Bad Blogger Returns

Working 60 – 70 hours a week and trying to have a life have interfered, so I’ve been a bit negligent. Here’s a few things to get caught up . . . Edgewater noise, changes at family shelter, see the vendors who applied to work on police policy and procedure, late meeting notices, OM Village needs volunteers for the store and then the surprise temporary plan for the day resource center and Schenk’s Corner Block Party this Friday and Saturday!

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING – NOISE COMPLAINTS AT THE EDGEWATER
Yeah, duh.

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING
About Edgewater Events and Associated Noise

Please join us for a neighborhood meeting where we will hear about Edgewater event planning/goals of events, actions taken to date to ameliorate negative impacts on the neighborhood of event noise, ongoing neighbor concerns about noise and additional steps that can be taken. There will be a chance to hear from Edgewater Manager Amy Supple and Event Manager Melanie Gautreau, an opportunity to share information on how events affect living around the Edgewater, get information on what can be done and ask questions.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016
7:30 p.m.
Kennedy Manor Dining Room
1 Langdon

SALVATION ARMY RADICALLY CHANGING THEIR SERVICES
A real emergency shelter for families! I think this is a good thing. I’m sure it will be bumpy, but changes are needed.

Upcoming Changes to The Salvation Army’s Family Shelters

The Salvation Army of Dane County currently provides shelter for families who are experiencing homelessness in our community. We operate the County’s only nightly, drop-in family shelter as well as a 90-day stay family shelter.

In our Emergency Family Shelter, the capacity is 18 people or about 4-5 families each night which barely meets the need of the community. This year, we were given the opportunity to have space at First United Methodist Church to use as an overflow family shelter which has a capacity of about 30 people each night. We are able to use that space Sunday-Thursday for the months of April-October. Even with this, the number of families needing a safe place to sleep at night is alarming and greatly exceeds both shelters’ capacities. Families continue to be denied shelter each night left with nowhere else to go. For many families, there is no other option than to sleep on the streets. We simply cannot keep up with the growing need of families needing shelter each night.

In our Family Shelter, there are 18 rooms available where up to 18 families have their own private space for 90 days. The capacity is around 60 people. Many times, families struggle to find affordable housing in Madison and at the end of their stay are forced back to staying in our Emergency Family Shelter.
We have taken a deep look at how we operate our shelters and how we can help end the cycle of homelessness. We cannot accept that families are sleeping on the streets each night and as a result, have made the decision to shift towards providing drop-in shelter only at our 630 East Washington Avenue location. This way we can better meet the short-term, immediate needs of families by providing a safe place to sleep each night.

Effective November 1, 2016, we will operate a nightly, drop-in shelter for women and for families only. We will no longer operate a 90-day family shelter and will be starting an expansive rapid-rehousing program, placing families from the housing list in their own home with extensive case management. We firmly believe that for the long-term, families need to be in their own home instead of a 90-day stay in shelter. This will better allow them stability to focus on getting their needs met and the ability to take the necessary steps to prevent them from becoming homeless again.

Our building’s second floor will be the Emergency Family Shelter and the first floor will be the Women’s Shelter. By doing this, we will be able to accommodate more families and women on a nightly basis and provide more privacy by separating the shelters. By expanding the Women’s Shelter to be where the current Emergency Family Shelter is on the first floor will allow us to better serve women who, for example, have a difficult time sleeping in a large space, have a disability, or are transgender.

Families will continue to be placed in Family Shelter until the end of October to not have empty rooms but have been given notice that as of November 1 it will be a drop-in shelter only.

Information on our new rapid-rehousing program soon to come. Any questions or concerns feel free to contact me,

Carly Sobye
Housing Coordinator
(608)250-2205

WHO’S BRAVE (OR FOOLISH) ENOUGH TO WORK WITH THE MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT?

I hear people like the OIR one . . . haven’t looked at them myself.

MO MEETINGS
There were at least 4 more meeting last week (EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION, EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE, POSSIBLE QUORUM OF LANDMARKS COMMISSION – TOUR OF 801 WILLIAMSON STREET, MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE (MAC) and BOARD OF ASSESSORS – SCHEDULE 12) and here’s the ones for this week.

8:44 on the 15th
Meeting: BOARD OF ASSESSORS SCHEDULE 13
Date: 8/17/2016 8:30 AM
Location: ROOM 101 CCB

8:51 on the 15th
NOTICE OF MEETING CANCELLATION
Meeting: SUSTAINABLE MADISON COMMITTEE on 8/15/2016 4:30 PM at ROOM 300 MMB has been cancelled.

VOLUNTEER WITH OM VILLAGE
Help us keep our store open more hours, make goods for in the store, and help us promote on-line or run our Etsy. Details are here – orientation on the 28th at 11 and 1.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!! Our OM Store helps keep our OM village sustainable. We are able to cover our monthly costs when our store is fully operational. We need a few more helping hands to make that happen!!!

KEEP OUR STORE OPEN!
OM Village is looking for some volunteers to help us sell OM Goods in our OM Store! Right now we have shop hours as follows:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 5:30 – 9:00
Sunday 10 – 7
We are looking for volunteers to help during those hours and to hopefully expand our hours for the holidays!!

We will be hosting a volunteer orientation on Sunday, August 28th at 11am and 1pm. If you are interested, please email occupymadisoninc@gmail.com so we have your contact information.

MAKE GOODS FOR OUR STORE!
If you are interested in helping in our woodworking shop to make goods for the store, feel free to stop by one of our volunteer shifts:
Mon 5:30 – 9:30
Tuesday 6:30 – 9:30
Thursday 5:30 – 9:30
(coming soon we will have Saturday hours again)

(If you are interested on working on the houses, show up for the Tuesday shift.)

HELP US PROMOTE OUR STORE!
Volunteers also needed to help with website content and running our Etsy! If interested email occupymadisoninc@gmail.com.

There’s more I missed along the way, but there’s a bit for you to chew on.

LUTHERANS AND CATHOLICS OH MY!
My grandmother is rolling in her grave! 😉

I heard this rumor a couple months ago. Bethel is opening again so Catholic Charities can get some experience running a day resource center. Catholic Charities is the favorite of United Way and the county. They got special advantages being in on meetings to write the description of what services would be at the day resource center and who knows what else. Bethel must have gotten someone to pay them a pretty penny, since they closed cuz the county wouldn’t give them $200,000 a year. Now they are getting more staff, security, I’m sure maintenance staff and I’m sure money (enough to make their concerns go away). And we aren’t getting the comprehensive day resource center til . . . summer? Meanwhile, the city and county were planning their budgets to get rid of services like storage and laundry etc and put that money into the operations of the day resource center. Sounds like a another clusterfuck. Meanwhile, everyone I know and respect is backing the Dane County Housing Authority proposal to run the day resource center. Catholic Charities has not been involved in ANY homeless services or the homeless services consortium for the 20 years I’ve been ED of the Tenant Resource Center and has no working relationships with the agencies that provide services. Meanwhile, the ED of the Housing Authority is collaborating and being creative to help the homeless community and sits on the Board of Directors of the Homeless Services Consortium and has since the beginning. But the fix was in from the beginning of the latest iterations (Messner/Chamber of Commerce) of the day resource center. I sure hope this one actually opens next summer – unlike so many that came before . . . Wright St, Lien Rd, Martin St, Belini’s . . . and I hope the Housing Authority gets the contract as I know they “get it” . . . what a clusterfuck. It’d be comical if it weren’t tragic.

SCHENK’S CORNERS EVENT TO BENEFIT TENANT RESOURCE CENTER

Come join us for the 4th Annual Schenk’s Corner’s Block Party! Sponsored by WORT, One Barrel Brewery, the Tenant Resource Center, IDEAL BAR, & Alchemy Cafe, the Schenk’s Corners Block Party is Madison’s own east side street music fest!

This year we’ll be adding another night of music, brews, & fantastic neighborhood vibes! Check out the schedule below, and make your plans for one or BOTH days!!!

Friday Aug 19th (4pm -10pm)
4 Nuggernaut
5:15 Paulie Matushek
6:15 The Earthlings
7:30 Material Boys
8:30 Joe Marcinek Band

Saturday Aug 20th (2pm – 10pm)
2 El Donk
3 Leopard Hound
4 Overserved Gentlemen
5:15 Miles over Mountains
6:30 Mission
7:30 Heatbox
8:30 Natty Nation

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.