Madison staff outline design, costs and operational choices for new men’s shelter

Madison city staff on Wednesday briefed the Common Council in a discussion-format meeting on a new, purpose-built men’s shelter the city is building on Bartleland Drive, describing the facility’s design, capital costs, likely operating budgets and remaining funding gaps.

The presentation, led by Jim O’Keefe of the City’s community development division with staff member Lynette Rhodes, said the center was designed to serve about 250 guests a night, include smaller sleeping “pods” rather than one large dormitory, private meeting spaces for case management, a commercial kitchen, secure lockers at bedsides and medical/isolation rooms. “It is built to serve 250 guests a night,” O’Keefe said.

City staff and the shelter operator, Porchlight Incorporated, described the project as the product of years of pandemic-driven shelter changes, federal one-time pandemic funding that temporarily expanded capacity, and community design input that emphasized safety, storage for personal belongings and on-site services. Staff said the final capital cost is about $27 million, financed with a mix of city funds (including city-administered ARPA dollars), county contributions and federal funding secured with help from Rep. Mark Pocan’s office.

Why it matters: Shelter-design and operating choices will determine whether the facility can run as a 24-hour hub for services or remain an overnight shelter that requires guests to leave during the day. Operating at 24/7 capacity, staff told the council, increases staffing and service costs substantially; the city and county must resolve how much of the ongoing expense they will cover, and a newly formed private group — Shelter Friends of Dane County — is preparing private fundraising to help close the gap.

Key facts and design features

- Capacity and layout: The facility is designed for roughly 250 guests nightly, with multiple smaller sleeping pods, separate ADA-accessible rooms, secure bedside lockers and electrical outlets at each bed. The design includes flexible day-use space, telehealth rooms, private conferencing space and laundry and storage areas on the second floor.

- Services and infrastructure: The shelter includes a commercial kitchen intended to reduce reliance on catered meals and create training opportunities with Madison College; telehealth rooms (in partnership with providers such as Tellurian) and a nurse’s station and medical respite / isolation beds.

- Sustainability features: The building’s planned systems include geothermal heating, a solar array, lighting controls and stormwater recycling to reduce long-term operating costs.

- Capital and project history: Staff said the full project budget, including property acquisition, design and construction, is approximately $27 million. Initial design estimates were $23–$24 million; staff said cost growth does not reflect a single uncontrolled overrun but added scopes and standard escalation. The city selected Dimension 4 as design consultant and Porchlight as the operator after community outreach and operator selection processes. Staff said they solicited input from residents, service providers and people with lived experience, working with ShopWorks Architecture on trauma-informed design input.

Operating-cost scenarios and funding gaps

- Operating estimates: Porchlight provided two operating scenarios to the city: an overnight-only model and a 24/7 model with greater staffing and on-site services. City staff reported an overnight-only operating estimate of about $3.4 million and a 24/7 estimate of roughly $4.14 million per year. By comparison, pre-pandemic operation of the former church basement shelter ran near $584,000 annually; pandemic-era use and more intensive staffing pushed annual costs above $3 million in 2025.

- Funding sources: City staff described a mix of funding that will be needed to sustain operations. The city used ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) discretionary funds during the pandemic; O’Keefe said Madison received more than $47 million in one-time ARPA discretionary funds and that the Common Council allocated about one-quarter of the total to support homeless services. City staff said remaining operating funding for the shelter will require commitments from the county, the city’s levy and private fundraising led by a Shelter Friends group. Porchlight told the council it expects to contribute about $200,000 per year from private fundraising toward operations; staff said any additional philanthropic commitments will likely come from the Shelter Friends effort rather than further increases from Porchlight.

Council discussion and outstanding issues

Councilmembers asked detailed questions about contingency operations, public health protections, transportation access, intake procedures and how the shelter would scale if private fundraising or county contributions fall short. Staff said the site is adjacent to a bus route and near a BRT stop by Madison College, and that engineering work included a future bike path and parking and staff/guest entrances.

On public-health and infection control, staff said intake screening practices learned during the pandemic would continue: daily bedding laundry would be contracted out; janitorial crews would perform intensive cleaning; there will be an isolation/medical respite bay and a nurse’s station; and staff plan to continue coordinating closely with Public Health Madison & Dane County. “We had actual telenurses doing screening at the shelters during the pandemic,” Lynette Rhodes said, and staff described plans to use isolation rooms and quarantine bays as needed.

Council members pressed staff on what would happen if the city and partners cannot raise the funds to support full 24/7 operations. O’Keefe said a number of operational scaleback options exist — for example, continuing an overnight-only model, opening until noon instead of clearing at 8 a.m., or running 24 hours only on several days per week — and that final operating plans will hinge on the funding commitments secured through the city and county budget processes and private fundraising.

Context and background cited by staff

- Point-in-time counts: Staff reviewed homelessness data: the HUD point-in-time count for January 2025 was reported as about 790 people in Madison/Dane County, a recent upward trend from previous years, and staff noted the point-in-time survey undercounts doubled-up households and people in motels. Staff said roughly 3 in 4 counted were single adults, nearly half were age 45 or older, and the unsheltered count in the January survey was 94, with about half of those using the Dairy Drive campground or Occupy Madison tiny-house villages.

- Pandemic-era changes: Staff said the city used hotels, a licensed campground on Dairy Drive, and converted temporary sites (Warner Park, a fleet maintenance site, and a site on Zyer Road) to expand capacity during COVID; those emergency responses were largely supported by one-time federal funds.

Next steps

Staff said the shelter team will continue to refine the operating budget with Porchlight and county partners, proceed through city and county budget processes for 2026 funding, coordinate with the Shelter Friends fundraising group as it prepares a private fundraising campaign, and finalize operational plans and protocols before opening, targeted for next year. City staff said naming the building will be part of future community engagement.

No formal action or vote was taken during this meeting; the session was informational and intended to gather council questions and clarify outstanding funding and operational issues.

Ending

Council members thanked staff for the briefing and asked that the city and county continue negotiations on shared operating commitments. City staff said they would return with more detailed funding scenarios as county budget decisions and private fundraising efforts advance.