services for the homeless
$46,311 operations of daytime resource centers; See above
$40,750 for overflow shelter for families; Again, not enough given the numbers of people turned away each night and the policy of being only able to stay one night and then you have to give others a chance, and the call in system, while necessary, is a little absurd. The turn aways are probably even more.
$53,400 for job readiness. No comment, don’t know where this money is going, but given there are hundreds of homeless, some with jobs, others unable to work, not sure who this can help

If additional funding were available, the most effective use of those dollars would not necessarily be for additional warming space but for:

a) financial assistance to pay security deposits and first month’s rent for homeless persons through existing outreach workers moving people from the streets into housing, and/or

b) financial assistance to prevent eviction thereby preventing an episode of homelessness.

Like I said, we’ll have to come up with a list to address where additional resources should go. I’m not sure that this is the list, but its a list. Meanwhile, here’s a list of things that don’t cost much money that could be done to help the homeless. In no particular order and not final wording.

– Third party complaint system for the homeless shelter system, so issues can be resolved in a way different that by the Executive Director of the organization.
– Stop ticketing or threatening to ticket for sleeping in the parks, provide restrooms instead of ticketing people, stop ticketing people for using the bus stops when not waiting for a bus, don’t ticket people for taking recyclables when no complaint is made and other criminalization of the homeless. If ticketing is done, provide alternatives to paying the fines.
– Stop threatening to ticket people for sitting in the city-county building and bus stops, allow people to remain un-harrassed in this public space
– Make the municipal building a welcoming space for the homeless, put the benches back, take down the signs threatening to ticket people and allow people to sit there
– Unlock the parks, city-county and municipal building bathrooms or provide porta potties
– Sensitivity training for the police and park rangers – including police spokespeople and captains and top parks department staff
– Remove the cameras in the city-county building designed to do surveillance on the homeless using the building
– Stop removing the benches on State St.
– Repeal ordinance prohibiting sleeping in the parks
– Treat people’s belongings respectfully – don’t throw away items found in parks and public spaces, attempt to return them
– Stop installing bright lights in areas frequented by the homeless so they can’t sleep there
– Turn back on the outlets in parks and on State Street that were formerly used by homeless people
– Allow the homeless to cook in the firepits and provide more options for grills and cooking in parks
– Stop cutting trese and brush in parks that allow the homeless some privacy and comfort

The list is a brainstormed list and may be a little awkwardly worded. But you get the point, there are many things the city does that make homelessness more difficult. Some may even save some money. But, if we want to talk about where resources should be spent instead of a day shelter . . . well, I’m sure we can make that list too!