Amendments to address Homelessness at County Board

There are several amendments that will address the homelessness crisis that will be discussed over the next three weeks at the county.

BACKGROUND

County Executive Melissa Agard had a very disappointing budget.  She cut the non-profit providers 4% and didn’t fund the bare necessities for the men’s shelter while not cutting the sheriff’s budget and in fact, increasing their budget by $1M.  Surprising priorities if you ask me!

So, the County Board is trying to fix the situation.  Their process is very different from the city.  Each of the standing committees makes amendments and they all go tot he Personnel and Finance Committee which looks at them all and presents a balanced budget.  More on the county budget process here.

HEALTH AND HUMAN NEEDS AMENDMENTS

Tonight at 5:30 the Health and Human Needs Committee (HHN) will be reviewing and discussing the proposed amendments.  Here’s the agenda.  To testify you need to register 30 minutes in advance of the meeting if you testify on line.  If you testify in person you can show up at any point and register during the meeting but they prefer you still register online even if you are in person.  The county prefers you only speak once, but sometimes lets you speak at both meetings if you are saying something new no need to repeat former testimony. To watch online yo have to register and get the link emailed to you, click here.  At the moment, the amendments include:

Operating Amendments

• HHN-O-1 – Increase GPR expenditures by $2,175,481 to reverse the 4% reduction to purchase of service agencies (Wegleitner and Chawla)
  • This amendment restores the 4% reduction to POS agencies that was included in the County Executive’s budget. The cost of this amendment is proposed to be offset by the elimination of 16 Deputy I-II positions in the Sheriff’s Office as represented in amendment PP&J-O-02

• HHN-O-2 – Increase expenditures by $900,000 to provide additional funding for the Bartillon Mens Shelter and add the following language to 2025 RES-174: “The operating budget includes $1,146,963 to assist the City of Madison with the operational costs at the new Bartillon Men’s Shelter. The intergovernmental agreement to deliver these funds to the city and to set terms, including but not limited to policies and procedures related to shelter operations and services, shall require the approval of the County Board including the Health and Human Needs Committee.” Further, the Porchlight-Shelter Operations and Men’s Shelter GPR lines should be removed from Appendix A. (Wegleitner, Chawla, Furman)
  • The Bartillon Shelter is the first “purpose-built” shelter in Dane County in several decades and will provide much improved facilities and spaces with the potential to increase safety, privacy, and trauma-informed supports. With this amendment, the county will be providing signficant funding for its operations and should have input into the operating policies and programs. The scope and details of operating policies and programs are still in discussion and time is needed for people with lived experience, advocates, funders, and the operator to flesh out evidenced-based policies that best serve people experiencing homelessness with available funding. The cost of this amendment is proposed as amendment PP&J-O-03 which eliminates 7.0 FTE Deputy I-II positions.
• HHN-O-3 – Increase expenditures by $600,000 outreach and potential overflow shelter operations and add the following language to 2025 RES-174: “The operating budget includes $600,000 for homeless outreach and potential shelter overflow operations. These funds will be awarded by the Department of Human Services through an request for proposal process. A draft RFP(s) will be presented to the Health and Human Needs Committee for its reveiw and input. Any contract(s) resulting from the RFP award will be subject to approval by the County Board, including the Health and Human Needs Committee.” (Wegleitner, Chawla)
  • This amendment provides $600,000 in funding for outreach and potential overflow shelter operations needed to serve unhoused and unsheltered households without children due to the expected opening of the new purpose-built shelter at Bartillion Drive which has a capacity limit of 250 shelter guests. The number of households without children has significantly increased and if the Zeier Road temporary shelter operation ends when the new shelter opens, approximately 150-200 households without children will be experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Overflow shelter is particularly important for winter months when people are at risk of injury, including lost limbs from frostbite, and death from having to sleep without shelter. Additional outreach services are needed to provide services to the increasing number of unsheltered people. The cost of this amendment is proposed in amendment PP&J-O-04 which eliminates 5.0 FTE Deputy I-II positions

CAPITAL AMENDMENTS

• HHN-C-1 – Increase expenditures and borrowing proceeds by $10 million in the Affordable Housing Development Fund. (Wegleitner)
  • Dane County’s Affordable Housing Development Fund has been very successful in creating new affordable rental housing units, including those at or below 50% and 30% of the area median income. Through the affordable housing application and contracting process, Dane County furthers fair housing goals by reducing discriminatory barriers to housing, increasess tenant protections to facilitate long term housing stability, and increases units available to unhoused people on the coordinated entry list.
• HHN-C-2 – Increase expenditures and borrowing proceeds by $2 million to provide funding, through an agreement with the Dane County Housing Authority, to loan funds to non-profit affordable and supportive housing providers to improve accessibility in older affordable housing units. (Wegleitner, Doolan)
  • Non-profit organizations own scattered site rental units and rent them to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, many of these units consist of small apartment buildings built decades ago and before civil rights laws mandated greater accessibility in housing construction. This funding would enable a partnership with DCHA who would lend no interest loans to these supportive housing providers for home modification improvements (e.g. wheelchair ramps) to create more accessible units. The loans would be repaid when the housing provider sells the property. Preferenc shall be given to housing providers who are housing people from the coordinated entry list for people who are unhoused.
• HHN-C-3 – Increase expenditures and borrowing proceeds by $2 million to allow for the purchase of land in Dane County to establish grounds for lawful sleeping options for unhoused persons. (Wegleitner)
  • There is an increased need for lawful sleeping options for people who are unsheltered. The staff team report provided pursuant to 2021 Res 223 did not identify any suitable county lands for campground space. This amendment would enable the county to purchase land to make available to a potential services partner for lawful camping.

Other things to be discussed at HHN Tonight

• RFP Detox Information
• Other potential amendments.  From Supervisor Heidi Wegleitners’s Facebook post she says – “I’m determined to restore an Immigration Affairs social worker and ADRC specialists. And then there’s the detox program funding gap.” plus other committee members may have ideas too!

OTHER MEETINGS TO TESTIFY AT FOR HHN AMENDMENTS

• October 20, 7pm – County Board Public Hearing on the Budget
• October 22, 5:30pm – Health and Human Needs Committee will vote on the amendments
• October 28, 5:30pm – Personnel and Finance will hear presentations from committee chairs and public testimony.
• October 30, 5:30pm – Personnel and Finance will vote on their final recommendation to the full county board.
• November 3, 6:00pm – Public Hearing on the Personnel and Finance recommendation in front of the full county board.
• November 5 (6pm) & 6 (5pm) – County board discusses and votes on the budget.

If you can’t make it to meetings, you can always email County_Board_Recipients@danecounty.gov or DCDHS.Admin@danecounty.gov to reach HHN members.

WE NEED MONEY TO FUND THE PROJECTS – SUPPORT ALSO NEEDED AT PUBLIC PROTECTION AND JUDICIARY (PP&J) COMMITTEE

As I noted earlier, the sheriff did not get a 4% cut like the other departments in this difficult budget year.  In fact, the sheriff’s department got a $1M increase. And . . . they have 40 vacant sheriff’s positions.  And have been carrying about 30 vacant positions each year.  I think now, in this difficult budget year might be the time to give them up if they don’t fill them each year.

Here’s the offsetting amendments to fund the HHN items above.  They are all operating budget amendments.

• PP&J-O-2 – Reduce expenditures by $2,244,047 by elimination of 16.0 FTE vacant Deputy l-ll positions (415, 423, 424, 433, 457, 597, 604, 627, 1769, 1776, 1936, 1939, 1957, 2453, 2547, 2604) in various programs within the Sheriff Dept. (Wegleitner, Chawla) This amendment eliminates 16.0 FTE vacant Deputy I-II positions in various divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. This amendment is proposed to produce savings to offset amendment HHN-O-01 which restores the 4% reduction to POS agencies included in the County Executive’s budget.
  • This amendment eliminates 16.0 FTE vacant Deputy I-II positions in various divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. This amendment is proposed to produce savings to offset amendment HHN-O-01 which restores the 4% reduction to POS agencies included in the County Executive’s budget.
• PP&J – O-3 – Reduce expenditures by $917,694.88 by elimination of 7.0 FTE vacant Deputy l-ll positions (2307, 2852, 1924, 435, 482, 1777, 2389) in various programs within the Sheriff Dept. This amendment is proposed as an offset to amendment HHN-O-02 which increases funding to operating the city’s men’s shelter. (Wegleitner, Chawla, Furman)
  • The Sheriff’s office has a high rate of deputy positions and is not utilizing its authorized funding because it has been unable to fully utilize its position authority and GPR allocation. Funding is desperately needed right now to serve very vulnerable persons in our community who are unhoused. Dane County has partnered with the City of Madison to develop a new purpose-built shelter for men at Bartillion Drive. The City of Madison has allocated $1.7M for operations and maintenance of the shelter and selected Porchlight as its operator. Additional funds are needed to ensure the shelter will open and operate in 2026. The shelter is intended to provide more housing focused support to reduce the length of time people experiencing homelessness. Improving the shelter experience and reducing homelessness is an alternative to criminalization of homelessness. Data presented to the Community Justicde Council shows that people facing housing insecurity are overrepresented in disorderly conduct bookings in the Dane County jail. Addressing root causes, including basic needs like shelter and housing, will be more successful and affordable than criminalization strategies like arrest and incarceration.
• PP&J-O-4 – Reduce expenditures by $597,000 by elimination of 5.0 FTE vacant Deputy l-ll positions (429, 636, 1994, 639, 3079) in various programs within the Sheriff Dept. This amendment is proposed as an offset to amendment HHN-O-03. (Wegleitner, Chawla)
  • This amendment is proposed as an offset to HHN-O-03. That amendment provides $600,000 in funding for outreach and potential overflow shelter operations needed to serve unhoused and unsheltered households without children due to the expected opening of the new purpose-built shelter at Bartillion Drive which has a capacity limit of 250 shelter guests. The number of households without children has significantly increased and if the Zeier Road temporary shelter operation ends when the new shelter opens, approximately 150-200 households without children will be experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Overflow shelter is particularly important for winter months when people are at risk of injury, including lost limbs from frostbite, and death from having to sleep without shelter. Additional outreach services are needed to provide services to the increasing number of unsheltered people.

ADDITIONAL PP&J MEETINGS TO ATTEND

• Tonight 7:00pm – Here’s the agenda, register and watch here.  Likely discussion only.
• Tuesday, Oct. 21, 5:30pm – Vote on amendments

If you can’t make it to meetings, you can always email County_Board_Recipients@danecounty.gov for all supervisors or stavn.stephanie@danecounty.gov to email only the PP&J supervisors.

HOMELESS SERVICES CONSORTIUM STATEMENT OF EMERGENCY NEEDS

Here are some other things that are also not being funded at the moment and are considerable gaps in the homeless services area.