Dane County Board members announced a set of initiatives Friday for the homeless that includes a temporary warming shelter and housing.
Dane County Board Vice Chair John Hendrick said the County Board voted to create a temporary warming shelter, although the specific location will not be decided until Nov. 15.
Options for a warming shelter include renting space at the now vacant Lussier Teen Center, located at 827 East Washington Ave., or using a county-owned building on Wright Street.
Hendrick said the site on Wright Street would require applying for a city conditional use permit, while the East Washington Avenue location does not require a permit and is closer to downtown and other services that homeless people use.
But the disadvantage of the East Washington Avenue location is the close proximity to the Rainbow Project, which is an organization that provides services for children who have been victims of crime, according to Hendrick.
Hendrick said members of the Rainbow Project have the same worries that neighbors and businesses in the area had last year with the warming shelter on East Washington Avenue.
“They have similar to concerns that neighbors and business had last year which is that people possibly suffering from alcohol and drug abuse...might be in the area and wandering around the area and bothering their clients or possibly entering their building,” Hendrick said.
Also proposed in the 2013 county budget is a permanent day center that will cost $600,000 to build and $150,000 to operate, according to a county press release.
The day center would include restrooms, laundry facilities, showers and storage lockers in addition to phones, computers and mailboxes to assist people who are looking for jobs, housing and public services.
“[People] need a safe, clean place to access daily necessities, as well as a path to real housing, even if that’s just a room,” Hendrik said in a statement. “A place to call your own, however small, is a powerful thing.”
County Sup. Carousel Bayrd introduced another initiative aimed to address homelessness, which would include building a single-room apartment building that would cost the county approximately $1.7 million over two years.
Hendrick said part of this initiative aims to make permanent housing more affordable.
“The solution is not to make homelessness nicer but to provide people with permanent housing,” Hendrick said.
