So, Dairy Drive wasn’t set up the greatest and there were design flaws that had us struggling for the past 4 years, but . . .
Note: I am the Executive Director of Madison Street Medicine who runs, with Kabba Inc, the Dairy Drive Campground for the City of Madison but these comments do not reflect the opinion of Madison Street Medicine and they are my opinions only.
WHAT IS DAIRY DRIVE CAMPGROUND
During COVID there was a large encampment at Reindahl Park. In order to clear the park they offered hotels from the city and county, as well as the Dairy Drive Campgrund as alternatives. They also then used it to clear Hwy 30 encampment and eventually house the people from the hotels that didn’t get into housing. Since then, the campground serves unsheltered homeless people (i.e. people sleeping in places not meant for human habitation such as on the streets, in tents, in vehicles, etc.) who are close to the top of the coordinated entry housing list so that they can have a stable place to be while gathering paperwork required and develop skills to be successful in housing. There are a few (4) people living there since November/December 2021, but most people have used it as a jumping off place to moving on.
This is the first campground the city has allowed. Unlike the tiny house villages, they did not require the houses to be on wheels or as they are called in the ordinances “portable shelter units”.
WHY IS IT BEING DEMOLISHED
Money. The city used ARPA funding and funding from Dane County, along with a grant Madison Street Medicine got from HUD to fund the staffing of the campground. The ARPA funds are gone and they want all their money to go to the men’s shelter – which ironically won’t be big enough to house the 400 people who slept there last winter and will be limited to 250, which means 150 people are going to need services such as Dairy Drive or they will be sleeping on the streets or neighbors back yards or tents in parks or . . .
DEMOLITION DETAILS
#19 on the Board of Public Works agenda on Wednesday has the details.
Approving plans and specifications and authorizing the Board of Public Works to advertise and receive bids for Dairy Dr Temporary Campground Demo and Site Restoration. (District 16)
Their description is as follows:
In 2021, the Common Council authorized a state of emergency and a temporary campground to be prepared at 3202 Dairy Dr. Funding for the creation and operation of the temporary campground was provided through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). As those funds have expired, the temporary campground will be closed, and this resolution authorizes a project to demolish the pallet shelters and bathroom building, removing site improvements and site restoration grading and reseeding of the parcel. The total estimated cost of the project is $220,000.
The only other details are pictures of the location:
They appear to have plans for demolition, erosion control and grading, but those are not included.
WHY WE SHOLD CONSIDER NOT DEMOLISHING IT
Street Outreach
Madison Street Medicine also runs a street outreach program. Our staff does daily outreach to people every morning Monday – Friday and each evening 4 – 8 in the summer, less in the winter. Our staff street outreach is “housing focused” and we offer case management to help people get into housing. (Note, we add volunteer medical providers to the outreach twice a week) It is much easier to help people when they are in one location. Especially this time of year when the police and neighbors are hyper-vigilant about people sleeping outside and they keep getting forced to move from their locations. We spend a ridiculous amount of time just trying to find people, when we could be helping them get into housing. Dairy Drive has a much higher success rate of getting people into housing than our street outreach program. And, we are serving the people with the greatest needs and highest barriers to housing at Dairy Drive.
High Needs Clients
I am freaking out about this 250 hard capacity at the shelter and the fact that no one wants to talk about it and there is no plan. Where are 150+ people going to go? Where are the most vulnerable people of those 150 people going to go? Plus we are dealing with an aging population, with high medical needs. We are seeing dementia and chronic diseases that need management. We are also seeing infections and wound care issues, people who can’t get surgery because they have no place to recover and lots more. And finally, we are seeing people who can’t manage sleeping outside, even in the summer time, let alone in the winter time. If they can’t get into shelter, where will they go? Studies show people experiencing houselessness die 20-30 years earlier than the average American – this ain’t going to help.
CONCLUSION
Sadly, I think we need Dairy Drive more than ever. As much as if asked, I would have recommended many things be different, we still need this place for our highest needs clients. But after they spent $1.2M to set it, why spend another $220,000 to demolish it when it could be a place that has electricity, heat, air conditioning, bathrooms and more for 29 people? Or why not turn it into a car camping facility? You could even add a tent camping facility next door in that big field so neighbors all over the city stop complaining to the city. I have to believe we can do better.
BONUS CONTENT
The most galling part of this to me is that when being interviewed for a grant and in other conversations, people have asked why we don’t just set up a campground somewhere else? Um . . . same reason as the city. Money. And where is the land where we could do this, how would we get it zoned without major opposition and where would the funds come from? Lets not waste this opportunity.