Executive Director of Madison Street Medicine and President of the Homeless Services Consortium (HSC) Board Brenda Konkel has spent the last 30 years working in housing and homeless programs.
Around 2020, Konkel noticed many more people sleeping outside on East Washington Avenue.
“When I say a whole bunch, it was almost 100 or over 100 [people] at some points,” Konkel said. “That just really highlighted for the community the large numbers of people sleeping outside, and that’s when I got involved more.”
In 2021, seven out of every 10,000 people in the state of Wisconsin experienced sheltered homelessness, according to the 2021 Annual Homeless Assessment Report.
City of Madison Community Development Specialist Sarah Lim estimates that in Dane County specifically, this number increases to 11 out of every 10,000 people.
According to Konkel, there is no one definition of homelessness.
“It varies very much by person,” Konkel said. “We have a certain segment of the population that’s literally sleeping unsheltered outside. We have people who are sleeping in their cars… The men’s shelter is consistently having over 200 people sleeping [there] right now, which is the highest numbers we’ve had historically.”
The top causes of homelessness, Lim said, are affordable housing shortages, poverty, domestic violence, health and behavioral health challenges, along with a growing gap between the cost of housing and income.
People of color are disproportionately represented in the homeless population, Lim said. While Black individuals account for 5.5% of Dane County’s population, they account for 40% of people identified as experiencing homelessness, according to HSC’s Point-in-Time Count of Homelessness (PIT).
Konkel said there are certain points throughout the year that prove especially problematic for the homeless population — where the weather “takes over.”
The winter season acts as one of these problematic, uncertain times. On average, January is the coldest month in Madison, with a daytime high of 25 degrees Fahrenheit and an overnight temperature of 9 degrees Fahrenheit, according to rssWeather.
A single night from January 2022 identified 701 people experiencing homelessness in Dane County, according to PIT. Of those individuals, 12% were staying in unsheltered locations, which includes tents, vehicles, the street and other places not suitable for human living.
“If it’s 40 degrees below zero, how do you get to where you need to go?” Konkel said. “Everything is shut down, and it’s not like you have a home to go to and you can wait it out like a lot of us can do. That is hugely problematic, and also at that point, outreach workers can’t get out to people either.”
Last winter, seven individuals were identified in Madison with frostbite issues, according to Lim. While not too many, Konkel does see amputations and other injuries as a result of the cold weather. For example, some people endure burns from trying to stay warm.
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One of the worst case scenarios is when someone gets wet and tries to stay dry, Konkel said. As the snow melts and freezes, individuals may not know how to protect themselves.
Though the PIT statistics show a majority — 88% — of homeless individuals staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing, Konkel said there’s a “surprising amount” of individuals sleeping outside considering the intensity of Wisconsin winters.
For some individuals, however, sleeping at a shelter isn’t an option.
The city has sent out surveys during past PITs to learn why people choose not to use a shelter, Lim said. Responses expressed the shelters felt too overwhelming, individuals did not feel safe and there was a lack of shelter for different sex couples.
Madison shelters allow service animals, but not pets, Lim said. Because of this, people might choose to stay with their pets in the cold, rather than going into a shelter alone.
In an effort to keep more people experiencing homeless safe in the winter, the city implements additional resources and works to prevent barriers. One change included the removal of a 90-day limit at the Men’s Emergency Drop-in Shelter and the Salvation Army of Dane County for women, Lim said.
Another challenge homeless individuals encounter in the winter is transportation, especially between the overnight men’s shelter and the Beacon day shelter, Lim said. The city provides two bus routes back and forth between the shelters in the morning and evening, while shelter staff also provide transportation.
Lim said the city has expanded and improved shelter facilities in order to create more space and encourage individuals to utilize them. The family shelter and the men’s shelter received a new location on Milwaukee Street, and the men’s shelter on Zeier Road.
Whether individuals were intoxicated or not also impacted their ability to stay at a shelter, which has since changed, Lim said.
“But now we do not look at that, as long as their behaviors are okay for the safety of themselves and others,” Lim said. “Even if they’re under the influence, they can use it. And it’s also possible because the new shelter space has a separate area — we call it the recovery room — where people who are under the influence can be accommodated.”
Even with these changes, some individuals may not have access to shelters due to a suspension. But on designated “cold weather nights,” when the temperatures fall below 20 degrees, anyone can access emergency shelters, Konkel said. During this time, the shelters convert office space to increase the number of available rooms, according to Lim.
The city also set aside funds for an emergency extreme weather hotel program, Lim said, while outreach staff identify people who are unsheltered and may be in need of those services. The outreach team consists of different nonprofit agencies and is one of the city’s main resources, Lim said.
“They go out during the day and also in the evening to identify people who are unsheltered, mostly people who are in encampments or vehicles, and they connect with them to help them get connected to services and housing,” Lim said. “But they also evaluate people’s safety and help with basic needs.”
To provide an alternative for individuals who do not like congregate shelters, the city opened a campground on Dairy Drive, Lim said. This includes 29 units with heat and air conditioning.
The new encampment has had an excellent turnover rate, Konkel said, with about 22 people receiving housing in the first year of the program.
During the winter, one of the biggest ways to help individuals experiencing homelessness is by donating to nonprofit organizations, Konkel said. Money is flexible and allows organizations to make purchases based on current needs.
Another way to help is by simply saying hello.
“Treat people like people,” Konkel said. “So much of how hard it is to get out of homelessness is the mindset you get from every day — feeling like you’re just you against the world. And so a little kindness goes a long way. Just say hello.”
