This special meeting, called by Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey, convened at 4:00 PM and adjourned at 6:06 PM in the Council Chambers. The sole agenda item was a review of the city's efforts to address homelessness. Twelve council members were present (one excused: Lisa Weston). Council Member Newberry was excused at 5:05 PM, leaving 11 members; Council Member Kahlow excused at 5:25 PM, leaving 10 members. The meeting featured remarks from council members, a presentation from Michael Basford of the Wisconsin Department of Administration's Interagency Council on Homelessness, and updates from city staff including Brian Sampson (Homeless Services Coordinator), Police Chief Kudron, Dan Trussoni (Parks, Recreation, and Forestry), Jessica Skemp (Municipal Judge), Andrea Trane (Planning), and Jay Odegaard (Director of Public Works).
So first I'll start by saying uh every two weeks we have an unsheltered meeting. This meeting allows for several different departments to come together to talk about things that they are experiencing their different departments, what are their staff seeing, um, essentially strata strategize and excuse me in problem solving around this particular issue. So I thought it would be important for council members to hear from staff what we're doing and um really kind of have an open discussion amongst council to figure out what are some other things that we can either be looking at doing or or how we're gonna work together to address the issue that's in our community. So the way that I have this meeting set up, obviously I'm here uh do some opening remarks. We'll have council members, which they'll have two minutes to make remarks, and in their remarks, they're gonna talk about what they're seeing and hearing from their constituents, their community, etc. Or, you know, if you have other questions, just feel free to put those out there as well. Then I have Mike here from the state who's going to just speak from a state perspective of uh around the situation of homelessness, and then we will open it up to city staff and city staff, they know who they are. I'll call them up and they'll kind of speak to the work that we're doing in the city. And then um I'll leave it for council members to um ask questions and just have an open discussion. Uh and then we will adjourn the meeting. Sounds good. All right. So we'll start with district one first and just kind of go in order. So if you're ready, council president. Thank you, Mayor. So I represent the north side, upper north side, and the last time there was an observed uh collection of unsheltered was almost two years ago. And that was the last time that that was a large collection of individuals was in October of that year. And uh the Wisconsin DOT was has jurisdiction over the area where they had been um residing. And they cleared that area, and since that time I've not seen any further activities of that nature. So that is by the welcome sign that is um as you enter from the north, and that area next to the river has been clear. Um additionally, we have had occasions where the O'Connell Lodge and the Quality Inn do have housing options for individuals. Um I have not heard any reports in regard to those individuals. Um the comfort in, I know is on Moore Street, and they have had occasional concerns about um how many um not customers are are using their um continental breakfast. So I'm assuming that might still be a small issue, but I've not heard anything recently. There was a property that was occupied by a number of individuals, and we have successfully over a year ago empty that home and went up for sale and is now occupied by a single person. And that so the same issue is not occurring in that house. Since sometimes we talk about park situations, and that is one that is in my district. Badger Hickey Park is behind Bridgeville Plaza, in case you aren't familiar. And we have other issues. I don't want to be naive, but they aren't necessarily attributed to the unsheltered or any other activities. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember God. Thank you. And um trying to represent the entire city as well. We I'm also the executive director at the Harry Gielson Senior Center, which sits on the Bud Hendrickson Trail. And we experience different levels of things from people coming in asking for money from people badgering the seniors as they're getting in another cars, things like that. So that's very concerning to me, where I have to um navigate how they can be safe in the building, how they can be safe going in and out of the building. So that's that's a big concern for us. And while it's not attributed directly to the homeless unsheltered, it is um attributed to the activities that go around the people that prey on the homeless and unsheltered. Um recently I've come across some activity in um Luth Park, which is not my district, but somewhere where I've just spent some time. And um I'm I'm just concerned with the umtick, if you will. I just want the city of La Crosse and the residents of district two to know that I am listening and I'm trying to do and mitigate what I can. And we're not, I hope that we're not here to fix the blame, but we're here to fix some so solutions, and we're not we're willing to dig deeper into the surface questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Jansen. I represent district three, which is basically La Crosse Street going north to the railroad tracks on the north side. Obviously, that district has changed over the years, the boundaries, but um it's it's hard to strictly just talk regarding district three um because as a self-employed person, I'm all over the city throughout the day. I am in Stoddard, I am in on Alaska, and so um I hear many things, and I have other hats that I wear um in this community. What I have seen um is various levels of of behavior issues that have gone on throughout the city.