Occupy Northside?

Like most Northsiders, I was surprised to hear that the long-term homeless group Occupy Madison had decamped to Asylum Hill last night. There was some question as to where they'd go after the City kicked them off the Don Miller site they'd taken over last winter, and the County's initial plan to open up a site on Wright Street ran into stiff resistance after being proposed a couple of months ago.

It's hard to know exactly what's going on with this specific group of folks, with conflicting information filtered through multiple sources. Both Mayor Soglin and County Executive Parisi have stated that housing is available for the members of the original encampment, but former Ald. Brenda Konkel - who has taken on the role of the residents' chief spokesperson - insists otherwise. No one has said for sure if this is the same core group from last year's Occupy Madison encampment, or if the sobriquet is being used to brand this new group.

Did these folks fall through the cracks, or are they the most chronic of the chronic homeless? Have they been kicked out of Porchlight or other shelters, or are they languishing on a waiting list? Is this a savvy, self-organized group looking to better themselves, or a stunt organized by Konkel and others? Given the involvement of several high-profile individuals on Madison's political scene, it's difficult to see through the agendas.

The only clear fact we have is that there isn't a simple solution. But I will say that, as long as they're occupying the hill, the residents of the tent encampment need to be good neighbors...or whatever goodwill they have on the Northside will evaporate quickly.