NEWS
Mayor denies wet-shelter
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by Aubre Andrus
Thursday, January 20, 2005
The Madison Warming Center Campaign met with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz Wednesday morning to discuss the need for a wet-shelter facility in the city, but Cieslewicz offered only $15,000 toward short-term help for the homeless.
George Twigg, spokesperson for the mayor, said the request to finance a $300,000 wet shelter would have to come from outside the city’s already planned budget. There are many worthy programs advocating for funding, such as domestic-abuse shelters, he added.
“It’s not going to be feasible to do a $300,000 wet-shelter project when it is going outside the regular budget process and there are so many other competing needs as well,” Twigg said. “It just isn’t fair for people seeking funding going the regular process.”
According to Twigg, the mayor offered $15,000 in contingency funds to address the issue of homelessness on a smaller scale. If the Warming Center Campaign and the Homeless Consortium, two groups who support the wet shelter, create a proposal detailing the best use of the money, then the mayor will support their scaled-down ideas, Twigg said.
Executive Director of Porchlight, Inc., Steve Schooler, created the wet-shelter proposal. According to a release, the wet shelter would act as an emergency shelter facility for those individuals who are turned away from homeless shelters for being intoxicated. Many homeless shelters in Madison have rules to protect the people inside from harm, which includes denying potentially dangerous intoxicated individuals shelter within.
Nathan Fuller, a member of Madison Warming Campaign, said the group would discuss what is most needed for the homeless with the Homeless Consortium and then will present it to the mayor. Once a proposal is created, it will need a three-fourths majority approval from City Council, Fuller added.
Fuller said the Madison Warming Campaign is thankful for the chance to put $15,000 toward helping the homeless, but there are many needs for the homeless left unmet.
“We went in there to get the mayor and the county to put the money into a wet shelter,” Fuller said. “They said, ‘No, we don’t have enough money for this service,’ so we were disappointed in that sense, because we know the city has the budget.”
Fuller said the city has a $192 million budget, and the county’s budget is estimated at $450 million. Fuller said the city’s budget is large enough, but the money is being used for things that are not necessary, such as recarpeting the Monona Terrace.
Fuller said there is no wet shelter available in Madison, and one to two people are turned down every night from the available homeless shelters.
“If an individual is intoxicated and tries to go to a shelter and is denied, there is nowhere for them to go but a detox center and for the police to take them off the street,” Fuller said. “They would be released out on the street in an endless cycle.”
Fuller said if the homeless with alcohol or drug problems were allowed into the homeless-care system, managers could work with the individuals and help them eventually achieve sobriety. Three people died in a three-week period last March, one of whom was denied shelter because of intoxication.
According to Twigg, a project the size of the warming shelter needs to be considered in the city’s budget, which was already planned last fall. Twigg said the state or federal government are the ones that have been cutting funding for social-service projects for years, while the city does its best to address competing needs in the city.
Ryan Corcoran, a candidate running against Ald. Austin King, District 8, this spring, said with such a large budget, it is “disgusting” that there is no money for a wet shelter. There is a lack of leadership and a lack of action, he added.
“It would save lives,” Corcoran said. “If every resident in the city and county put up $1, it would pay for a shelter.”
Anonymous (January 20, 2005 @ 12:53pm):
If you choose to booze you lose - homeless, homed, whatever.
Anonymous (January 20, 2005 @ 5:17pm):
Okay, now I'm going Republican! I'm not gonna pretend to be a liberal just I won't get egged or spit on by a bunch of ignorant hippies!
BUSH RULES!!!!!!!
