It would have happened today at noon and 6:00 . . . but our demands have already been met!
At noon today members of AFSCME Local 60, housing and homeless activists, members of the Fighting Poverty Coalition and other concerned citizens, including current City and County elected officials, had planned a sit in at the City-County building to call attention to the City of Madison’s and Dane County’s recent efforts to rid the City-County building of the homeless. The most recent attempt to rid the building of homeless occurred when hallway benches were removed from the building to make way for the throngs of absentee voters that would be coming to vote in the District 2 primary and a County Judge race. Meanwhile, old furniture was piled in the hallway of the City-County Building, but apparently wasn’t an issue. Last week, only 60 voters voted absentee.
We are happy to report that around 3:00 on Wednesday, before the absentee voting for the spring primary (Feb 21) was completed, they returned the benches to the hallway. Instead of a sit-in today at noon and 6:00, will be gathering to celebrate the return of the benches and discussing next steps to restore dignity to our homeless neighbors and to provide amenities that are useful to everyone.
Possible requests include the need for convenient access to daytime storage for belongings, public restrooms, public showers and providing other basic amenities we all can use and provide dignity to those who are living without a place to call home.
Possible next steps may include addressing this issue:
When I was at the capital yesterday, testifying on the latest awful anti-tenant bill, a guy called me over and wanted to talk to me. He explained he was upset because he felt there was an area where they could attach some lockers to one of the homeless shelters and allow people to store their items there instead of him haveing to “babysit” other people’s bags. Today he was “babysitting” the bag for a gentleman who was going to a job interview. He wants us to do something about it. He also told me about the lack of mats and blankets noted in the email below. And, he was upset about how filthy the homeless shelters are. He gave me his email and wanted to help figure out how to change things.
And, yesterday, this email started making the rounds – its from another homeless person to Porchlight staff:
Brad Hinkfuss
I am writing this in regard to the shortage of mats and blankets at shelter 1 & 2, I and others are curious as to why this issue has not been addressed? We know there is a high demand on the drop in shelter and has been for the last few weeks, last night there was 175 people signed in. But your employees also know that there is a need for more mats and blankets, at shelter 2 alone they have had to throw out at least five mats due to them being urinated on, and I personally have had to sleep on the floor 6 times in the last two weeks due to the shortage and on 2 occasions this was without even the benefit of having a blanket to use. Should people not be afforded such a simple accommodation?
Since we are on the subject of mats I personally am wondering why and when it became Porchlights practice to begrudge someone the usage of a mat because he is intoxicated? This seems to me as a form of cruel and unusual punishment , and not a very good deterrent.
On the subject of the intoxicated, it has become the practice as of late to place all of the intoxicated at shelter 2. This as you can imagine is NOT a good idea, and has caused problems not only for the homeless people staying there ie fights, arguments and out right belligerence, but is an unnecessary stress to your employee’s. Preston knows who these individuals are and who are their friends, and is only enabling them to continue their behavior by allowing them back outside after sign in and giving them the opportunity to drink more and bring their drink of choice into the shelter.
My last question, Why is there not any handicap bars in the shower?
I hope that these issues can be easily addressed and I thank you once again for your time.
Sincerely
I walk by shelter 2 every night, and I haven’t noticed intoxicated people there, but that doesn’t mean that isn’t true. One night I did walk by and saw the door propped open with a brick and no one in sight, and it was one of the coldest nights and I wondered why they were letting the heat out. I have noticed the orange plastic chair with its legs jammed in the door handles that appears to be the lock. Last night, I saw a scooter parked at the top of the stairs and had to wonder why that person couldn’t use the scooter to go where they needed to go and if they were sleeping on the floor that night.
The really sad thing about the mats and blankets is at the last Homeless Services Consortium, the representative from Porchlight reported that the response to the fire at their facility was so overwhelming that they couldn’t take any more items from people.
Anyways, join us today at noon and 6:00 to celebrate and help us network and think about our next steps.
