Council Evicts Homeless Occupy Residents

When April 30th comes, almost 100 homeless people will have no where to go. Last night the council tripped all over themselves trying to convince themselves that they really cared about homelessness and affordable housing, but came up with excuse after excuse, helped by city staff, about why they had to vote to evict homeless people from their limited shelter and a place they spend with their new family that they call home.

It was a four hour discussion in Room 260 in the Municipal Building, which means that most people couldn’t hear portions of it. I have notes and hopefully audio of the meeting which I may find some time to type up – but I’d have to find the time. And I’m guessing between work and this issue, I may not have time.

THE PROPOSAL
The proposal that the council was voting on was to do 5 things:
1. Extend the time they could stay, moving down the site to another lot.
2. Have Madison Urban Ministry explore other sites for a tent city.
3. Create a joint city-county committee to address Homeless Issues.
4. Allow the cars to stay on the site until the 30th, instead of making them move by the 22nd.
5. Ask the police to help enforce the good neighbor policy when called by residents.

WHAT PASSED?!
I’m not really sure. They handed out some new version of the motion, and it was really hard to follow without a copy. I think what they decided was . . . well, I may have to amend this later.
1. They have to be out by the 30th, no extension.
2. They will convene people for something.
3. They will create a committee with the county to talk about homeless issues.
4. The cars can stay til the deadline.
5. They will ask social service agencies to try to help the people on the site.

So, uh, they created a committee. I actually support the committee, but its classic do nothing, talk about it later solution that makes them feel like they did something.

THE EXCUSES
I don’t know where to begin. There were so many.

The Police. I’m actually starting with the least objectionable objections. Yes, the cops are the good guys here. And yes, I said that. The police concerns were that the camp might be growing too big and it makes it harder to control. They were very complimentary to the people living there, and although there are more police calls, they were quick to point out that it was a parking lot previously. And where there are people, stuff happens, and that these calls would happen elsewhere to some extent.

1. Chief Wray’s objection was a little obnoxious, in that he wanted there to be more “specificity” to how this ended, but then couldn’t say what he was looking for.
2. They were concerned about the size of the encampment, but couldn’t say what size would be optimal or too large. They were concerned that it might grow with the warming weather.
3. They were concerned about the increasing calls for service.

The Fire Department. They weren’t asked any questions, but they came forward on their own to make sure their concerns were heard.

4. They were concerned about the severe weather, and that there was no protection for people in the middle of a parking lot.

Um, of course, Marsha Rummel had to point out that the alternatives were no better.

The Businesses. They called on Aaron Olver to give the commercial about the plans for the Don Miller Properties. And, even tho the council hasn’t voted on it and the alder hasn’t agreed to this, he volunteered another excuse for why they couldn’t use the site across the street.

5. Marty Rifkin wants to pay $1000 a month to allow parking on the site because parking will be disrupted by construction.

6. There was also another concern that didn’t come up as much, but there was a concern that the tent city had to move because the project approved last night needed it for a staging area by May 15th, but that date moved to July once that excuse was no longer needed. And, well, it was just absurd to think they would break ground within a month of approval.

Zoning. This one is just obnoxious. This wasn’t a concern for the last 7 months. And it wasn’t a concern when it was a popular political movement, but when its a not so popular homeless tent city, now it is a problem. Tim Bruer kept hammering on this one, probably to show that the mayor allowed this illegal use.

7. A campground isn’t allowed in this zoning district, it is neither a conditional or permitted use.

Subeck had to point out that for businesses, when this happens, they just change the law about the zoning, so they could get around it if they wanted to.

Insurance. Again, Bruer was trying to get the city attorney to say this was a big concern, of course, as the city attorney for Madison, he was trying to make it as clear as possible that their argument was that of course they wouldn’t be liable depending upon the facts. I’m not sure Bruer ever picked up on that. May said unless there was negligence they likely wouldn’t be liable. He also said that just because we own the land, it doesn’t mean we are at risk.

8. Concern that they could be held liable if something happened on the site.

New site.This one was from Manaici.

9. It’s too late in the process, too many details to work out (that also came from staff wondering aloud if there would be issues with other departments, but they were not sure) and the new site might be too small.
10. There is an easement for the billboard on the property. I wasn’t sure how that was an issue, but it was raised as if it was one.

Political Will. Like I said, they really, really, really wanted to help these people, they said it over and over and over, but you know, well, they just have to follow the rules . . . now.

11. They have an oath to uphold and they can’t approve anything that would not uphold the law (this is in reference to the camping permit below.)

The Mayor. This has been pretty thoroughly covered in other posts, so I will just list them here. He made his same speech about shared revenue, costs, tough choices, etc. He did manage to acknowledge that he made a promise to address poverty now that the budget was addressed.

12. We’re a magnet for the poor.
13. A report not yet done says this cost us nearly $30K in staff time.
14. We have tough choices to make.
15. We already have stellar services for the poor.
16. We already spend enough on the poor.
(Ooops, I found my number 20! No other city spends this much on human services, this is a county function!)

State Campground Permit. This was the killer. And, the really sad part about this is that the sponsors tried to ask all the questions and cross their t’s and dot their i’s. But still, new and different answers kept popping up.

17. They didn’t believe the state would give them an extension, they fought really hard last time, but seemed unwilling to fight hard this time.
18. They didn’t have enough time to apply for a new permit or an extension, they need 30 days.
19. They needed someone else to apply for the permit, they city didn’t apply for the last one, it was done by an individual.
20. Ok, I don’t have a 20, I just wanted a round number! 🙂 I actually may have missed some excuses . . . I’ll have to review my notes. (see item above)

LACK OF CREATIVITY
I could have come up with several other solutions that the council could have discussed.
– Allow only 4 large tents (they can have 4 tents without a campground permit)
– Allow the kitchen and porta-potties to remain
– Move it across the street, to the Don Miller property where the development is “on hold”.
– Move it to Union Corners.
– Move it to Central Park.
– Allow the community (Madison Urban Ministries) to report back to the council on their findings.
– Direct the city staff to at least try to get a camp ground permit extension. (Brian Solomon tried this one!)
– Set up an official city committee to look for another site or even building.
– Consider renting a new site from a private owner. (Mautz Paint, Dairy site, etc)

PROMISES, PROMISES
So, the ironic thing to me is that the council finally thinks that we might have a problem with affordable housing and homelessness. There was a lot of discussion about how this has come up many times and they don’t do anything about it and now they had a sense of urgency and they had to do something tonight or once again they would not do anything. There was also lots of talk about how they really had to work on affordable housing and that was the real solution. (DUH!) Several people made a commitment to really work on it this time.

Whatever. As Lisa Subeck says, we’ve been screaming about this for years, it has always been urgent. I don’t expect much, and it seems sad it is a victory to have them just admit there is a problem. That’s the first step, I guess. I’m guessing they relapse many times before they actually address the issues for real, if they ever make it.

As alders and others stood around after the meeting shaking their heads, saying there are no good answers and feeling like they did the best they could, I kept thinking they don’t have to go look real people in the face and tell them, well, you know, there are no good answers, sorry.