Includes rooms for intoxicated people, sick people, safe rooms for transgender persons, a bed bug room, pay to stay options, rooms for couples, 160 beds in one location, a public restroom open 24/7, etc.
Here are some quick notes from the neighborhood meeting held by Mike Verveer last night.
INTRODUCTIONS
Verveer kicks off the meeting by saying that in July 2015 many people were surprised by the announcement that this was a possibility and there was a feasibility study done, its not yet complete, but to be transparent they are holding this neighborhood meeting to let people know what has been thought about. It’s a possibility in the future and he continues to keep the Bassett Neighborhood Association updated.
Jeanne Hoffman from the city, who helps plan city facilities explains that this is a preliminary study to see if they have enough space for the all needs in the building.
PRESENTATION
Mike Suehlke from Engberg Anderson presents their findings.
Current conditions
The building is a long narrow building on a steep grade. It goes from a one story building at Fairchild to a 1.5 story building at Doty and Henry. One side abuts the Dane County Parking Garage and has no windows. It currently housing mall maintenance and surplus storage for the city, including confiscated bikes by the police department, on the first floor on Fairchild. The middle floor is police parking (32 cars) and police storage. The bottom floor is underground and is only half built includes mechanical rooms and parking enforcement vehicles.
The building is built structurally so that an additional floor could be added without additional work. The building is in poor shape and needs to have repairs done one way or the other. The roof needs to be replaced, there is a need for exterior work to be done and if the use changes the steal sash windows will need to be replaced. There is no insulation in the building an it sounds like much of the electrical and plumbing needs to be replaced.
Process
They met with the city departments and the police want more space. The mall maintenance entry on fairchild is not entirely desireable, but beyond that they didn’t comment much about the city department needs.
They also met with Porchlight a few times. They looked at the spaces they have now and looked at 5 other shelters in the region. Some of the things they learned is that pay to stay options were desirable, there was a need for a place for intoxicated guests as well as for transgender persons and couples.
– At Higher Ground in the Twin Cities they have a 7 story building which has shelter (171 beds), 80 pay to stay rooms ($7/night) plus Single Room Occupancy units and efficiencies. They have social services, means, showers, some lockers and some healthcare.
– Rockford offers men and women’s shelter, a day center and recovery programs.
– Fox Valley has a men’s and women’s shelter.
– Salvation Army here has women and family shelter
– Mel Trotter Ministries has men and women’s shelter, youth and family shelter, shelter for public intoxicated people, Single Room Occupancy unitee and efficiencies and recovery programs.
NOTE: So much for the whole RESJ thing they talk about, they didn’t meet with homeless people or advocates to see what they thought the needs were. I suppose they’ll get to the eventually, but I think the whole point of the process is to include people early on. Seems like racial and economic and social justice initiatives don’t count when we’re talking about people without homes.
What they learned
From talking to the other shelters, they found the following things that they thought should be included:
– Queuing areas were important. Some have people line up outside, some have a day center attached where people hang out, but they are striving not to have long lines and provide space inside the shelter for people to congregate as they wait to get into shelter.
– Some provided more supportive services such as case managers, dentists, chiropractors, etc.
– Smoking areas are important, if they don’t have them people might not come to shelter. Higher ground has an interior smoking area.
– They looked at how to design bunk beds people like. Their bunk beds include a wall so people can sleep with their back to it, a place to charge items, some storage space and all beds are equal so people don’t feel the need to rush to get there early.
– There is a space for intoxicated people, they can’t drink there so its not a wet shelter, but its a separate space with their own restroom. They call it a “shelter minus” space.
– They have a safe room for transgender guests if they are having issues.
– They have a room for sick guests so they don’t spread their germs. (I think they called it a contamination room.)
– There are pay to stay room where people can stay one week at a time and have their own bedding for the week, it has more storage, access to computers and when they get housing the money they paid to stay can be used for deposit/first months rent.
– They didn’t find any shelters for couples, but they did include some pay to stay areas for couples.
What they included
In their designs of this space they have a large queuing area, smoking area, separate entry for staff and volunteers and the guests, 160 beds, a “contageous room”, flex space in the dining area so they can add additional mats on the floor if necessary, laundry for staff, showers, a pest control room for bed bugs, outreach rooms, a safe room for transgender persons, the “shelter minus” space for intoxicated people, pay to stay rooms, 4 rooms for couples and 2 mens and 2 womens restrooms that are open 24/7.
OPTIONS
They ended up with 51,700 sq feet of need, and there is only 41,000 square feet. Their options include moving mall maintenance out of the building or adding an extra floor or compromising and trying to fit it all in there. There were other considerations such as how to access the building, deliveries, trash, queuing, the fact that this building is zero lot line and there aren’t many options on the outside of the building, making sure there is safe exiting, getting daylight into the space, etc.
These are the options in the order they presented them:
Option 2
In this option the shelter occupies all of top floor. It has windows on 3 sides, access on narrow side on Fairchild. There are 24/7 public restrooms, pay to stay on the west end of the building, the rest of the floor is the shleter. The “back of house” is along the parking ramp, dining and bunk rooms by windows. There are 3 entries – one for the public for the restrooms, one for volunteers and staff and the main shelter entry. There is a smoking enclosure, larger intake space to get people off the streets earlier, especially because traffic is a concern in this area. There is only 26 feet in front and they will have to install ramps due to the grade. The public restrooms are shut off to the shelter. They have a central office that has lots of glass on site lines. There is a “shelter minus” space off to the side with its own restroom separate from shelter. There is a dining area, medic and outreach rooms. The bunk bed area has alternating full height walls and low walls. The walls help to “scale it down” instead of being a huge room. The walls also have electrical outlets and are designed for security. They have a larger area with toilet/showers. They included a “contageous room” and a “safe” room. The Pay to Stay area has a lounge and computer acess with personalized showers. They have 4 couples rooms that will allow women in there.
Option 2B
No public restroom – staff and volunteer entrance near parking lot and the shelter entrance on opposite side.
Option 2C
No public restroom – couples up towards the front so that women don’t walk through the shelter while the men are dressing.
Option 2
They move mall maintenance so they have a better entry on doty, police bike storage, surplus storage, water and electrical. (Those are bad notes, sorry)
Option 3
They add a floor. Mall maintenance stays where they are. They shelter is on the added floor. They have intake on the first floor, then add stairs and elevator. Volunteers and staff and guests would all have to use the same entrance. They have a second lobby on the top floor, it still includes the “shelter minus” room and office with good sight lines in the front. The kitchen is moved to be on side of the building by the parking ramp. The Pay to Stay is also on the Fairchild side of the building. They have an outdoor patio for smoking and include additional exits.
Option 1
Mall maintenance stays on the same floor as the shelter and the work around that area. The public restroom is still included. The bunk area is only 44 beds (which is what they have at Grace right now and they would still need the two overflow churches. There is a smaller dining area, no smoking area and no pay to stay.
COST
Option 1 costs $4.1 – 4.6 million
Option 2 costs 5.8 – 6.3 million
Option 3 costs 7.1 – 7.6 million
Other costs not currently factored in include tenant relocations, moving costs and the longer we delay, the more it will cost in future years.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS
– 166 people in on small area
– Where do people go during the day, wouldn’t a day facility make more sense (Answer: County is working on facility on 600 E. Washington Ave.)
– How will people get there? (Answer: There are vans to the day shelter)
– Land should be sold for a market rate use/housing/offices, this is valuable property (Answer: This land is city controlled and its hard to find other land in the downtown area and they already have to make improvements to this building)
– Why are you doing this now? (Developer approached the city because they want to use Grace Church property in their redevelopment. Verveer made it clear that it was the developer not the church requesting this.)
– Did you look at other sites? (Answer: The study was valuable regardless of where the ultimate site will be, it was requested and its up to the policy makers to decide)
– What about Parisi saying he’s going to study services and gaps – how does this proposal fit in? (Answer: We need a shelter either way, the need won’t go away no matter how coordinated and collaborative services are.)
various aspects working together
– Terrible location – congested and dangerous for pedestrians (Answer: that is why they have the inside queuing area.)
– They should find a property closer to the day shelter with space outside the building.
– They building is underutilized and it will be underutilized even with the shelter, this is prime office space.
– Concept is great, wrong location.
– This will drive away businesses that want to develop in the area.
– This isn’t compatible with tenants who live in the area.
– This will stifle development.
– This will make more homeless people come to Madison, just like the lady in the paper who said she came here for shelter.
– If we just get people jobs we won’t need a shelter.
– Why are you assuming that couples will be male/female? Can transgender couples use the couples space? (Answer: They can address these issues later and assume that they can make the space work for any couples.)
– What is the county doing with the Messner building they bought?
– Won’t there be a day shelter at St. Patrick’s school? (Answer: No.)
– 160 beds is too many people in one space. They will all charge over there at the same time. (Answer: They have 160 people now, and not more thna 50 – 60 line up at a time and that is why the queuing space is there. Also combining spaces creates efficiencies.)
– How will this affect property assessments. (Answer: they didn’t study that.)
– Do any developers create affordable housing or shelters on their own? They seem to only create housing that people can’t afford. She hopes this will be downtown.
– City staff just said that in 2014 they agreed that we need a purpose built shelter and we should work on that, the difficulty is siting it, if we don’t already control the site. It is very difficult and expensive to find a location downtown. Access to transportation and zoning limitations make it hard.
And, that was it.
Perhaps in 7 years . . . oh, wait, this is the city not the county. Maybe in 3 – 4 years?
