I think this is a summary of our meeting. The city version, or the start of “further action” by Asst. City Attorney Zilavy against the Social Justice Center?
Ok, for long time readers, I have to bring back the purple comments for this one! For new readers, the purple comments are me, expressing my opinion, not reporting. And, same disclaimer, these comments are mine and my comments alone and do not represent any of the organizations I belong to, work for or associate with.
This letter is as written by Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy.
August 5, 2025
Damontae January, President, Social Justice Center
Brenda Konkel, Treasurer, Social Justice Center
Stephanie Rearick, Board Member, Social Justice Center
Kristin Matthews, Board Member, Social Justice Center
RE: Nuisance Activity at SJC
All,
Thank you for meeting with me, Captain Hartman, Officer Davila, and Deputy
Mayor Sanon to discuss issues associated with the Social Justice Center. I want to begin by acknowledging the important work you all do in supporting individuals experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable members of our community. We all recognize the many challenges of this work.
But . . . do you? Cuz it sure seems like you don’t. You say it, but I don’t see it in any of your actions or anything that follows that statement.
That said, the Social Justice Center (“SJC”) has a responsibility, as the owner of
the building at 1202 Williamson Street, to abate the on-going nuisance activity that has been occurring on, and in association with, 1202 Williamson Street. Specifically, but not exclusively, the illegal drug activity, public urination and defecation, public intoxication, confrontational behavior, yelling, littering, hanging out at the property after hours, and sleeping on the property. These behaviors are affecting the safety, cleanliness, and overall quality of life for neighboring residents and businesses. The City has received complaints from those negatively impacted by these behaviors.
To be clear, it seems like any activity in the neighborhood is being pinned on the Social Justice Center. If you’re black or homeless, whatever you do seems to be the responsibility of the SJC because you may have used our bathroom, gotten food from our food panty, locked your bike up on a bike rack, used our phone or computer or cooled off in the building when it was hot, dried off after getting rained on, or got a cup of coffee and warmed up when it was cold?
What’s funny to me is, are they doing this for all the other businesses that have homeless people in or around their property? Who else got these love letters from the assistant city attorney Jennifer Zilavy? Do the businesses on State St. and Capital Square have the responsibility for public urination and defecation, public intoxication, confrontational behavior, yelling, littering, hanging out at the property after hours or sleeping on the property? Even when it happens off their property? Or are we being singled out in some sort of way because we happen to have the words “social justice” in our name? I know “social justice” may be a nuisance to some, but if it is, I’m proud of that nuisance.
The City asked SJC to post 1202 Williamson Street with “No Trespassing” signs
so that Madison Police can enforce the no trespass law when the SJC is closed. SJC
declined to do so. SJC has posted the property with signs that read: “No sleeping or
camping in the ramp. This area must be clear at all times!! No drugs or alcohol on the
premises; Property is not to be used as a public toilet; Be respectful of our neighbors.”
Despite those signs, people sleep in the ramp, do drugs in the ramp, and use the property as a public toilet. The signs posted by SJC are well-intended, but they are not working. People know that they can engage in all of the aforementioned prohibited activities and there will be no consequence. SJC cannot throw their hands up and say “we posted” but do nothing to ensure that their guests are complying with the posting. SJC must do more. SJC has said they have no control over the property once they go home.
I wrote a blog post that partially addresses why we didn’t put up a “no trespassing sign”. Just a reminder, the people are on the terrace, not our property. So the “no trespassing sign” would do nothing to address the issue of the folks on the terrace, they are not trespassing there.
Also, here’s a brief explanation about why this “no trespassing sign” is so precious to the police. Typically, police cannot enter onto private property without a warrant, unless they have “probable cause” and there is an emergency or pursuit, something is happening “in plain view” or someone consents. Police want us to put up this sign and sign their letter so they don’t have to get a warrant and have consent with no expiration date. We said, if they need to enter our property, call us and get permission on a case by case basis. This is still America, where we have rights, and I won’t apologize for not being willing to give those rights up, not just for the users of the building, but for anyone else. Sorry, ‘dem da rules. Follow the constitution of ‘merica.
Also, ticketing homeless people, to what end? They don’t have money to pay the tickets, what’s the point?
And lastly, this is so insulting and dismissive of our efforts to date.
“SJC cannot throw their hands up and say “we posted” but do nothing to ensure that their guests are complying with the posting. SJC must do more.
We have been doing things, proactively, for months and years. See details here. We are not “throwing up our hands” and doing “nothing”. We are standing up for people’s constitutional rights and looking for solutions that get to the root causes and not just kick the can down the road, because in this case, those “cans” we are kicking, are living breathing human beings with no where to go.
Finally, I don’t believe we ever said this:
SJC has said they have no control over the property once they go home.
What i think we did say was we have no control or authority to kick people off the terrace, its not our property. And I think we did ask what we were supposed to do if the cops don’t have authority to do anything, how do we?
Many of the aforementioned issues occur when the SJC is closed. Immediate evidence of this is the substantial battery that occurred on SJC property over this past weekend. SJC is not a safe place for unhoused to be after hours since there is no supervision and no monitoring of the property. The City has no control over the SJC property. SJC controls who comes and goes to and from the property and what happens on the property. SJC must find a way to manage its property so that the nuisance activity ceases, or at least dramatically decreases. This can be achieved by hiring private security or establishing after-hours in-person monitoring of the property by some means. This includes the entire property—front, side and rear. The City recommends installing ring cameras with motion-sensor lighting on the exterior of the building along Few Street and in the rear parking lot. This is a relatively inexpensive way to actively monitor the property, particularly when the building is closed. There are no windows on the Few Street side of the SJC, and limited visibility in the parking lot side of the building, so Ring cameras would be a great asset for monitoring and controlling. SJC has installed a “trail camera” in the parking lot, but that camera is not monitored, so it serves no helpful purpose. The ring lighting would be very useful in both the parking lot and on Few Street. At a minimum, install a bright light in the ramp area of the building where people regularly sleep and congregate. Make that area inhospitable.
Oh goodness, where to start.
SATURDAY NIGHT INCIDENT
First of all, they arrested the wrong black man for that substantial battery according to witnesses. Second of all, the person was a VICTIM of a substantial battery. No camera would have helped that. And let’s not forget the research, homeless people are more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators. Also, far more likely to be victims of crimes than housed individuals. See below for a picture of where 20 people were allegedly sleeping the night of this assault.
CAMERAS AND SUPERVISION/SAFETY
“No supervision and no monitoring of the property” after hours makes the property unsafe for unhoused individuals. Let’s ask the people outside what they think makes them unsafe. I don’t think they’re going to say because SJC doesn’t hire a security company or put up cameras and monitor them. In fact, I’d argue people are there because they feel safer there. One guy even said it, its safer in this neighborhood than on State Street where you get kicked in the head or someone steals your money.
They want us to put cameras up on “front, side and rear” of the building. So, this is a zero lot line building and three sides of the building abut the city sidewalk or the neighbors building. Are they asking us to monitor the city sidewalks and streets? How did that responsibility get put onto us? How would you feel if cameras, with audio recording were on the public sidewalks? Also, would that deter people from getting life saving Narcan from our Public Health Vending Machine?
Also, Ring cameras?? While I understand Ring has changed some of their policies, and police can no longer request video through their app, still, no.
LIGHTING
We don’t need motion sensor lighting, we have permanent lighting. In fact, our lighting was too good, and previous to this, the complaints from the neighbors were our lights were too bright. And, because there is no street light on this block, we provide the lighting in the area. When they said “At a minimum, install a bright light in the ramp area of the building where people regularly sleep and congregate.” they lost all credibility.
I took these pictures a little after 11:00pm Tuesday night (8/5/25)
This is the front of the building where allegedly 20 people were sleeping Saturday night.
This is the side of the building where people typically hang out on the terrace.
This is the back of the building and where the two bright lights are under the awning, that is the ramp. The empty ramp, where all this activity is happening. The second photo is of the ramp – one of the areas with a lot of signs.
And this photo isn’t great, but it shows we have the majority of the lighting on the block and where there are no street lights.
“INHOSPITABLE”
Jennifer Zilavy says “Make that area inhospitable.”
I think that cruel statement can just stand on its own.
Officer Davila stated that she would provide Brenda with weekly calls for service
that will have police case and incident numbers and dates of service. I stated that if
Brenda emailed her and asked for a specific written report, I would provide Brenda with that report (with any necessary redactions as required by law). Madison Police has already increased patrols at and around the SJC and will engage in enforcement actions when appropriate.
This one will have to be its own blog post.
We talked about issues occurring on and in association with the terrace portion of
the property along Few Street. I initially said that the City was responsible for the terrace, however, since SJC has installed several benches and the food pantry in the Terrace, SJC is actively inviting people to use the terrace. I understand that SJC has also applied for a Privilege in Streets permit in order to legally have the benches and the food pantry on the terrace. Therefore, SJC does have responsibility to monitor the terrace and ask those who are on the terrace engaging in illegal or nuisance behaviors to leave. I understand that some of the plantings have already been cut down by SJC, and I would encourage you to keep the plantings in the terrace low growth, so they do not provide coverage for nefarious activity.
Ok, say we ask people to leave, and they don’t. Then what? It’s public property, we still have no authority, even if Jennifer Zilavy says we have responsibility.
Also, a funny conversation going on with various police officers and neighbors we talk to is that some have told us to address alleged illegal behaviors ourselves, others have said it’s too dangerous for us to address the alleged illegal behaviors. I’d like them to make up their mind about what they want us to do. Now, obviously, I went over there after 11pm at night, in the dark, by myself and talked to the folks there and I didn’t have a police escort – and no harm came to me, I was not afraid, in fact, I didn’t even think about being afraid.
Finally, I want to address the word “nuisance.” I do not use it to inflame. I use it
because that is precisely, by legal definition, what is occurring on SJC property, including the terrace. Again, we understand the difficulty in providing the services your organizations provide, and we appreciate you providing them. Offering these services does not exempt SJC from its duty to keep the property free from nuisance activities that negatively impact the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood. The City expects SJC to take immediate and concrete steps to eliminate or at least substantially reduce the nuisance activity associated with the SJC. Failure to do so may necessitate further action. The City will do what it can to assist in this effort, but we are limited in what we can do given SJC owns the property.
ITS NOT HAPPENING ON OUR PROPERTY!!!!!!!!!! ITS ON THE TERRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We appreciate your prompt attention to this issue.
Best regards,
Jennifer Zilavy
Assistant City Attorney
Copy: SJC Board of Directors
Assistant Chief Matt Tye
Captain Kipp Hartman
Sergeant Gregg Sosoka
Officer Sydney Davila
Officer James Dower
Deputy Mayor Ruben Sanon
Alder Davy Mayer
City Attorney Mike Haas
CDD Director Jim O’Keefe
SO NOW WHAT?
Do we get tickets? Is the city taking us to court? Are we going to get some notices in the mail? Is there another meeting? Are police just going to keep harassing folks? What do they mean when they say the following:
The City expects SJC to take immediate and concrete steps to eliminate or at least substantially reduce the nuisance activity associated with the SJC. Failure to do so may necessitate further action.
We have taken many actions documented here. Camera is up, lights are on, We just won’t put up a “no trespassing” sign and give them free rein over our private property that is in “plain view” of officers standing on the sidewalk.