Dane County opened its first purpose-built men’s shelter on Sept. 1 on Bartillon Drive, offering more shelter spaces designed to give unhoused men a more stable place to stay while they work toward permanent housing.
The men’s shelter is a city owned building but will be operated by Porchlight Inc., a Madison non-profit homelessness organization founded in 2003. It is housing-focused, providing men who stay there with access to programs to find permanent housing. Unlike temporary shelters that require guests to leave after a short stay or operate only during limited hours, the new shelter has no maximum length stay for guests.
The shelter requires men to be above 18 years of age in order to stay there.
City officials said the pandemic exposed the limitations of using church basements and other temporary spaces as emergency shelters prompting the city to invest in a permanent facility designed around safety, privacy and connections to housing.
Jim O’Keefe, the Madison Community Development Director, told the Cardinal it wasn’t until a few years ago that the city realized church basements were no longer meeting the needs of unhoused persons.
“The deficiencies of those spaces were really exposed with the pandemic, and they were forced to close,” O’Keefe said. “That was really the catalyst to undertake the process that anybody that worked in this space knew was necessary, which was to build shelter space to serve the need that exists in Madison.”
Before the new shelter opened, unhoused men in Dane County relied on church basements in downtown Madison, according to the City of Madison. These were typically one large room with mattresses on the floor acting as beds, tables and chairs, District 12 Alder Julia Matthews told the Daily Cardinal.
“Some folks had a bed at the temporary shelter, but many more just had mattresses on the floor,” Matthews said. “...[now] folks are able to sit down at a table and eat their dinner in dignity instead of the situation at the temporary shelter where folks had to take their food back to their mattress.”
The Porchlight shelter will operate similar to a hostel, with rooms holding multiple bunk beds, a shared dining area and lockers. There are also outlets next to each bed.
Guests will get two meals per day, personal hygiene supplies, shower and bathroom access and case management services, according to the shelter website.
Scott Moran is 47-years-old and currently unhoused, staying between State Street and the Dane County airport. He told the Cardinal he has not tried to join the shelter yet because he is waiting to hear about other men’s experience at Porchlight first.
“Past shelters have let me down,” Moran said. “It’s hard to feel like a person when you aren’t being given access to what you need to survive.”
Matthews said a Porchlight staff member noted, “each client I've talked to seems like they've taken up a new goal since they reached the building.”
There will be quarterly meetings between Porchlight staff, Madison Police and Fire staff, Community Development Division staff, area neighbors, business owners and community leaders to ensure an “open line of communication,” according to Matthews.
O’Keefe said the city worked with people who have used shelters in the past to figure out what was most important to include — personal safety being the top priority. The city also took privacy and conflict prevention into consideration when planning the dorm setup.
“I’m willing to use the shelter when it becomes 24 hours,” Moran said. “I know they can’t afford to right now, but sometimes bus schedules are late and my best chance for dinner is in the city.”
For men trying to get into the shelter, there is a waitlist they can join through The Beacon, Down for Change, Safe Haven, Briarpatch, Catalyst for Change, Madison Street Medicine, Friends of the State Street Family, Tellurian or Urban Triage.
There is no maximum length of stay, but to keep their bed, guests must return to the shelter every night and work towards housing. If a man does not return by the 8 p.m. curfew, their bed is given to the next person on the waiting list.
“We don't want this shelter to become a substitute for housing,” O’Keefe said. “We want it to become a resource that people can use for hopefully a short period of time while they get help overcoming whatever obstacles they might be facing that keep them from being stably housed.”
