SJC/Homelessness: What does it take to get some help around here?

By
Brenda Konkel
-

The city is paralyzed by politics while lives are on the line.  After 6 months of reaching out to the city, what would you do?

NOTE:  This is my personal blog, where I express my personal opinions and the opinions here should not be attributed to Madison Street Medicine, Social Justice Center, Progressive Dane or Occupy Madison – or any other organization I might be affiliated with.  It’s true, its messy and complicated, and then again, not.  Some poeple in those organizations may agree with me, some would say it differently and others agree and some even don’t mind my style.

THE ISSUE

Since January the Social Justice Center has been getting increasing complaints from our neighbors, maybe just one in particular, but we decided to try to meet the situation head on.  We’ve been doing nothing but running in circles, trying to act in good faith, be cooperative and getting met with a brick wall.  Until, things got really adversarial really quickly – without ever having a face to face conversation with decision makers at the city to try to find solutions that we can all live with, despite our multiple attempts.

The issue is that homeless people, without homes, have no home and neighbors have to deal with unhoused neighbors.  Complaints from the neighbors are like playing whack-a-mole, but here’s the list:

  • noise
  • people going to the bathroom in their yards
  • too dark
  • drug sales
  • drug usage

Solutions to these “problems” otherwise known as people, have been as follows:

  • remove the public health vending machine

  • remove the food pantry

  • remove the benches
  • remove the public art
  • remove the rain/pollinator garden
  • put up a no trespassing sign
  • put up cameras
  • park the van in a different parking spot
  • more lighting
  • put up a gate at the top of the ramp
  • hire security
  • banning people
  • too many police calls
  • add a portapotty

THE HISTORY

This memo to the city sums it up best.

TO: Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway

CC: Acting Chief John Patterson, City Attorney Mike Haas, Community Development Director Jim O’Keefe, Public Health Director Janel Heinrich, Planning Community and Economic Director Matt Wachter, Parks Superintendent Eric Knepp, Alder Davy Mayer

RE: Social Justice Center, Homelessness and Conflicting City Goals and Messages

REASON FOR WRITING

In the past year, residents/city officials/MPD have voiced concerns about the safety and well-being of the Willy St. Neighborhood due to what they feel are programs that attract houseless community members to the area. We have engaged with and attempted to address the concerns of these stakeholders since January of 2025. Since then, we have pursued multiple steps to try to address concerns/complaints in the community with little success or positive feedback from the City of Madison or MPD. We have received conflicting and different action steps from MPD officers responding to citizen reports/complaints as well as city officials each time we have had conversations which has made understanding and complying with City of Madison requirements/expectations extremely difficult.

We are writing to you today after growing concern on our behalf of how we, as an organization and the clients we proudly serve, are being perceived by the City of Madison, MPD, and local residents. We understand that the complicated and macro level issues contributing to the presence of houseless community members in Madison are not easy to address. We do not feel that our efforts have been acknowledged or heard by the City of Madison and as an organization, feel we have exhausted all remedies to address any community concerns in the Willy St. neighborhood outside of meeting with the Mayor and any other relevant city departments/officials. We hope to begin a conversation and provide context to the situation, but also to determine and develop a plan for steps the Social Justice Center can take to serve the community and better the City of Madison for all. 

MEETING REQUEST

We are requesting a single meeting where all key stakeholders can come together to align on priorities and ensure consistent direction moving forward.

BACKGROUND/HISTORY

As background, here are some of the efforts we have made this year to address concerns presented to us by neighbors, businesses and the police.

  • Last January 30th, we proactively reached out to the police department due to frequent neighbor complaints from one neighbor that we were aware of.  This is a neighbor who has at least 5 phone numbers of our board members who she can text if there are issues so we can respond to them in the moment, but we have been experiencing communication difficulties and she chooses to call the police instead.  She also has installed cameras pointing at our parking lot and the public sidewalk.
  • February 5th we got a response from Captain Angela Kamoske.  She suggested we put up cameras, so we did.  At this time it didn’t seem as if there were urgent issues to meet with the police department about.
  • At this time we also did an open records request to get the calls for service to our property; the request was made on January 30th and waited until February 27th to get the information.
  • On March 31st Officer James Dower stopped by and talked with Brenda Konkel, a board member who works in the building.  They discussed the on-going dispute between the neighbors and the quality of life issues.  The primary issues at this time were lack of restrooms and drug usage.  We explained we had explored many solutions and that we had adjusted the timing of the lights, put up the camera, and looked at parking the van in a different location, but determined it was not feasible in that small parking lot,  as well as putting a gate up to lock off the ramp – but the fire department said it was not possible.  He suggested we look at  getting a portapotty – but Brenda explained that it would cause other issues (noise, smell) and likely just attract more people to our property.  He also suggested we put up more signs.  His supervisor was supposed to get back to us after this discussion.  Unfortunately, we did not receive any follow up communication regarding this matter.
  • After the meeting on the 31st we  followed up with
  • On April 4th Officer Dower thanked us for putting up the signs and we  tried to move the van, which we had talked about previously. At this time we began investigating adding lights to the van that would have motion detectors and offered to listen to any other suggestions he might have. 
  • On April 8th we sent an email to the neighborhood association, the alder (Marsha Rummel) and parks department, requesting a meeting.  Alder Rummel replied suggesting we add incoming Alder Davy Mayer, CDD Director Jim O’Keefe, and Captain Kipp Hartman.
  • On April 9th our Board President met with Officer Dower, Captain Harman and Lt. Dave Meinert.  They continued to recommend things that we had already addressed with them (see previous email links)
  • On April 16th we again reached out about the neighborhood meeting.
  • At this time the board made the following decisions to address the situation and communicated them to Officer Dower.
    • Even more signage!  
    • Revised the rules we have posted inside the building
    • Closed the building May 5 – 16 to modify some things in and outside of the building and ensure that staff and volunteers were on the same page and ready to enforce the new rules and be less lenient.
  • May 5th – 16th we closed down the building and did the following
    • Cleaned up the exterior
    • Rearranged the interior for better views
    • Rehung signs
    • Revised rules
  • On May 9th we hosted the neighborhood meeting at the Social Justice Center.  At the meeting the police portrayed us as being “non-compliant”  However, after that meeting we made additional changes after hearing from the neighbors.
    • installed lights around the vending machine
    • renewed our efforts to get motion detector lighting on the box truck
  • On June 20th we hosted another neighborhood meeting at Wilmar.  At that time the police invited Assistant Attorney Jennifer Zilavy who said that we were at risk of becoming a chronic nuisance.  (Note:  The ordinance only applies to residential properties)
    • After this meeting we followed up with Catalyst for Change to see what ideas they might have for this situation.
    • We also provided the police a copy of our new rules and protocols in the building
  • On June 27th Madison Street Medicine along with Catalyst for Change met with the Community Development Division for our bi-weekly meeting.  At this time we discussed the situation and sought guidance since Madison Street Medicine is in the building and supposed to be building relationships with people sleeping outside, while simultaneously being asked to enforce unrealistic neighborhood expectations.  At that meeting Director Jim O’Keefe asked what we wanted, MSM sent this email in response on June 30th.  As well as this less helpful email, with a very real point that paints the picture of the predicament service providers are in.
  • We had multiple police interactions, several of them ending in our request to meet and resolve this.
  • And the situation changed very quickly after this.

CONCERNS

After everything we have been through, we are realizing that the City does not speak with one voice and is often working at cross purposes and in the end, not accomplishing much.

  • PUBLIC HEALTH: 
    • Police (or City Attorney?) want us to get rid of Public Health Vending Machine, Public Health Department helps stock the machine
  • ENGINEERING: 
    • Police wanted us to get rid of our rain garden – city encourages rain gardens (been in place since 2001)
  • CITY IN GENERAL: 
    • FOOD: Police (City Attorney?) wanted us to get rid of our food pantry which provides over 10,000 pounds of food each year and was encouraged during COVID since 2019
  • PLANNING
    • ART: Police (City Attorney?) want us to get rid of our public art in place since 2008
    • PLACEMAKING: Police (City Attorney?)  want us to get rid of our benches in place since 2011
  • COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
    • CDD pays MSM to build relationships with people sleeping outside and MPD wants us to play an enforcement role
    • CDD (and other departments) doesn’t like us giving out tents but that is what would get people to move off the terrace
  • PARKS
    • People moved from our property to the terrace to the Park

CONCLUSION

At this point, we would like a meeting with the city to address the root causes of this issue and come to some resolution and understanding of the situation.  Clearly the police officers are frustrated, we are frustrated, the people involved are frustrated, other city staff are frustrated and we are all wasting valuable time that would be better spent trying to end homelessness instead of manage it.

Please let us know at your earliest convenience if you would be available for such a meeting.

Sincerely,

SJC Board of Directors

  • President – DaMontae January (Community Member)
  • Treasurer – Brenda Konkel (Madison Street Medicine)
  • Stephanie Rearick (Madison MAN)
  • Kristin Mathews (Community Member, Volunteer)
  • Lisa Nunez (608 Arts)
  • Bryan Davis (LGBTQ Books to Prisoners)
  • Steve Herrick (Interpreters Coop)
  • Hannah Renfro (Tenant Resource Center)
  • John Parsons (President of MCC)  
  • Maple Epp (MCC)

SINCE TUESDAY MORNING

  • No direct response from the MPD
  • No direct response from Parks
  • No response from Public Health
  • No response from Community Development
  • No response from Dept. of Planning, Community and Economic Division
  • Alder Davy Mayer responded with the idea of moving the Public Health Vending Machine to the Fire Department Across the street.
  • I met with the City Attorney/City Clerk Michael Haas to share my concerns about Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy’s adversarial, not solutions oriented approach.  He followed up saying she denies.
  • The police department have been swarming the neighborhood. They told campers to move again (in the rain yesterday)  removed one member of the homeless community from the neighborhood (hopefully for mental health help) and I think ticketed at least one person.  They also were seen knocking on all the neighbors doors, but didn’t come talk to us.

  • The Parks Department removed this person, they are the ones I think got a ticket, but its unclear to me

  • I met with the people directly impacted to hear directly from them and try to figure out where they would sleep tonight and where to put their stuff.   They had solutions, but none that were great for them or likely satisfactory to the city.
  • The MARI program visited me at my office.  I think it was just a coincidence, but it got people’s attention wondering why police were talking to me again.
  • The mayor’s office responded late today, completely missing the point . . .

    • Dear Ms. Konkel and SJC Board Members – thank you for the detailed letter outlining your concerns. We certainly agree that we would like to see the dispute between the Social Justice Center and its neighbors resolved collaboratively so that the SJC can continue its important work and residents’ concerns are addressed.

      My understanding is that there is a meeting scheduled for tomorrow between SJC leadership and MPD staff including Captain Hartmann to discuss the complaints. That sounds like an excellent next step toward making progress on the situation, and look forward to hearing the outcome of that meeting. Best,

      Sam

  • To which I replied . .  .
    • Sam –
      Thanks for your response, but respectfully, we need more than a meeting with the police department, the city is working at odds with itself and we are caught in the middle.
      More importantly, I certainly hope that the Mayor’s office doesn’t see homelessness as a policing issue.  We’ve worked hard to decriminalize homelessness in this city and I hope we aren’t going backwards, especially with Trump’s latest executive orders.  I hope this progressive city can put our minds together and find a better way.  Unfortunately, this is just a sign of things to come, especially when the men’s shelter opens and only can take 250 people when we know there were 400 in the shelters over the winter.  150 people aren’t going to disappear.  In fact, if trends hold, that number will increase.
      I hope we can do better.

NOW WHAT?

The police department is not going to have the answers any more than anyone else, and I’m not shitting on them, I’m sincerely not sure why this is dumped in their lap and we are not trying a community based, collaborative response.

I do feel a little speechless and can’t decide how to describe this situation.  I would have started using words like inept, cowardice, indifference, self-centered, incompetent . . . and it gets worse from there.  So let’s try these with the help of AI.

  • A systemic failure to respond to unfolding crises.

  • Neglect of duty during a time of escalating harm.

  • Leadership vacuum in the face of clear evidence.

  • Government silence while communities suffer.

  • Ongoing deterioration met with administrative indifference.

Sigh.  I know we can do better.

THE ABSOLUTE WORST PART

Today I spent some time connecting an outreach person who was kinda distraught and desperate to find a client they were concerned about due to suicidal ideations.  Luckily we found the person and they were ok.

When I met with people two statements from two different people at different points in the meeting were:

  • “Seems like they want us to commit suicide” and “We’re not supposed to exist”.
  • I’m going to end up dying or kill myself.

It’s always been about life and death to me, homeless people die 20-30 years earlier than the average American.  Ending homelessness saves lives.  But now, the desperation is palpable.

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