articles tagged "homeless"
Housing is a Human Right
Tuesday, 23 April 2013 | A Public Affair
On Tuesday April 23rd, Brenda Konkel spoke with a panel about the upcoming Housing is a Human Right Summit. She spoke with Anthony Prince of the National Lawyers Guild, Karen Andrews of the First United Methodist Church and Heidi Weglietner of the Dane County Board of Supervisors. more »
Occupy Madison Sets Up Camp at Dane County Human Services
Wednesday, 14 November 2012 | Molly Stentz
Occupy Madison has returned. The social-movement-turned-homeless-camp has a new location: Dane County Human Services. Approximately 15 homeless people have set up camp on the lawn next to the county office building on Northport Avenue on Madison’s north side. At least for now. In Our Backyard spoke to homeless advocate Brenda Konkel as well as several members of the Occupy camp (who did not give their names). This story was reported by Rebekah Wilce and Hayden Marx, produced by Patrick Waring, and read by Rob McClure. It originally aired on In Our Backyard on Wednesday, November 14th, 2012. more »
Neighbors Speak Out About New Homeless Shelter
Tuesday, 13 November 2012 | Molly Stentz
You may be listening to “In Our Backyard,” but this story could more appropriately be called “Not In Our Backyard.” Last Thursday’s public meeting on Dane County’s proposed temporary homeless shelter for the vacant Teen Loft space on East Washington Avenue brought out a number of fuming neighborhood residents. View Larger Map Listen to the story: The temporary homeless shelter seems to have enough favorable local political will to survive. It received funding through the passage of the new county budget approved by the County Board on Monday, November 12th. It was signed into law by County Executive Joe Parisi on Thursday, November 15th. This story was reported and produced by Tom Powell. It was read by Kermit Hovey. It originally aired on In Our Backyard on Tuesday, November 13, 2012. more »
Occupy Madison encampment faced with 48 hour eviction notice
Thursday, 8 November 2012 | buzz
On Thursday, November 8, Tony Castaneda talks with Daniel Callahan and Brian Gee, homeless residents of Occupy Madison, as well as Brenda Konkel, of the Madison Tenant Resource Center. The 15 tent homeless encampment on the 800 block of East Washington Ave has been served a 48 hour eviction notice by the city of Madison. They will need to leave the premises by Friday Nov 9 at 3pm. Daniel, who has been with the Occupy movement for over a year and homeless in Madison “on and off” since 1979, says that the mayor, who had said that he would hold off on an eviction until they were able to obtain housing, has gone back on his promise. He also says that the mayor has not yet visited them since the eviction. Brian Gee explains that despite many of the occupants being skilled laborers, they still found themselves homeless, due to lack of employment, Brian himself has been a carpenter for 15 years, and has done electrical, plumbing, and stick build construction. He lost his job one and half years ago. Before arriving in Madison in hopes of obtaining work, Brian lived in Stevens Point, where he was homeless for one month. He explains that upon arriving in Madison, he went to Porchlight for assistance in finding a job; he says, “the first thing I ended up hitting was Porchlight…and they literally didn’t help me at all. I had to do everything on my own.” When discussing the difference in treatment of the homeless among different locations, Brenda Konkel mentions Appleton as having a strong homeless program. “There’s not much of a homeless population… [Because] they’re only homeless for 30 days, they’re able to get people into housing really quick.” She also describes Minnesota as having one of the best programs in the US: their ‘housing first’ program ensures that housing is placed as the priority, “if you don’t have a home base to work from, it’s really hard to do the rest.” They believe that Madison has more resources than the city is actually willing to put in towards the homeless. Brenda says, “If we have $50,000 for a music video [in the budget], we can put that towards running a comprehensive day center…so at least they could have a place during the day to be able to use the computer, shower, store their stuff…” With the present situation, one must move to several different centers to do each …. more »