This may seem insane to the common person that fights each day to make a living for themselves and the families, but to the progressive liberal establishment that is the very core of Madison, Wisconsin, this is business as usual.
 
'It's just the right thing to do, and it feels so good knowing we are doing something for others.'
 
Given the history of Madison, especially since the 60's where the radials ran the show and are now running most of Madison from board rooms or dominating the city council, it isn't hard to understand why this project has legs.
 
In reality, there isn't a tax or a regulation that the residents won't embrace that will appear to help the 'unfortunate' among us, no matter where they came from, or how many there are, or how long the have been here. But one has to know when the mayor of Madison, Paul Soglin, a leader of the radials from the 60's which was associated with the Weather Underground and the Students for A Democratic Society (SDS), which was responsible for the killing of a researcher in the bombing of Sterling Hall on the Campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has come under attack by the progressives socialists liberals for his stand on the 'unfortunate ones' reeking havoc in his town, it sure seems things in Madison are taking an unexpected turn for the worse.
 
Will Madison's Stupid Mini Homeless Shelters Soon Blight Your Street?
By David Blaska
 
 
It is the Christmas season in Wisconsin’s Capital City where liberal guilt, not gilt, is the gift that keeps on taking.

Coming soon to a politically correct neighborhood near you are tiny houses, each containing one or more "homeless" persons. The theory behind this experiment is that putting a roof over their heads turns dysfunctional people — whether through substance abuse and/or mental illness — into something approaching neighborhood watch captains.

A group calling itself Occupy Madison has built two such structures, so far. They’re kind of cute; window with a flower box — at 96 square feet, they’re twice the size of a food vendor cart. The tiny houses contain a bed, small fridge, microwave, composting toilet and sink. Where these will discharge is unanswered.

Being Madison, they have solar panels, said to generate enough electricity to power four LEDs and a cell phone charger, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, which posed this development as a feel-good Christmas Eve story. Yes, the homeless have cell phones in the Emerald City, perhaps to be ready when the job offers come a-calling. Oh, and the solar panels were 'donated' by the UW. In other words, the taxpayers are subsidizing this experiment.

In response to residential complaints of people living in their automobiles, Madison allows camping on city streets no more than 48 hours before they must move — usually to the next street. Advocates want to amend zoning ordinances to permit churches to place at least three of the tiny "homeless homes" on their parking lots. At my church, there’s a parochial elementary school at the other end of the lot, which would make for an interesting discussion at the church council.

Ultimately, Occupy Madison wants to erect a village of these little houses. It will be interesting to hear the artful excuses generated by city’s more-progressive-than-thou neighborhoods when they object to these shanty towns. This is a city where siting a drive-through coffee shop inflames name-calling and political demonstrations.   

Take the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood, just a few blocks northeast of the Capitol. It voted Obama-Biden by a 5 to 1 margin in 2012. 

In the Winter of 2011-12, the neighborhood abutting Lake Mendota had endured the double whammy of a daytime warming shelter for homeless men in a vacant car dealership showroom and an ad hoc tent encampment of 40 to 60 "homeless" people next door in the former car lot. The latter was the work of Occupy Madison, the politically motivated group that spun off from the disastrous Occupy Wall Street movement that The Nation and other enlightened spirits once hoped would be the progressive antidote to the Tea Party. Intended to be an indictment against NAFTA, capitalism, global warming, and what have you, the Occupy movement turned, instead, into a societal SuperFund site rampant with disease, defecation, and destruction.

Same story in Madison. Fronting heavily traveled East Washington Avenue, which leads straight to the majestic Capitol, the ragged encampment erected a sign reading: "We’re Not For Sale." Not that it had anything worth buying. By April 2012, the two adjoining sites had, over the previous five months, logged an average of more than one police call per day for such offenses as theft, fighting, trespass, property damage, noise, drugs, unlawful weapons, sexual assault, and public intoxication. This reporter personally witnessed a steady parade of automobiles stopping, being greeted by one or more of the denizens, then driving away. He also found a motley collection of liquor bottles, emptied, around the periphery.

The major domo of Occupy Madison is one Brenda Konkel, whose day job is running the taxpayer-subsidized Tenant Resource Center. Its primary mission is to bedevil property owners. It pushed through a city ordinance making criminal history a protected housing class until the state legislature overturned it with Wis. Act 108 two years ago. Konkel is past chairman of Progressive Dane, a local political party to the left of Bernie Sanders. As alderman for this same neighborhood she would later blight with the encampment, she was so anti-cop that the aggrieved police officers union put up a billboard successfully opposing her re-election. 

We are not without Christian compassion this Christmas season. We celebrate Pope Francis’ ministry to the less fortunate. Kudos to the Madison activists for thinking outside the box, even if the result is, well, little boxes. But the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. Isn’t that how Obamacare got started? 

How many of our fair trading, union-supporting progressive acquaintances will say "great idea, but not in front of my house?"

It is not as if Madison and Dane County ignore the homeless. The Salvation Army and Porchlight are just two of the contractors providing a rich array of services that attract takers from throughout the state and beyond. But, as Konkel once explained, Occupy Madison serves people who refuse to abide by the government-sanctioned providers’ rules.

County human services administrator Lynn Green suggested that Occupy Madison is an enabler of destructive behavior. She told this reporter earlier this year, "The Dane County sheltering system is keeping hundreds of men, women and children safe every night. ... We need to remember the good that is being done for so many and not just focus on a few people who refuse help. By demanding special treatment they are consuming a disproportionate amount of resources."

When the basement lunch room in the State Capitol was closed, due to being taken over by vagrants, the "homeless" commandeered the lobby of the City-County Building, just two blocks south. 

City and county employees formally complained of drunkenness, sexually explicit remarks, and urine in the elevators. City police were issued mugshots of 6 of the occupiers "for officer safety." Someone smeared excrement all over the first-floor women’s lavatory. In October, public health officials warned city and county employees of an outbreak of lice. 

Former UW-Madison student protest leader Paul Soglin initiated a 40-year reign of liberal mayors in Madison when he unseated the incumbent mayor in 1973. He is sometimes called "Havana Paul" for his affinity for Fidel Castro, whom he has personally visited. He camped overnight in the Capitol during the union intifada of 2011. This September, the mayor encountered a family of five adults and five children, ages 4 months to 13 years, who had decamped in Madison from Chicago with no job and no housing. He hooked them up with county social services. 

But the outraged mayor sounded almost Tea Party after he witnessed a fist-fight in November over who had rights to which seat in the city-county building lobby. "Frankly, I see no sense in spending public money for buildings, shelter, day centers or housing for individuals who either refuse to use them or will be banned for behavior reasons."  

"When I raise the issue, I’m a heartless sonofabitch," Soglin lamented. 

No other local leader has picked up on his plea that some of the squatters need more than a meal and a roof and should be involuntarily committed.

Well, placing them in deluxe portapotties across the city isn't the answer.