Mayor Paul Soglin remained adamant that the Occupy Madison encampment on East Washington Avenue disperse on April 30 despite a proposal to extend the deadline.
At a press conference Monday, Soglin said there is “no reason” not to follow through with plans to shut down the site, as previously agreed upon with Occupy Madison.
The Occupy encampment is currently located on the 800 block of East Washington Avenue near the former Don Miller auto dealership.
Ald. Lisa Subeck, District 1, said she and other city council members are proposing a resolution at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting to extend the Occupy encampment’s deadline to June 30.
Sponsored by Subeck, Ald. Marsha Rummel, District 6, and Ald. Brian Solomon, District 10, the extra two months the resolution calls for would allow the city to develop long-term solutions for the encampment.
The resolution will also form a committee with Madison-area Urban Ministries to develop options for the site beyond June 30 and an additional joint city-county committee addressing homelessness.
Occupy member William Gruber said he is disappointed in the mayor’s decision and supports the resolution.
“[Soglin] doesn’t have all the answers,” Gruber said. “If he chooses to veto [the resolution], he and a number of people in power these days don’t care what people want.”
While the meeting started as a conversation on the Occupy site’s upcoming deadline, it quickly turned into a discussion on homelessness in Madison.
Although the city council recently recognized the Occupy encampment as a model the city should use in its efforts to combat homelessness, the mayor said Madison already takes care of the homeless, citing the millions of dollars the city puts into housing programs.
Nonetheless, the city’s Community Development Division reported about 2,000 people were turned away from shelters in 2011.
The mayor also said the Occupy site has evolved from a group of protestors to a community where the homeless tend to congregate, without many of the original Occupy protestors.
“Let’s be blunt about this, Madison is a magnet for the homeless,” Soglin said.
The mayor paralleled the homeless situation in Madison to a lifeboat with the capacity for 16, holding 20 people with an additional 20 people drowning in the water.
“I think it’s got to be understood with clarity that Madison, Wisconsin, despite all the good intentions of the progressive people in this community, does not have the resources to serve the homeless from our city, the rest of the state,” Soglin said.
