Madison Housing Crunch Makes Living Hard for Homeless

Homeless, Lonisha Jordan and her sons, 10 and 12, sleep in their car, motels or other places, each day living a low-income housing crisis that shuts out many in Madison and Dane County.

So does Paul Buggs, who spends nights at a men's shelter in a church basement, and Tina Helt and her teenage son, who sleep in the entrances of buildings on streets hugging Capitol Square.

For all the local effort to provide shelter for those with little means — and there's lot of it — many feel the harsh realities of Madison's low-income housing shortage, low vacancy rates and state tenant-landlord laws that usurp local control and create barriers for those with spotty credit or rental histories, evictions or convictions.

As of Oct. 1, the county's priority list of the homeless seeking housing stood at 563 singles and 155 families, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. But those numbers don't tell a full story because many doubled up or self-paying in motels aren't eligible to get on the list. The Madison public schools alone served 1,099 homeless students in the 2018-19 school year.

The combination of factors especially hits blacks, who experience racism and disparities in poverty, unemployment, school achievement and incarceration.

While a state and national problem, racial disparities in homelessness are acute in Dane County, where blacks represent 5.1% of the population but account for 53% of those seeking homeless services in 2018.

Ruben Anthony, Executive Director of the Urban League of Greater Madison, called the disparity troubling.

"Families are working hard every day and find that they still do not have enough," County Executive Joe Parisi said. "We know these pressures are felt disproportionately among people of color. We must continue to increase access to opportunity for all of Dane County's residents, and work to address some of the deep-rooted causes of the barriers people face."

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