Why did the County not engage with District 17? Unilateral Decisions Are Not Community Care: District 17 Deserves Transparency, Equity, and Responsible Planning

Good morning, 

I want to make residents aware that I only learned about a proposal late in the day on Wednesday, giving me and residents across the district very little time to review or respond before it comes up for action. The proposal would add a harm reduction hub to an already overburdened district that lacks adequate infrastructure and is already stretched far beyond capacity. The Board of Health for Madison and Dane County will be discussing this item today at 10:30 a.m., and I will be there to raise both my concerns and the concerns residents have already shared with me in this short window. 

Meeting details.

Agenda (Items 12 & 13)

If you are not able to join but wish to have your voice included, please email your comments to district17@cityofmadison.com, and I will make sure they are shared with the Board.

Unilateral Decisions Are Not Community Care: District 17 Deserves Transparency, Equity, and Responsible Planning

Yet once again, a major decision that directly impacts our residents, workers, and businesses was pushed forward without transparency, without partnership, and without even the basic respect of notifying the elected representative for this district. The proposal would authorize a $2.4 million contract with CAYA Clinic, Inc. to operate a hub for harm reduction at 1765 Thierer Rd.

Let me be clear: District 17 is already beyond capacity, and we will not accept another high-impact service forced onto an already overburdened corridor. District 17 deserves responsible planning, equitable distribution, and real engagement—not afterthoughts and unilateral decisions.

District 17 Was Not Consulted:

County supervisors advanced this proposal without notifying the Alder, businesses, or residents.
This violates basic expectations of transparent, collaborative, community-centered governance and erodes trust before the project has even begun.

District 17 Already Shoulders a Disproportionate Concentration of Challenges:

• Within a 1.5-mile radius, District 17 hosts:
  • 5+ low-cost motels with ongoing drug, overdose, and safety issues
  • The Men’s Emergency Drop-In Shelter on Zeier Rd
  • The soon-to-open permanent men’s shelter at 1904 Bartillon Dr
  • Multiple encampments, panhandling hotspots, and frequent police and fire calls

PHMDC data confirms what residents have long known: drug-related activity is concentrated in this corridor.

PHMDC 2025 Data on Drug-Related EMS Calls:

• From January 1 – November 30, 2025:
  • 109 suspected drug-related EMS calls in District 17
  • 1 in 5 (20%) occurred at hotels/motels — involving 9 different motels
  • 8% occurred at the Men’s Drop-In Shelter on Zeier Road
  • Other common locations: multifamily units (19%), streets/highways, restaurants, gas stations, businesses, etc.

This data underscores that District 17 is already managing multiple overlapping crises, especially in commercial and hospitality zones.

Adding another high-impact service ignores the overloaded conditions already present and violates any equitable distribution of services citywide or countywide.

Public Safety Data Confirms the Area Is Overburdened:

Fire/EMS Activity – 2002 Zeier Road (Drop-In Shelter Area)

• 552 fire/EMS incidents YTD (+22% YoY)
• 469 transports YTD (+18% YoY)
• Monthly incident totals regularly hit 40–60+ calls
• Highest call volumes cluster around shelter/motel activity

Madison Police Department Activity

Between 10/10/25 and 12/9/25 (61 days):

• 93 MPD calls for service

Indicating:

• Increased response times
• Repeat contact with untreated behavioral health crises
• Lack of onsite stabilization options
• Significant public safety pressure on a single corridor

Additional Fire/EMS Data – Medic 8 (PHMDC + MFD):

Thierer Rd is located within the coverage area of Medic 8, and:

Medic 8 is the busiest ambulance in the entire City of Madison — responding to 4,721 calls in the first 11 months of the year, an average of 14 calls per day.

Placing another crisis-focused service in the busiest EMS district in the city is neither responsible nor safe for the community or the first responders who already operate at maximum capacity.

PHMDC Data on Priority Calls (Jan–Nov 2025):

PHMDC identified 1,283 calls for the following crisis-related types in District 17:

• Welfare checks
• Trespassing
• Drug incidents/investigations
• Mental health conveyances
• Detox conveyances
• Overdose incidents

Breakdown:

• 72% Check Person (welfare checks)
• 23% Trespassing
• 5% Drug-related calls
  (The remainder: mental health, detox, disorderly conduct)

Where These Calls Occurred

Half of all calls occurred at businesses or hotels/motels:

• Businesses: 29%
• Hotels/Motels: 21%
• Residential: 18%
• Shelters: 9%

This corridor is already functioning as the de facto triage zone for behavioral health and substance-related emergencies.

Additional Context: Violent Offenses in District 17 (PHMDC): 

From January 2024 through September 2025:

• 172 violent offenses and weapons violations, including:
  • 28 sexual assaults
  • 22 robberies
  • 98 aggravated assaults
  • 24 weapons violations

These layers of activity — violent crime, drug incidents, EMS overload, and shelter density — reveal that District 17 is already absorbing more than any other district in Dane County.

The County Has Not Funded or Planned for Unintended Impacts:

District 17 is already experiencing:

• Inadequate behavioral health providers
• Insufficient culturally relevant care
• Inadequate treatment navigation services
• Shortage of affordable housing and wrap-around supports
• No framework to address current business and neighborhood impacts
• No plan for predictable impacts a harm reduction hub will create

Without addressing these foundational gaps, adding a harm reduction hub will worsen existing conditions, not reduce them.

This Is an Equity Issue:

Homelessness and drug-related services are not equitably distributed citywide or countywide.
District 17 has become a default service zone that other districts and municipalities are shielded from.

Equity requires shared responsibility, not continued concentration in the same neighborhood.

Trust, Culture, and Representation Matter:

Drawing from Milwaukee’s civic reflections:

“You cannot serve a community you have not built trust with.”

As a Black woman in elected office, I echo these truths:

• Emergency response is relational, not just technical
• Communities shut down when decisions are made without them
• Representation, presence, and listening matter
• The emotional labor placed on Black leaders is real and systemic

The way this item came forward disregarded community voice from the start.

What District 17 and the City/County Needs Overall:

• Trusted and authentic collaborators
• Culturally grounded treatment models
• Housing + therapy access
• Navigation services at multiple care levels
• Multiple levels of treatment
• Balanced distribution of services citywide and countywide
• Regional partnerships
• Infrastructure before expansion
• A serious, community-centered planning process — not siloed unilateral decision-making

Unintended Consequences of Placing a Harm Reduction Hub Here: 

If the County places a harm reduction hub at this location without addressing inadequate investment and infrastructure, predictable unintended consequences include:

Neighborhood & Business Impacts

• Increased loitering
• Reduced consumer confidence
• More calls for trespassing, welfare checks, disturbances
• Strain on private security and business staff
• Workers experiencing higher daily incidents

Public Safety Impacts

• Further overload of Medic 8, the busiest ambulance in the city
• Dispatch delays across the East Side
• Higher repeat-contact calls
• Greater burden on MPD and Fire/EMS

Human Impacts

• People seeking help encountering a resource-thin corridor
• Lack of culturally relevant or sustained care
• Overcrowded and under-supported services

Systemic Impacts

• Deepened inequity in service distribution
• Normalizing high-impact service clustering in marginalized districts
• Further erosion of trust in government

Conclusion: 

Given existing strain, lack of engagement, inequity in service distribution, and major gaps in care infrastructure, District 17 cannot support another high-impact facility at this time.

A harm reduction hub at 1765 Thierer Road would exacerbate, not resolve, current challenges for residents, businesses, first responders, and the very individuals seeking care.