Dane County Homeless Justice Initiative

08/17/2026

We are SO close to meeting our Summer Fundraising goal! Consider helping us with one last final push before August ends!

Venmo: @ DCHJI

07/30/2026

As we grieve the murder of one of our neighbors, Corey Ruiz, the Madison Police Department has continued to sweep encampments across the city, inflicting deep trauma upon our unhoused neighbors.

This state violence must end.

We need to take care of each other.

So, what can you do?

Contact your alder and the mayor’s office and demand that the city stop sweeping encampments and arresting people for simply not having a home.

Find your alder: https://www.cityofmadison.com/council/council-members/find-my-alder

Contact the mayor: https://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor

We will continue to post tangible action items you can take to support our community.

07/25/2026

The Dane County Homeless Justice Initiative joins our community in mourning the sudden and tragic loss of Corey Ruiz. Like many members of our community, Corey experienced homelessness. He struggled to find stable housing and to access the support and resources that so many people need to survive and recover, including addiction treatment and mental health care. His story is not unique.

We know firsthand the hostility that unhoused people often face. We have seen the tension between wealthy homeowners and people seeking shelter or services in neighborhoods like Tenney-Lapham. We have watched neighbors and city leaders oppose shelters, encampments, and supportive housing. Madison spends $98.3 million each year on policing while more than 700 people remain unhoused. At the same time, Dane County found the money to build a new jail with 825 cells.

We cannot police our way out of a housing crisis. The solution to homelessness is housing.

Corey’s death must be a wake-up call for our entire community. We cannot continue responding to homelessness through criminalization and policing while failing to provide the basic resources that keep people alive. Real public safety means ensuring that everyone has access to housing, food, health care, addiction treatment, mental health services, and supportive communities.

If we truly want to prevent future tragedies, we have to invest in what saves lives: permanent affordable housing, low-barrier shelters, addiction treatment, mental health care, food security, and community-based support.

DCHJI encourages our community members to join the encampment at W***y and Baldwin in solidarity.

Only we’ve got us.

07/20/2026

You donate, we distribute! Every dollar you donate goes to tents, blankets, clothing, and health and hygiene supplies for our most vulnerable neighbors. We’re a little over halfway to our $5,000 summer fundraising goal, so send a dollar or a few if you’ve got ‘em to spare (venmo: ). No funds to spare but want to get involved? DM us and we will get you plugged in! Spare items lying around the house? Feel free to donate at any of our donation drop sites (last graphic).

*photos from our latest St. Vinny's Dane County Thrift Stores Dig N Save haul 😌 + donation drop sites

07/14/2026

We are well on our way to reaching our summer fundraising goal!

Huge shout out to the community for supporting our efforts—with your help, we were able to do over 10 distributions all across town since the start of the fundraiser, and with another week of high temperatures, we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon!

Consider donating items from our wishlist in the graphic, or make a monetary donation via Venmo (Dchji Rodriguez).

Donation drop off locations in pinned post above.

DM to get involved in our work 🤝.

07/06/2026

07/06/2026

Thanks to our community’s generous donations, we are well on our way to our fundraiser goal of $5,000! We appreciate you all so much!

This week we distributed more than five cases of water, electrolytes, emergency cold packs, ice, and other supplies to folks outside during this dangerous heat wave on top of our regular Friday morning supply distribution. Starting on Monday, folks outside were enduring heat index temperatures of over 100° for multiple days with little relief overnight as daily low temperatures remained in the mid to high 70s until Thursday. Water and cooling supplies were an absolute necessity, and you all helped us get them out to people who needed them.

We also made a large purchase of summer clothing including T-shirts, tank tops, and shorts!

Thank you!!

06/28/2026

Slide 1: understand Madison’s housing affordability crisis
Slide 2: see just how many Madisonians are rent burdened, extremely rent burdened, or simply can’t afford housing
Slide 3: see the systemic racism of it all
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway County Executive Melissa Agard

04/22/2026

says “we offer you no homes that you can actually afford—not even a sanctioned space to set up a tent…but you can’t stay here.” Aaaaaaaatrocious governance.

The quickly escalating epidemic of homelessness is a social crisis that requires social solutions. Public Housing (owned and operated by the public) has always been the solution. There are things we can do until we get there: sanctioned campsites and acquire adequate shelter space to give folks a shred of security until the housing crisis is addressed. It is a matter of gathering a government that actually cares about its most vulnerable constituents and prioritizes budget to reflect that care. Our current local governments have proven, time and again, that they could care less. How do they sleep at night, knowing they are responsible for so much suffering and desperation?

04/15/2026

This letter recently went out to guests of Porchlight’s currently existing men’s shelter on Zeier Rd on the east side of Madison. To add context, upwards of 400 men have been using this shelter nightly over the past many months—the new shelter will push 150 vulnerable men out into our streets. To add more context, Dane County is experiencing a housing shortage and rents are astronomical and unattainable for our low to middle income community members. We’re sharing this letter to shed light on the grim reality shaping up for our most vulnerable community members. Try to imagine life without shelter. Where do you sleep? Where do you cook? Where do you toilet? Where do you store your belongings? Where do you escape predators? Where do you escape the elements? Our governments have one job: to facilitate survivable communities. They are failing. For those of us who care about our communities and our fellow neighbors in these communities, this means we have to form and facilitate our own communal means of survivability. Dane County Homeless Justice Initiative is doing just that. Join us in our effort. DM or email to learn more 🫶