Babble

I’ll apologize up front for the length of this post and the delay in posting… it has been a difficult post to write for numerous reasons.

I’ll start at the beginning and give a bit of context for those who have arrived here via a direct link. In May ‘08 my fiance Matt and I purchased a fantastic home in the Greenbush neighborhood. We love the house, we love the neighborhood and its proximity to campus and downtown, we have great neighbors and tenants, and we are super excited about our future here.

We chose this neighborhood based on many factors. My employer, UW-Madison, is working with the Greenbush and Vilas neighborhood associations to encourage faculty and staff to live near their work, a philosophy I wholeheartedly subscribe to as it strengthens the sense of community and cuts down on transportation problems. We liked that the Greenbush Neighborhood Plan called for an increase in families with children, the elderly, and owner-occupied and long-term rental housing (as opposed to straight rentals), and were happy to read the City places a high value on neighborhood planning efforts and commits significant resources in preparing such plans. We liked that it was one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Madison, but yet felt safe. We liked that there are children next-door and across the street, should we have the opportunity to become parents.

We really thought we would be a good fit, given we both work at city/state jobs within a mile or so, we purchased a 3-unit which we occupy along with two renters, we are doing our best to landscape and improve our property, and we are considering starting a family. We thought the neighborhood would welcome us, and they have.

Last month, we were somewhat surprised when we heard there was a proposal to turn our neighbor’s rental home into transitional housing for the homeless, run by Porchlight Inc., just two doors down. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant for us, but knew Porchlight had a good reputation within the community, and my initial response was to accept it and make the best of it. I believe we all share a responsibility to help out those who are less fortunate, and I assumed, given the Neighborhood Plan and Porchlight’s goal to place people in surroundings appropriate to their demographic, this location would house a couple families.

Mainly in an effort to reassure ourselves, we met with Steve Schooler, Executive Director of Porchlight, last week. I arrived with an open mind, and left, devastated. To be clear, Steve’s intentions are admirable. He seems like an honest, caring person, and by all accounts, he’s trying to do the right thing — no one is arguing the value of the Porchlight program. But, after talking to Steve, we do not feel this residential location with young children and elderly in the immediate vicinity is an appropriate place for this high-risk group.

Some facts about the people in the Porchlight program and the living conditions at this proposed location:

• The proposed home is a 3-flat with a total of 9 bedrooms. Porchlight plans to have 12 people live there, all men.
• Each resident will have a trained case worker who will supervise them approximately 1 hour per week, as well as an untrained on-site resident manager. The latter will be a formerly homeless person who is currently in the program.
• People must be homeless to qualify for the program but frequently have a history of mental illness, criminal and/or violent behavior including jail/prison time, and drug and/or alcohol abuse.
• Steve has said Porchlight would not put sex offenders in this particular location, but such a promise is illegal and therefore unenforceable, due to anti-discrimination laws. Should a sex-offender in the program request to live at the Vilas location, Porchlight could not legally deny him that right based on his sex-offender status alone.
• Porchlight makes an effort to screen each individual, but mistakes have been made in the past, with serious consequences.
• Relapses of drug and alcohol abuse occur frequently. Occasionally those with mental illness go off their meds, also with unpredictable consequences.
• At this time, they are undecided as to whether alcohol will be allowed on the premises.
• Lastly, we asked Steve if he would feel comfortable raising his own kids next to a Porchlight home and he responded his daughters had been to visit a few of the homes… but then he immediately added “but not unsupervised”.

This will make a significant impact on our day-to-day lives. Children would need constant supervision, even in our fenced-in backyard. Routines would have to change, and security enhanced. Due to the position of our shared neighbor’s home, our home is visible from twelve windows of the proposed facility, two of which look directly into our kitchen. Matt looked into EMS and Fire calls, and the Porchlight home closest to us at 112 N. Mills receives at least one call a month, on top of police calls, often in the middle of the night. Since transitional housing is, by definition, erratic, we would have to constantly be on our guard – this is not something that would let up over time.

Here’s a photo to show the proximity of the proposed site.

Our second concern is financial. This will lower our property value significantly. We did not pay the amount we paid to live in an unstable neighborhood environment, and we doubt anyone else will, should we decide to sell. In addition, the Porchlight facility will decrease the desirability of our two rental units, which, frankly, allow us to live in this neighborhood. We may also incur costs for added security and added privacy which we didn’t budget for when we bought our home just 10 months ago. While it’s impossible to put an accurate dollar amount on a projected loss, rough estimates from previous studies and my attorney suggest we may be looking at a ten to thirty THOUSAND dollar hit, should we try to sell this year.

Third, this is not in the best interest of our neighborhood, nor is it in accord with the Neighborhood Plan. This property is zoned for 3 leases for a reason, not twelve month-to-month leases, which is what Porchlight is proposing. Should this proposal go through, we will consider moving elsewhere and renting our home out fully, given the likely decrease in property value. I would expect we would end up renting to college males, for both liability and safety reasons, which, I have been told, is the specific demographic the neighborhood would like to see decrease. We are genuinely sympathetic to Madison’s homeless problem, but raising children next to twelve men with potentially criminal backgrounds, mental illness and/or substance abuse problems is not something we would choose, had we been given the choice. Our neighbors next-door to the property in question have a 5-year-old and 2-year-old twins who spend a lot of time in their backyard, and their parents work hard to run two local businesses here in Madison. They’ve made a significant and positive contribution both in our neighborhood and downtown — and they shouldn’t have to move to raise their children in a safe environment. We all appreciate the difficulties in finding a suitable location for this group of people that does need our help, but mixing children with this high-risk group is not an appropriate or responsible decision on anyone’s part.

To sum up, we really do want to help — we’re already working to find an alternative location — but asking us and the other families in the immediate vicinity to compromise our children’s safety, take a significant hit on our property values, and invite another challenge into a neighborhood we’re trying very hard to revitalize is just asking too much.

How you can help

Editor’s note 3/14/09: I’m happy to report your help is no longer necessary! Please read the following post.

We’ve been told the only way to stop this is by significant opposition from the public. If you share our concerns, please consider writing to your alderperson, or our alderperson Julia Kerr to let them know. Letters work best, but phone calls and emails would be appreciated too. Even more then letters, if you’re in the Madison area, we need people to register to speak at the upcoming City Council meeting on April 2. If you have any interest in helping us out, please let me know – I would be happy to provide you with additional statistics and talking points.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, we appreciate it!