Dane County held a virtual committee meeting discussing homelessness issues in Dane County on Monday focusing on the building of a new homeless shelter in Madison and the future of the Dairy Drive homeless encampment.
In 2025, nearly 800 people in Madison were reported as being homeless, which is a seven percent increase from 2024, according to an annual point-in-time survey.
In addition, the City of Madison’s new homeless shelter, a $27 million project, started construction in December 2023, and is scheduled for completion in December 2025, with an anticipated opening in spring 2026, according to City of Madison community development manager Linette Rhodes — who presented details of the shelter during the meeting.
The shelter, fully staffed and operational 24/7, assuming funding allows for it, will include two floors, a commercial kitchen and the ability to house 250 individuals, according to Rhodes. The building will feature private sleeping pods, single rooms and medical respite rooms, according to Rhodes.
“The key takeaways that we were getting, especially from shelter users and from our community partners, was making sure that it was going to be a warm, safe spot that had privacy,” Rhodes said. “We’ve always had very open spaces, and so we wanted to break up where individuals sleep to hopefully reduce noise and to create some privacy and so forth.”
This project nears completion as the debate over the future of Dairy Drive continues. The housing village was voted to be demolished, District 6 Alder Davy Mayer proposed a resolution on Saturday to allow the encampment’s continuation until the spring of 2026, according to The Cap Times.
Last winter, there were over 400 people sleeping in the shelter, and now with the new shelter housing 250, that leaves 150 who will be staying somewhere other than a shelter, according to the executive director of Madison Street Medicine — which operates Dairy Drive — Brenda Konkel who spoke at the committee meeting.
“I would really like to see us save the Dairy Drive campground,” Konkel said. “Think about what its use could possibly be, and how it’s going to work within the whole system.”
The future of the campground and its budget matters are going to be further discussed and decided at the City Council meeting Sept. 16, according to Konkel.
The shelter project which is partnered with Porchlight — an organization working to reduce homelessness in Madison — is waiting to hear from the city and county on funding because the shelter will require $4.2 million for operations, according to Rhodes.
“We are not trying to take an old school and rehab it or an old warehouse and rehab it, we were intentionally thinking about it from scratch,” Rhodes said.
