Thursday, October 22, 2020 - The Daily Cardinal

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Thursday, October, 2020

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Uncertain future for new homeless shelter By Michael Parsky ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The hunt for a venue for a new men’s homeless shelter continues for the city of Madison after a seller backed out of an initial, tentative deal to put the facility on the city’s east side. Kara Havens Prange, the property owner, told officials late Tuesday evening she would pull out of a purchase and sale agreement with the city to a vacant two-story, 22,584-square-foot structure at 4111 East Towne Blvd that used to serve as a day care center. Havens Prange said she would sell the property to another unidentified party instead, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. “Obviously, this is unexpected and disappointing news,” Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said. “But it will not deter the City and the County from our serious intent to develop a new shelter facility.” The announcement came the day after a press conference in which Rhodes-Conway and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi detailed their plan to buy the former Play Haven Child Care site and an additional

property at 4101 East Towne Blvd. The other site would have been used to “create a large single site where partners could develop a permanent, purpose-built shelter, a day resource center, pay-to-stay beds and/or low-cost housing,” according to the State Journal. After a six-month search, in which city officials looked at 15 to 20 properties, the former day care center appealed the most because it could be quickly converted to use as an overnight shelter and offer an array of services. In the original deal, the city would have invested $3 million and Parisi said Dane County would provide matching funds. The 4111 East Towne Boulevard cost $1.3 million and the adjacent property cost an additional $700,000. The extra $4 million would have been allocated toward renovations and further development. A resolution to increase the city’s Community Development Division’s 2020 capital budget by the required $3 million in borrowing would have faced approval by the Finance Committee on Oct. 26 and the Common Council on Nov.

17, the State Journal reported. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the city and other partners used the Warner Park Community Recreation Center to house the homeless men. Three churches in the downtown area also offered their basements for refuge as well. The tight quarters, including men sleeping side-by-side on mats, created concerns surrounding social distancing and preventing the spread of the virus and prompted a need for a new facility. Warner Park can accommodate around 150 men, and the nonprofit Porchlight, Inc., which operates the men’s emergency shelter system, helped approximately 170 men in the three church basements before the pandemic, according to city community development director Jim O’Keefe. “Since 1985, the provision of emergency shelter has relied upon space generously offered by Grace Episcopal Church, with help from St. John’s Lutheran Church and First United Methodist Church,” Rhodes-Conway said. “We owe those congregations and their lead-

ership a huge debt of gratitude, but it is long past time that we develop purpose-built shelter.” O’Keefe said city officials met Wednesday morning to examine other options. “There are other properties we will be looking at,” O’Keefe said. “There’s a strong commitment on the part of policymakers to get this done. I’m pretty optimistic we’ll move on

and find an alternative.” Despite Rhodes-Conway’s resolution, the initial phase of the renovation and conversion of the day care center to an interim homeless shelter would not have been completed until 2022. Since the city cannot use Warner Park as a permanent shelter location, city officials said they will explore short-term options for 2021.

COURTESY OF UW-MADISON

The Madison men's homeless center is at risk as the building was sold to another.

PHMDC resorts to ‘crisis model’ of contact tracing By Gina Musso COLLEGE NEWS EDITOR

Public Health Madison & Dane County (PHMDC) is switching to a “crisis model” of contact tracing as the county’s cumulative COVID-19 cases reached a total of 13,047 amid a recent surge, with 90 hospitalizations and 22 in the ICU with COVID-19 as of Oct. 21. Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 under the new model of contact tracing will still be contacted about

their test result and instructed on isolation measures, but with the influx of cases, PHMDC contact tracers no longer have the capacity to follow up with the COVID-19 positive individuals or reach all the people they came in contact with efficiently. “Like all other health departments in the state, we are struggling to keep up with contact tracing” PHMDC Director Janel Heinrich said in a news release. “When we consistently have well over 150

new cases per day, we cannot contact all cases and contacts quickly enough to effectively disrupt the spread of COVID19. We are moving to a crisis model of contact tracing.” Since notifying COVID-19 patients of their positive test results will be prioritized over contact tracing, PHMDC recommends that individuals who test positive for COVID-19 notify the people that they are in close contact with that they may have been exposed using

WILL CIOCI/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Contact tracing on the UW-Madison campus should help reduce the rates of COVID-19, however, the system is flawed.

these guidelines. “Our community has crossed a threshold with COVID-19 and sadly we have reached a place where if you venture out and come into contact with someone with this virus, it may take a while for you and your family to be notified,” Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said in a release. “In the face of understandable exhaustion and unprecedented difficulty we have to press on like our health, lives, and those of others depend on it - because they do. Each one of us has to review our daily routines and do all we can to distance and minimize contact with others.” To aid PHMDC, UW-Madison contact tracers are assisting in the efforts to trace cases among the residents of Dane County beyond the university, according to UW-Madison Director of News and Media Relations Meredith McGlone. “Since early September, we have doubled the number of campus contact tracers and we are committed to conducting all contact tracing for UW students and employees,” McGlone said. “In fact, UW contact tracers are now assisting Public Health Madison Dane County because we have

more contact tracers than needed at the moment. UHS contact tracing continues to operate normally and handle contact tracing for anyone identified as a UW–Madison student or employee and their close contacts.” The need for contact tracers may soon increase following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new guidelines released Wednesday, which define a “close contact” as someone who was within six feet of an infected individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. Previous guidelines required at least 15 consecutive minutes with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 to be considered close contact. Health departments base contact tracing off of these CDC guidelines. PHMDC urges the over 500,000 Dane County residents that they serve to minimize their time outside of their residence, and, if they do leave their house, to maintain a six foot distance between individuals and others, avoid gatherings, wear face coverings and get tested.

“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”


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