Those who braved the elements at the Nebraska football game this weekend were likely happy to return to a warm home after.
Madison’s homeless were not so fortunate.
For the second year in a row, Dane County has inexcusably failed to provide a winter day shelter for the homeless.
After renting a temporary space two years ago, last year’s effort to provide a day shelter stalled in September, with county leaders citing a lack of funds.
The prospects for a shelter this year are bleak — according to County Board Supervisor Leland Pan, District 5, “it doesn’t look like there’ll be any movement for this year.”
There is plenty of blame to go around for this failure. To begin with, the County Board, the supposed leaders of the effort to establish a day shelter, have simply failed to do their job — for the second year in a row. Mayor Paul Soglin, who waited until an election year to propose a comprehensive plan to reduce homelessness, is also at fault. And finally, city of Madison leaders have blocked efforts to build a shelter in their jurisdiction at every step of the way.
To be sure, setting up a homeless day shelter is a difficult task. It takes time, money and a great deal of cooperation between a variety of governing entities. However, this is no excuse. After their failure last year, county leaders had an entire year to mull over what went wrong and find a solution. This did not happen.
Further, there seems to be a “not in my backyard” attitude surrounding a day shelter. Everyone supports a shelter in theory, but no one wants it built near them. This is precisely the kind of selfishness that must be overcome in order to turn the day shelter into a reality.
Unfortunately, there is little to be done about the issue at this point; it is too late to start work on a different location this winter. Our hope is that Dane County, the city of Madison and the town of Madison will finally learn their lesson after this most recent failure. In particular, politicians who are up for election this spring, including Soglin, should make addressing this issue a central tenet of their campaigns. It is shameful that a city as wealthy and progressive as Madison cannot provide basic care for all its citizens.
City leaders: the homeless of Madison are people with lives that are being unfairly subjected to your backroom politics. Read their stories, whether it be in Street Pulse or the Daily Cardinal’s Capitol Profiles. Show them some compassion.
