Greetings Affordable Housing and Homeless Services Advocates: The resolution to purchase the Martin St. building (currently Hospitality House run by Porchlight) for the permanent homeless day resource center is on the HHN agenda for this Tuesday at 5:30. I was pretty shocked that this was scheduled before the Homeless Issues Committee (HIC) has been able to take up the resolution. HIC was unable to meet in April because our regular meeting times conflicted with the election and Passover. I have requested that the acting chair (Sup. Levin) remove this from the agenda until after the HIC meeting, but he has not yet agreed to do so. Bypassing HIC is very problematic given all the time it has spent making recommendations for the day center. I have tried to schedule a special meeting of HIC prior to our next regularly scheduled meeting on 5/13, but we will definitely not be able to meet prior to 4/29, when HHN is scheduled to take this up. There are many problems with the Martin St. proposal. The bottom line is that it is too far from downtown. It is possible it could work, even though not ideal, if there was a detailed transportation plan that included substantial resources (at least $100k likely needed), multiple options (bus fares, van shuttle, and bicycling), and covers weekends and holidays (previously lacking). We have yet to see such a transportation plan. Make no mistake - we need a day center this winter, but Hospitality House is the wrong site for a permanent location. Most people understand that this is best done downtown because (1) it will cost substantially less to operate (because you dont need a significant transportation subsidy and will not need to fund multiple day centers) and (2) homeless people (currently accessing downtown services and shelters and public buildings) will actually go there and get the resources they need. See these links for more information. forwardlookout/2014/04/tick-tock-will-we-have-a-working-day-center-this-winter/21171 host.madison/ct/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/dane-county-board-member-not-keen-on-homeless-shelter-site/article_75a10b80-bc52-11e3-a33a-001a4bcf887a.html host.madison/ct/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/dane-county-s-selection-of-site-for-homeless-day-shelter/article_fbeab106-bb5c-11e3-aa34-001a4bcf887a.html m.host.madison/ct/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/director-of-downtown-program-says-plan-to-move-day-homeless/article_57b70c48-cba5-11e3-a290-0019bb2963f4.html?mobile_touch=true hngnews/deforest_times/news/government/article_b6874bc8-c012-11e3-94bb-001a4bcf6878.html Email contact info for the HHN committee can be found here. Ask them to respect the role of the Homeless Issues Committee and wait until after the HIC meeting. Ask them to listen to the concerns of homeless people and homeless advocates. BILL CLAUSIUS Supervisor 4/15/2014 4/19/2016 clausius@countyofdane HEIDI WEGLEITNER Supervisor 4/15/2014 4/19/2016 wegleitner.heidi@countyofdane JENNI DYE Supervisor 4/15/2014 4/19/2016 dye.jennifer@countyofdane JEREMY LEVIN Supervisor 4/15/2014 4/19/2016 levin.jeremy@countyofdane MATT VELDRAN Supervisor 4/15/2014 4/19/2016 veldran@countyofdane NICK ZWEIFEL Supervisor 4/15/2014 4/19/2016 zweifel.nick@countyofdane RONN FERRELL Supervisor 4/15/2014 4/19/2016 ferrell@countyofdane Thank you, Heidi
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 17:25:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015