The agreement between the city and county is going before the CDBG Commission on Thursday.
For those who may not have read my blogs before, the purple is my thoughts, the black text is just factual information. I suspect that my posts will be turning more towards the purple end of things and I will stop this practice in the future, but its a good way to distinguish reporting from opinion.
WHAT IS IN THE AGREEMENT?
The agreement is actually quite sparse – I was quite surprised. Once you blow past all the obvious language and legal mumble jumble the only substantive portions are as follows:
- The county seems to be treating the city like a nonprofit and making they go through all the same processes for reimbursement as the non-profits do. I didn’t think that is how it worked in these agreements and it makes me giggle just a little. (page 2, IV., page 3 IX. and appendix B & C)
- City agrees to notify the County when the selection of a service provider (“Operator”) is finalized. Hmmm, I thought the operator is Porchlight, wonder what needs to be finalized? (page 2, V.)
- Proposed policies and procedures related to Shelter services and operations will be provided by City to County prior to the execution of City’s contract with the Operator. City agrees that those policies set forth in Section X of this Agreement shall be included in Operator’s proposed policies and procedures. County shall review the proposed policies and procedures to determine whether to provide its written approval. Such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld. Substantive Shelter policy changes will not be made without prior mutual agreement between City and County. Substantive policy changes include:
- i. Limits on Shelter use,
- ii. Establishing priorities and/or preferences for filling open shelter beds,
- iii. Days and hours of operation,
- iv. Services provided on-site at Shelter, and
- v. Policies related to grievance, complaint, and/or service termination and suspension.
I would think this would be largely worked out by now. But it seems its still not worked out? (page , VI.)
- City and County agree that the following terms are material to this agreement:
- City shall ensure that Shelter incorporates the following policy for Shelter stay duration: If a Shelter guest is unable to secure housing within a timeframe agreed upon by City and County, they will not automatically lose their bed. However, at that time, case management requirements will increase, and active engagement in case management will be mandatory for that guest to continue their Shelter stay, pursuant to applicable Shelter program policies. This is not Housing First type language or what I’ve come to know as best practices. It certainly isn’t the “low barrier” shelter we were promised. Mandatory case management, where the case management is seen as punishment, is not going to be successful. There should be aggressive offering of services and time spent building relationships with people on the case managers end. I don’t think its likely to be successful if forced.
- City shall ensure Shelter incorporates a policy for Shelter guest referrals to open beds that prioritizes the most vulnerable guests known to our community awaiting Shelter access. Markers used to assess vulnerability may include, but are not limited to, returns to Shelter from hospitalization, actively living in an unsheltered location or place not meant for human habitation, being age 65+, and/or meeting medical vulnerability criteria. I can live with this criteria, however, I don’t see what the city and county are doing to help the outreach groups who will be dealing with everyone being turned away or on the waiting list. There doesn’t seem to be much of a plan there. (pages 3, XI.)
- If the city or county doesn’t follow the agreement, there is only a 30 day warning to fix the issue before the agreement would be terminated. (page 3-4, XI)
- The city shall – Meet regularly with designated staff from the DCDHS HAA Division to discuss areas of mutual interest related to The Shelter including but not limited to community relations, safety, service provision, shelter guest experience, etc. Sounds like there will be lots of meetings, there were other requirements for quarterly meeting as well. (page 9 Appendix A)
- There are requirements about if the reporting about the Operator. (Appendix C)
The most substantive part of the agreement, as far as the shelter guests go seems to be the policy for length of stay and referrals for beds.
WHAT’S NOT IN THE AGREEMENT?
Beyond some of the details of the policies, there are some very major issues not talked about in this agreement.
- What happens to the people who can’t get into shelter, where should they go?
- Who is going to be providing services to the people who were in the shelter or who can’t get into the shelter?
- What is the plan beyond the shelter?
TIME TO SPEAK UP
If you have been watching as things play out this spring with the many encampment sweeps and pointing fingers in the other direction and have been wondering what you can do, now is the time to speak up. This is the first time since the closure of Dairy Drive Campground and the budget that the members of the public have an opportunity to speak to committees and the City Council about homelessness.
This item is scheduled to come before the following committees on the following dates:
- Community Development Block Grant Committee (5/7/26) – 5:30pm (on zoom)
- Email for committee members = cdbgcommittee@cityofmadison.com
- You can register here – https://www.cityofmadison.com/MeetingRegistration
- Finance Committee (5/11/26) – 4:30pm (in person and on zoom)
- Email for the committee members = financecommittee@cityofmadison.com
- Agenda not yet available, most likely will come out on Friday
- Common Council (5/19/26) – 6:30 (in person and on zoom)
- Email for the council = allalders@cityofmadison.com
- Email for the Mayor = mayor@cityofmadison.com
CONCLUSION/WRAP UP
For those following me on Facebook, you have seen several encampment sweeps already this spring, the City going after the Social Justice Center because people hang out around there (as they do on State St. by several businesses that aren’t being harassed by the City and around the Capitol Square and Veteran’s Museum) and other things already going on this spring. And it hasn’t even gotten warm yet. And when the shelter opens in June or July, there will be another 100 people outside.
This new shelter is a good thing. It’s beautiful. But it has a very major flaw in that its about 150 – 200 beds short. The already need a second shelter of the same size to be able to allow everyone who wants to go to shelter to be in shelter.
Not to mention that if you are new to homelessness, where do you go? How do you find services? How do you figure out where to sleep outside? What’s the plan for these folks?
What if you lost your bed because you missed a night in shelter but you are on the high priority list with medical needs, 65+ etc. and you have to wait for an open bed. Where do you go?
Encampment sweeps are not good for so many reasons, there are studies about the health impacts (this too!) and there are best practices. Primarily that you don’t sweep encampments unless there is housing to offer and its done in a trauma-informed way. Best practices include giving 30 days notice to move, providing property storage (not showing up with a dump truck) and having clear protocols. If you don’t have it, you don’t sweep the camp.
These are the things that keep me up at night.