Madison, WI – Homeless men continue to be crowded into spaces where they can’t social distance, and won’t have a solution for night time until Monday. Day spaces to remain over-crowded.
This press release just came out today:
County Executive, Madison Mayor: Coronavirus Spreading, Everyone Needs to Isolate Now
It is going to get worse before it gets better. Given the rise in the number of people we have identified with COVID-19, we know that it is here and spreading quickly,” said Parisi. “We are at a point where people need to assume if they go out to facilities or come into contact with other individuals, they have come into contact with COVID-19.”
“The consequences of your actions may be life or death. The virus doesn’t spread itself, people are spreading it; we are spreading it. Madison and Dane County are calling on everyone in Dane County to take this seriously and do their part,” said Rhodes-Conway.
Unless you are a single homeless man. Then crowd yourself into the shelters!
Before I hurt people’s feelings and upset everyone working like crazy to solve these issues. This post is NOT about the people doing the daily work to solve this problem. This is about our city and county leadership. They need to make this a priority and give resources – money and space – to this effort. And they should have done it two and a half weeks sooner. Homeless men, in particular, are being treated by leadership as less important as everyone, literally everyone else. Even those in jail have nursing staff.
While leaders tell the public they are “working on it” – in fact very little has changed and it’s not happening fast enough. Again, not the fault of the people doing the work. Leaders made people with homes stay home, made sure we are taking care of the seniors, made sure homeless families had their own rooms, made sure single women could isolate if sick. The only population not given that same priority as everyone else, is the homeless men. They have to wait 2.5 weeks longer than everyone else. Which in this pandemic is an eternity. They still congregate in groups of 100 or more. Every day. Every night. And in order to get their essential life sustaining needs met, they are forced to congregate with others.
I’m sorry pointing this out is uncomfortable. I’m sorry that people who are working so hard feel bad when I point this out. But its the simple truth. Our “woke” community still doesn’t see single men without homes as a population worthy of equity. And those of us who advocate for them are villianized, tone policed and told we are being “unreasonable”.
So yes, this is uncomfortable. Yes, this makes people hate me. But I can’t be quiet when people are going to die.
MAYOR SATYA RHODES CONWAY ON HOMELESS SERVICES DURING PANDEMIC
Yesterday the Mayor blogged the following tone-deaf statement. Mayor’s statements in bold, my comments indented below the mayors comments:
The City and County are collaborating to protect residents that are without housing, most of whom are served through the shelter system. As of 3/25 we have placed about 225 people into local hotels, removing them from the shelter system and reducing their exposure to risk of transmission to the coronavirus. They include 37 families (140 people); the rest single men and women.
Where are the other 103 families?
With only 85 single adults in hotels, over 100 in men’s shelter, probably another 40 (?) single women in shelter, where is everyone else?
Efforts to secure safer settings have prioritized families with children, singles who are more vulnerable to the disease, and people who are symptomatic. Staff have identified approximately 60 more people for hotel placement and we are working on finding accommodations for them.
They still don’t have enough hotel rooms. Staff explained on my facebook page the last night:
Hotels are closing due to limited staff availability and decline in room reservations. Limited number of hotels will take this population. Goal of finding hotels near transportation, if possible, presents barriers. Lack of support services, that can engage individuals with substance abuse and/or mental health concerns to be onsite for conflict resolution. Hotel staff are not equipped to de-escalate situations that arise. I’ll stop there. The search for hotels continues even with those road blocks.
My response was:
isn’t it illegal discrimination for hotel to refuse to serve homeless people with homelessness being a protected class?
Staff rightfully explained:
hotels are negotiating a contract with an entity to reserve a block of rooms. At any point a hotel can walk away from that negotiation just by saying they are no longer interested. Could be b/c they decide to close, could be they are going a “different direction”. To prove in court they don’t want to enter a contract ONLY b/c of the population would be a tough court battle. I would rather we focus valuable time on finding the hotels who want to help.
My response:
My point was, I don’t want people to think that it is acceptable to not work with a certain population, especially one that is a protected class. When you said “Limited number of hotels will take this population.” That is absolutely true. However, we need to point out that this is illegal. That homelessness is a protected class. We don’t want to normalize the illegal behavior. While it might be hard to prove in court, it’s still an illegal business practice.
Who set these priorities? “have prioritized families with children, singles who are more vulnerable to the disease, and people who are symptomatic.“
I am super curious what the explanation is about why they didn’t give hotel rooms to all the most vulnerable people first. At first they were only giving hotel rooms to singles who:
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- over 70
- over 60 and underlying conditions
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Then the criteria changed to
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- over 65
- two underlying conditions
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Shouldn’t the singles who were most at risk have been given the hotel rooms first? And why does this vulnerable population have different standards about what qualifies as additionally vulnerable than the rest of the world?
We have also made good progress but need to do still more to ensure that persons relocated to hotel venues have the necessary support services they need – everything from food to laundry to light case management/emotional support.
On another front, we are taking steps to expand shelter capacity at additional locations to provide room for greater physical separation and safer environments for shelter users.
The Warner Park Community Center is prepared to provide much needed space for overnight shelter for homeless men. The facility will reduce the risk of transmission by providing sufficient space to achieve social distancing-something not possible due to limited space within existing shelter facilities. The downtown shelters currently run by Porchlight at Grace Episcopal, St. John’s Lutheran and First United Methodist Churches will be closed and staff assigned to them will support the Warner Park operation, which will have increased capacity.
It’s good to hear the mayor admit they need “sufficient space to achieve social distancing-something not possible due to limited space within existing shelter facilities.” Why is it taking so long to fix this problem? If this were truly a priority, it would be done by now.
We are working on arrangements to ensure that shelter guests will have transportation services to and from the facility upon its daily opening and closing hours.
If they used the Monona Terrace, they wouldn’t need transportation. Think about city buses running 15 people at a time to the shelters. This seems like an incredible use of resources, when there is a simpler option available.
Street outreach staff are also working to assist persons unable or unwilling to use the shelter system. Those meeting the at- higher-risk criteria described above are being moved into hotels. We are also placing hand washing stations at 6 locations around town near the Salvation Army, the Beacon, Safe Haven, Peace Park, Central Library and the Top of State Street.
The term “unable or unwilling to use the shelter system” really sets me off. Anyone in their right mind, with resources or other options, would not be subjecting themselves to this additional exposure and risk. The entire world is being told not to congregate, to isolate. For men without homes, they are somehow seen as being unreasonable if they do not go to the shelters. That’s just absurd. My advice to men without homes, don’t go to the shelter if you don’t have to. Unfortunately, many have to. It’s unconscionable to make people risk their health to get their basic needs met.
Hand washing stations are great! My question is, where do people go to the bathroom with everything closed? Portapotties don’t seem sufficient in these times, I think they need flush toilets with regular cleaning.
Currently, the biggest challenge is finding staffing resources sufficient to meet the wide range of needs at the hotels and the new shelter sites. We will face continuing challenges to provide adequate transportation, find and furnish shelter venues, and locate and maintain sufficient staffing resources. And as this situation progresses, we face the prospect of more people becoming housing insecure, and the need for assistance rising further. Therefore, we are beginning to think beyond our immediate needs and preparing for even greater challenges that could lie ahead in the medium and long term.
I haven’t seen any calls to the community to help assist except for this ad below. $15/hour with 24 hour shifts. There is a huge amount of volunteers in our community that work with the homeless population, and there are staff in agencies that might take a shift or two if asked. I haven’t seen the ask.
An additional note was attached to this blog when sent to the Homeless Service Consortium
Attached is an announcement from Porchlight that address the anticipated opening date for Warner Park, intake hours and updates on the 90-day limitations. PLEASE NOTE: City of Madison is working with Porchlight to ensure there is direct metro transit from a downtown location to Warner Park daily. Once that information is confirmed we will notify Homeless Services Consortium.
PORCHLIGHT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Porchlight Message_ Warner Park
Starting Monday March 30th 2020, the Men’s Drop-In Shelter at Grace Church will be temporally relocated. The site of the new and temporary location will be the Warner Park Community Recreation Center at 1625 Northport Dr. Porchlight will be suspending the “days accountability” date of April 1 st 2020, meaning that any guest that is over 90 days, may still use the Warner Park site for overnight shelter. The length of that extension has not yet been determined. However, any guest that is under a shelter suspension may not use the Warner Park facility until that person’s suspension has ended. All other Porchlight Shelter rules will be enforced at Warner Park.
Intake hours will run from 5pm-8:30pm. The procedure for late call-ins will be the same as explained on the Porchlight Website. However, the number to call Intake will change. As of this time, that phone number has not been created, but we will remain flexible with people who are approved for the late entry list and have used it since March 1 st 2020. The hours of shelter operation will be 5pm to 8am the following morning.
ISN’T THAT GREAT! LOOK WHAT THEY ARE SO GENEROUSLY DOING!
No, it’s not great.
- The Monona Terrace should have been opened 2 weeks ago. (No busing necessary, it’s been a cooling shelter in the past, staff have worked out the logistics of it. But its being reserved for day care for essential workers and hospitals – but meanwhile it could have been a shelter for the last two weeks.)
- Social distancing standards for people without homes should have been the same as for everyone else for the last two weeks.
- Standards for people without homes who are “high risk” should have been the same for the past two weeks.
- Single men should be just as important as the families and single women.
- If resources are needed to pay for additional staff, they should find the money.
- Hand washing stations are nice, what about restrooms.
- Community members who can help should be asked to help. Non-profit staff could be paid to do extra shifts if they are able and willing. I don’t believe they have been asked. I haven’t seen a call for people to assist.
- Warner Park should be open 24 hours or they need to find a different day facility as well, it too crowded.
Luckily its getting warmer and people have more options to be outside. But many of the places people without homes would go during the day are closed: Libraries, State Capitol, businesses that still let people without homes into their establishments, non-profit facilities that let people hang out, etc. My friend Ed sent me the following note:
I understand why they are closing the Capitol building, but where will the homeless take daytime shelter? Or be able to access rest rooms? The libraries are closed, Starbucks does not have indoor seating for the duration, the banks are all closed. There really isn’t enough room at the downtown post office. And the Beacon is much too crowded to really be safe.
At this point I think the CCB & Municipal Buildings are the only remaining public buildings open. How long before the City & County close them as well?
I hope the city/county efforts to find rooms for these folks have made progress. I haven’t heard anything beyond the initial 72 rooms made available last week. Do you know any more?
