Housing program to attack homelessness
April 11, 2006
Dean Mosiman
dmosiman@madison.com
www.madison.com
A bold, new - and perhaps costly - initiative can prevent
and end homelessness in Dane County, political and social
service officials say.
The city, county, United Way of Dane County and social
service providers are moving to a "housing first"
strategy that cuts reliance on emergency shelters and
emphasizes prevention, quickly moving the homeless to
housing, and delivering more and better services.
The initiative hopes to shrink the number of homeless by 50
percent in five years and create a new landscape by 2015.
"We're talking about changing the way we deliver
services and the type of services," said Nan Cnare, vice
president for community building at United Way. "We are
saying in this plan . . . it is not acceptable to have
homelessness in our community."
The initiative is based on a 70-page plan created by the Dane
County Homeless Services Consortium, a group representing the
city, county, faith- based organizations and dozens of
nonprofits from ARC Community Services Inc. to Youth Services
of Southern Wisconsin Briarpatch.
It draws from best practices from other communities such as
the Rapid Exit program in Hennepin County, Minn., and Project
HOME in Philadelphia, Pa.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, County Executive Kathleen Falk, United
Way of Dane County President Leslie Ann Howard and others
will formally unveil the plan at a news conference at 10 a.m.
today at the social service agency Porchlight, 306 N. Brooks
St.
"This is a very important priority for county
government," Falk said, noting that the county already
spends millions of dollars to combat homelessness and keep
people in their homes.
The plan relies heavily on better training, sharing resources
and efficiencies among service providers and more money from
the private sector and city, county, state and federal
government.
It expects, for example, that the city would use its
Affordable Housing Trust Fund and tax incremental financing
(TIF) set- aside money to provide 40 units of housing
available to very low-income households.
No one has calculated an overall price tag or determined
exactly who will pick up the tab.
"This is a statement of principles," Cieslewicz
spokesman George Twigg said. "We are trying to look at
the issue in a much more cooperative and collaborative way.
It's a complex problem that will take many years to
solve."
Although homelessness seems to have decreased in recent
years, the problem remains significant.
A snapshot from Jan. 25, 2005, found 1,066 people in
emergency or transitional shelters, seeking shelter, or
staying in places like cars or park shelters, and there were
an estimated 5,095 homeless residents in the county last
year.
The number of homeless children in the Madison schools rose
to 485 this year after falling from a peak of 641 in 2001.
And the number of homeless single adult men in shelters
lately is higher than the same months in recent years.
Consortium members have been discussing a new approach for
several years, and the effort began in earnest with a
"Housing for All" community conversation in March
2005.
The community already has begun to try the new approach, said
Steven Schooler, executive director of Porchlight, which
provides services and shelter to the homeless.
Porchlight and Tellurian UCAN are doing outreach work on
State Street and other areas, and the agencies have several
apartments units where homeless people can be moved quickly,
Schooler said.
"Some things are under way," he said.
Also, landlords are "opening their minds" to
renting to struggling families that get finance training,
said Dan Matson of United Way.
Still, the need for child care, substance abuse treatment and
mental health treatment far exceeds available resources,
Schooler said.
"This is not going to be easy. Nor is it going to be
cheap," he said. "However, the consequences,
socially and fiscally, of doing nothing are far more
expensive."