MORE AREA EFFORTS

Other major initiatives to end homelessness in the Madison area:

• Dane County, which has been trying for several years to open a homeless day resources center, has spent $1.4 million for a building at 1326 E. Washington Ave. The service funders -- the county, Madison and United Way -- still must find an operator, secure a city conditional use permit, and do renovations, with an opening now delayed until late 2017.
• Madison, the United Way and local nonprofits are collaborating to rapidly re-house a total of 27 homeless families in apartments awaiting demolition at the Truax Park complex on the East Side. The Road Home, the YWCA of Madison and the Salvation Army staff are providing support services through 2017.
• Porchlight Inc. is breaking ground in June on a $4 million project with 28 efficiency units, an expanded kitchen for its Porchlight Products program and maintenance department space at Lien and Thierer roads. It is working with Madison Area Urban Ministry to provide space for that nonprofit's program that trains released prisoners in kitchen skills.
• Briarpatch Youth Services opened an eight-bed facility for homeless teens -- the first in the Dane County -- in the fall of 2015.
• Madison Area Urban Ministries has begun a fundraising campaign to create Healing House, an eight- to-10 bed medical respite facility at 303 Lathrop St. for families who are homeless with a member in need of recuperative care after hospital discharge. It would be the first in Wisconsin and 64th in the nation.
• Housing Initiatives Inc. has launched the "A Place To Call Home" project to raise $3 million to buy and renovate 60 apartment units in nine to 12 buildings for 60 more homeless people with mental illness by mid-2017. The project includes efforts to serve homeless teens and help reduce chronic homelessness by 20 percent.