Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. It's 721, so we're gonna start our seven o'clock council meeting. I will call it to order and I will ask our clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson.

Here.

Keene. Here. Novak. Here. Noling. Present. Rote. Here. Turner. Here. Weigle. Here. Grisham. Here. Grove. Here. Haas. Here. Ten present.

We have a quorum. Please rise if you are able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led this evening by Alderman Halverson. Thank you. We will now go on to Part D of our agendas. The first section is public hearings, and I will ask the clerk to read out public hearing number one.

Special event permit and zoning exception request for Novak Manor, a proposed temporary event space located at 9730 West Montana Avenue.

you very much and i'll turn it over to staff thank you mayor uh good evening everyone my name is steve sheriff director of city planning and zoning and uh the first hearing is for novak manor this is um i believe the third or fourth year we've had a public hearing like this since the uh the ordinance has changed um for uh for special events um within neighborhoods um and the the property owner adam novak applied for a special event permit recently and with that a special zoning exception the property is zoned residential ra2 and that is a low density residential neighborhood district zoning and while you know commercial event spaces aren't allowed in residential zoning districts there is an exception within the zoning or actually within the municipal code to allow for special events such as this temporary events and a public hearing is required So the use is a local attraction that's been going on for a number of years. It attracts thousands of people for a charitable event. It will feature an indoor tent and use of a garage on the property, as well as the yard and an outdoor haunted yard and garage. So it'll feature live actors. The street and sidewalk area will be available for viewing, and then there's an interactive walkthrough on the property itself. There is an operational plan that's been submitted. I just have a summary of that here basically indicating the site plan showing the the trail through the yard, and then a tent area in the garage on the site. Traffic queues up along the sidewalk areas along either 98th Street or Montana Avenue, and then enters near the driveway area off of Montana Avenue. This is a temporary occupancy permit. All proceeds go to charity. They are asking for a $2 donation for people that enter the site, and the site plan is shown here. there is refuse and sanitation the applicant is responsible for cleanup of any litter or debris on the site and that's done immediately in the surrounding area and the property sometimes both during the event as well as definitely after the event the zoning exception is applicable here for the temporary event for the 12 days. It'll be featured on Fridays and Saturdays from September 25th to Halloween, October 31st, inclusive of those dates. And then the event starts at 6 p.m. and then ends sharply at 10 p.m. And then all the lights are turned off at 10 p.m. to deter, I guess, passersby from entering the neighborhood. So there are no make updates indicated. And then food, transient merchants, alcohol are prohibited from the event premise. And we've received no objections to date and the event has been properly noticed in the official paper. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are there any questions on public hearing number one from the members of the Common Council? All right, seeing none, are there any questions on public hearing number one from the members of the audience? All right, then we will close our first public hearing and we'll move on to item two and I will ask the clerk to read out item number two.

Conditional use permit for Living Hope Lutheran Church and existing religious institution use at 1337 South 100th Street.

Thank you, turn it back to Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mayor. This property, Living Hope Lutheran, is zoned residential. It formerly operated as a school as well as a daycare. However, those functions have been relocated to another property at 99th and Lincoln. um this will function as a religious institution so the gymnasium and the former school will be converted to a religious institution which is allowed within the residential district as a conditional use the scope includes primarily the interior remodel of 17 000 square feet converting it from school to church and then about 1200 square feet of external ramp investability area being added to the front of the building along hunter street there is a tower addition on the front side of the building. And then there's also a separate property north of this, which is historically the old church, which will be discontinued, used for storage and or offices for the time being. The again property zone residential and this is just an example that the church had mentioned to the north lot is on the left it's on the very north end of that parking lot and then the daycare and school which are are south of the parking lot. Will be converted to to church. There are 65 parking spaces within that parking lot, as well as a number, I believe about 27 or so additional angled parking stalls within 100th Street itself, as well as street parking along 100th Street. There is an existing playground, basketball hoop, planters. The landscaping's in very good condition on the site. And just a view, sort of a planned view of the area of work. On your right-hand side is 100th Street. Well, if you can see my cursor, this is 100th Street. And then east of 100th Street is the expressway. But this is the area of the addition, that ramp addition and vestibule addition on the front of the building. A view of the parking lot and landscaping. Also looking north to the older church, which is being discontinued. And then this is the floor plan for the future conversion of the school and daycare. basically just walking through this, the ramp and entry addition will be enclosed. It's an enclosed entry exit area leading up to the lobby narthex, where there'll be some high top tables for socializing as well, and then entering the sanctuary area, about 354 seats within the sanctuary area. And then moving out of that sanctuary through the lobby narthex again, and going further south on the site, You pass by restrooms, that's the WC, a prep kitchen, conference rooms, offices, and a hall area for up to 176 people. In total, this is primarily used for religious functions. There will be Sunday school area within the conference room area. So there'll be those services. No longer will there be a daycare at this facility, but the church will offer weddings, funerals, baptisms, the like, church things like that. With respect to the architectural plan, the majority of changes are taking place on the east side of the building. That's the elevation you see here on the bottom, just sort of a rendered bird's eye view of it here. Hunter Street is in the in the foreground. and then areas in the building will be infilled with a little bit taller roof line and clear store or windows on the front of the building some additional glass enclosing that new ramp up to the building the tower feature you can see on the front of the building near the entrance random some other elevations here just sort of indicating the scope of change on the existing building where the new work will be taking place taking up some blank wall spaces adding windows that new ramp the tower feature and then the vestibule into the building just some of the materials so plan commission has looked at this and they have recommended council approval staff would just add that with respect to some of the rooftop mechanicals on the building we'd like to also obtain a screening plan from the architect who is here this evening but otherwise the property has been properly noticed people within 200 feet notified and we've received no objections to date thanks

thank you so much for the presentation are there any questions from the Common Council on item number two Alderman Keene Steve you keep saying it's a currently it's an existing religious institution so it's just it's gonna be by a new owner occupied and that's why it's coming before us or because of the changes of what the use is going to be going from a school to a more religious

yeah it's it is being used as a church in some capacity right now about roughly about 200 250 people attending masses within the old gymnasium right now but the primary idea here with the conditional use is to is for that conversion from from the old school and daycare to a full-on church That other property, the older or historic looking smaller church is up here. I don't know if you can see the cursor or not, but that's up here. This is actually a separate property. I just threw that in there just to indicate that that's, I guess while it's not technically part of the same property here, it is affiliated with Living Hope and they'll be decommissioning that building and just using it more for storage and offices.

Thank you.

Thank you, any other questions from the members of the council?

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Grisham.

Steve, with that being said, was this a tax property prior to, and will it be?

No, it's not a taxable property. It's non-taxable as a religious. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, any other questions from the council? If not, are there any questions from the audience on public hearing number two? will take this moment to tell everyone that if you do end up having questions at some point on our public hearings you can approach the microphone over here just in case you want to speak and didn't really know what to do um that is how you would address us under the public hearings i do not see any members of the audience so we will close public hearing number two and i will ask the clerk to read out public hearing number three ordinance to amend the zoning map and 2045 comprehensive plan future land use map for properties along south 65th street

Thank you. Thanks, Mayor. Motor Castings is no longer a foundry in West Dallas. It's been demolished. The city, the CDA has actually acquired the property. So the Motor Castings property is primarily the six acre cross hatched properties north of the subject rezoning area. So this area was rezoned back in, about 2020 2021 at the time we had recommended actually rezoning the two lots uh they're coming before us this evening however there was a different plan a different owner at that time who had proposed to um relocate his engineering company to this site and headquarter in this location so at the time it was decided to leave that these two properties on the south which consists of an old motor castings office building and a warehouse alone as industrial so fast forward to 2026 the same owner owns that water clock engineering now owns this um and um but but i guess the the property may have a different direction in terms of how it's being used it's currently unoccupied does not have an occupancy permit So we are pursuing a rezoning of the two properties at actually 1339 through 47 South 65th Street is zoning proposing a rezoning from industrial to commercial and then the 1323 property a land use map amendment. Basically, the goals are to create a more assembled property for future development of the motor casting site, as well as in support of other developments that are taking place within the area. So a closer look at the zoning itself. The existing zoning map is here on the left-hand side. One of the properties, the old office building, the motor casting office building, is currently zoned C3. property south of that which is the shop or warehouse building is zoned i1 jumping over to the map on the right we are proposing to rezone the shop building or warehouse building to c3 and this presents prevents nuisance types of reuses landscape companies trucking companies within that within that warehouse building And we're just seeking to realign the property through zoning for the larger redevelopment vision of the properties. The second part of the ordinance is to amend the future land use that directly related to our comprehensive plan. And you always want to have the future land use map consistent with zoning. So the two are coinciding and with the both lots in this case, the ordinance would change the future land use from a industrial mixed land use to a commercial mixed land use, which is also supportive with that commercial zoning. And within commercial zoning, there are a number of uses allowed within commercial zoning districts. So in other words, by rezoning it from industrial to commercial, you're not removing value from the property. C3 still allows for, several multiple different uses within within the zoning district from residential lodging retail commercial services civic institutional recreation and even even some industrial so should the existing property owner want to redevelop the property for an industrial use there is still capacity to develop it as as light industrial or advanced manufacturing even if it is zone c3 there is that capacity within our existing zoning ordinance i just also wanted to sort of sum up some points within our comprehensive plan um city is fully redeveloped and we've developed our 2045 vision for the city the land use vision for the city to take a look at opportunity areas within the city special interest areas these areas are catalytic we've identified 10 on this map within the approved comp plan and it's basically should be seen as a road map to to redevelopment to the future um and it should be the highest priority over the next 20 or so years of this planning horizon. Some of the things that have taken place already, just taking a look at this area, the little red dot is the two subject properties we're talking about. But within the greater area, what we're calling six points or the foundry district in this case, is the darker dashed line around this whole area. There have been a number of projects taking place within this area already. from hospitals, hotels, Oak Brewing, the Reunion Restaurant, different apartment developments such as Sona Lofts, Aurora Health Clinic, West Living, Summit Place. So there's a combination of both living, major employment centers, as well as third spaces within this area. And that's sort of the vision going forward um that we see for the motor casting site and with this rezoning we see that fitting in to that making that connection with that larger motor castings lot and then also the synergy and connection with the rest of the area as providing you know something that's not going to be a nuisance or incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood leaving an industrial could potentially open it up to some incompatible uses that the surrounding neighborhood may not may not like just another example of the comprehensive plan in a bird's eye view of the larger motor casting site this is roughly a six acre site spanning along 65th street north of greenfield avenue and then the lots in question for this ordinance this evening are in in red here in the lower portion of that portion of the lot extending down you can kind of see some of the other existing redevelopment sites within the area starting with union green on the corner of 65th and greenfield the apiary on 70th and washington the alice yards development is a redevelopment area in the old mckinley park area and then further east here some development lots around the six points intersection itself this pink line up here is a future connection roadway connection washington street runs east to west from 70th street and then dead ends at roughly the whitnell summit to chiba area the state is going to be installing a road for us in about 2030 and connecting 60th street to 70th street through this area so that opens up additional redevelopment potential in this area all sort of connecting to this motor casting site as well as making the connection to the subject lots which are the subject to this ordinance this evening So with that, Planning Commission has recommended Common Council approval of the ordinance as presented. There has been public notice and property owners with a 200 feet notified, and there has been one objection to date, which is the property owner who is concerned that we're removing value from the property. So I'll leave it at that, open up to questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there questions from the Common Council on public hearing number three?

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Keene.

Steven, I believe the owner of the property is here, this guy's here, but I don't disagree with the vision of what's gonna go there and potentially the development of that area and what's already really been developed, to your point. There's been a lot of good stuff going in, really revamping that whole area. At the same time, I do kind of feel with the owner that You have a property that's industrial. Now we're not going to, so has environmental's been done? I get that we can go from C3 and there could be some potentially light industry or something like that, but is that really an option with buildings? So the end of the day is I wanna see West Allis move forward and I wanna see new developments, but I also don't wanna see it at the detriment of someone who owns property and could potentially cause some money. I don't know with the applicant being here if it's appropriate to ask him any questions or if that needs to wait for a committee mayor. I just kinda had some questions of how long has it been occupied for, what's been put into it, is it sitting there blighted, is there actually movement on that end of someone's interested in buying that property and it has to be industrial and then we're kinda taking away potential options for him. Again, you can let me know the appropriateness of where to ask these, but those are some of the questions that I have regarding this matter.

I mean, it is a public hearing, so if you wanna ask him questions, or staff, if he, I'm not sure who owns the parcel.

Scott, are you, you wanna come up to the podium?

And if you could turn the microphone on and please just give us your name and address.

Press the button, there we go. There you go. Hi, I'm Scott Sardina. I put 1339 South 65th Street on here, because that would be how you would contact me in West Dallas. Otherwise, 3549 South 60th Street in Milwaukee.

Thank you. So I did just have some questions with the property. So right now you have a, is there like, are you still working towards a full-on occupancy permit for light industrial use or like having, It's like a business operating out of there. What's your goal of this property? Because it has kind of been sitting for a couple of years. I know you've put some work in, but what is that goal of this property?

yeah so um uh currently there is not a business operating out of there however i've been working toward um getting a so it was originally my engineering business was going to try and occupy the entire space as we all know with with businesses things change year over year growth growth happens in different ways I noticed about two years ago that us occupying all 20,000 square feet did not make financial sense for the business. So I started looking for other businesses to occupy a portion of the space that fit with the area. And I actually worked with Economic Development at the time, and they brought forth a variety of businesses. Blast Cleaning Technologies, they're right behind the building actually. uh... throughout metal works they work with uh... blast cleaning technologies as well as krieger bearings which is a machine shop uh... these types of businesses to help kind of alleviate everything being put on one single business. So with that, where I currently stand, I've been working with Anderson, as our Anderson Commercial Group, as a broker to help find a business that will fit in there properly, whether it's partial or complete.

um and then with looking at that c3 as uh steve has stated there is some i'm guessing you received the letter of what it was have you looked at what those business uses are because like as you say commercial doesn't always just mean like it has to be a pet shop or a coffee place it could potentially be light industrial use am i correct there steve yeah yes sir okay that could potentially still fit that? So it's almost like it's C3 but there is movement into it that would still fit that business plan or what you're gearing towards because of how the property has either been set up or renovated, is it solely have to be like industry in order for you to feel that that space would have to be occupied?

So I'm going off of the counsel of my real estate attorney, who's actually here with me today, and also the Anderson Commercial Group. I presented this to both of them, and any sort of rezoning, and this would be considered a downzoning actually, from industrial to commercial, is going to restrict the uses that we can go toward. And Anderson themselves have told us that it is going to be significantly harder to find someone that's going to fit C3 for this property versus I1. So with that, I mean, I know you guys want to see occupancy as quickly as possible. I just don't understand how rezoning it is going to help accomplish that.

How long have you been looking for a tenant?

It's been two years.

Okay. Do you feel like there's any close leads? Are you guys doing anything different to get a tenant in that it's taken kind of two years and there's still nothing and... my reservation here is do you hold it for the I-1 that it's at and two years goes by again, you still don't find it, two years goes by, you still don't find it, two years, That's kind of my point. We all have to look at long-term visions, right? So is it going to be, and obviously you don't have your crystal ball to say that you're gonna have someone rented in six months, and that's not what I'm looking for here, but part of me is wondering if something changes that it's two years and you still don't have occupancy to potentially get occupancy under this specific zoning that you feel like you would now, after two years, still be able to fill that space?

The large change that we have made over the last month was bringing in Anderson Commercial Group to help us fill that space. So that is the change that we've made. Gotcha.

That's all the questions I have for right now.

Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Are there any other questions from, I see Alderman Weigel's light on. Mayor Devine. Go ahead.

Mr. Sardino, so how long have you owned the property?

I believe I purchased it in 2021.

So five years plus. And with this listing with Anderson, are you looking to find somebody to take the whole property or are you still talking about somebody would co-locate? Are you moving your business in there at all?

I'm not going to restrict it because I do not want the smaller space to deter someone from from occupying.

Well, I understand that. But what's the plan for your business? So you're so you're not planning on moving here, but you would if you needed to. Is that what you're saying?

I would like to. However, like I said, I do not want it doesn't fit your needs.

Yeah. You bought the building five years ago and for whatever reason, it doesn't fit your current needs. So a month ago you listed it with a broker.

I wouldn't say that it doesn't fit my needs. It's just, I don't need the entire space. So to answer your question, I'm not going to restrict someone who's interested in the building. If they come to me and say, I want the full 20,000 square feet, I think you would agree, why would I restrict them from that?

i understand that but but uh so i what does the listing say uh up to twenty thousand square feet or twenty thousand square feet are people looking at with the idea that they're gonna take up to twenty thousand okay and and just you know you just made a statement the council wants it occupied as quickly as possible well we really really don't we want it occupied with the best use for the neighborhood You're familiar with Union Green, the apartment townhouses. The city invested significant money and energy in helping that project move forward, and I believe it's doing very well. And that's like right there. So I guess that's one of my concerns. So you know the neighborhood?

Yes. Okay.

Thank you.

And I will say I also have invested a significant amount of money into this property.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you. Any other questions from the members of the council on public hearing number three?

Mayor Dunn.

Alderman Grisham.

Mr. Sardino, thank you for the information. This zoning change, what economic impact does it have on you as far as what losses? You said that it will significantly change the value, or it was mentioned.

yes so um as my attorney and the brokers have uh recommended that the change in zoning could require me to make significant changes to the building to to meet the new zoning uh in order to get a tenant in there so that additional investment now could make it inequitable thank you thank you any other questions from the council on public hearing number three mayor devine

Alderman Grove.

My question is really more for Steve, and just maybe for the council's benefit, and I know you can't list every example, but can you give us an example of what is currently allowed industrial-wise that wouldn't be, or what C3 would still allow for that would be considered light industrial, just so we have a better picture of what the change would mean for that?

Well, I guess advanced manufacturing and light commercial, commercial light industrial flex are the first two indicated on the allowance area as the conditional uses. Both of those, advanced manufacturing, a good example of that is probably something along the line of it's a light industrial use. Everything's being kept inside the building. There's not things like, I guess, trucking that are, you know, landscape companies, things that could pose a nuisance to surrounding residential. So it would be something more, I guess, No Vanessa's maybe to name a few local examples, no Vanessa's and or maybe perhaps blast cleaning technologies could be examples of advanced manufacturing within our city right now. Again, certainly everything being kept within the building, very low, no order, no vibrations, no. sounds everything's contained kept tightly within you know the building and not emanating in the neighborhood the concern would be you know things like trucking companies and i mentioned landscaping companies there could be certain automotive types of uses that just wouldn't wouldn't lend well i think to to an industrial zoning i guess They'd be allowed in industrial zoning, but it'd be problematic just because the lots are smaller and the surrounding areas are all primarily residential to the east. And south you have Greenfield Avenue with some mixed uses. Further west you have, I guess you've got blast cleaning technologies and daycare and things like that. I just don't, we don't think that there could be some incompatibility with keeping it so industrial.

Okay, I was just looking to see what that line was there between the two. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions from the council on public hearing number three? All right, seeing none, we will see if there are any questions from the members of the audience.

What is blast cleaning currently zoned?

Industrial.

Okay, so they're following under here. And the only problems you're having are trucking and landscaping. I just hear over and over again. Is that the only thing we're restricting by changing?

There's others. I mean, I can talk to you afterwards.

Yeah, I'd love to have a discussion on this before we push forward without the owner's consent. So we can have discussions on what might best fit before we're restricting the use. Sure.

i do have a follow-up question uh you mentioned oak brewing in your uh one of your previous slides what are they zoned i believe that's zone c3 i checked this morning and it was zoned i1 according to the gis okay

You could be right. That whole area, I guess I have a picture of on the bottom here. This is Mitchell Street on the bottom, and you have the Sona Lofts. This area was historically all industrial once upon a time. More recently, Higgins Tower Company was also zoned industrial, surrounded by commercial C3 here. the past two years this area was was rezoned from industrial to commercial they're able to maintain their industrial usage i mean their current occupants of that building should they leave another tower service could come in and occupy that space however if that use lapses over 12 months time then that lot would have to conform with the c3 district So the same thing would follow suit with your lot. The only difference is that you currently don't have occupants within those buildings. So if rezoned to C3, you would have to comply with the C3 zoning. There's no, I guess, legacy use here to sort of continue on within the building motor castings. is gone um and that that use has lapsed um and there's no new occupant i think there was a trucking company that you have uh maybe trying to to use some of the space for storage within that building um on the south uh the one that's we're proposing to rezone however there's no occupancy for that property that i'm aware of so

There's no occupancy within the building and no use within the building. Oh, okay.

That's a statement There is a truck there though.

I think there's a truck or two that have been there Yes, so I will address that there have been dump trucks there because we have had break-ins in the past and I had a friend who owns a trucking company that needed a place to park which parking trucks according to I realize we have not applied for occupancy because we are not occupying the internal portion of the building. However, with industrial zoning, truck storage is part of part of the use. So I figured that that would be OK to have them park their trucks on the outside. And actually, all of the the break-ins and and various things in the area that even the neighbors did not like stopped as soon as the truck started parking there now to address i am working with the city that the trucks will be gone by the end of the month and we will see what happens after that

all right if there are no other questions from the council are there any other questions from the members of the audience on public hearing number three seeing none then we will close public hearing number three thank you everybody and we will go on to public participation This is when the public may address the council during this 30 minute period. We again ask each speaker to give us their name and address for our official record. And we ask that they limit their comments to one statement of no longer than five minutes. The council may not act on topics raised by the speakers and may not engage or discuss with the speakers due to open meetings. Does anybody wish to address the council under public participation this evening? Please address the podium.

My name is Katie Gast. I live at 2031 South 86th Street. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Common Council. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here on behalf of the neighbors, some of who are also here tonight, regarding the proposed warming shelter at Mount Hope Lutheran Church. We understand that the proposal may be delayed for this year, but want to make it clear that the concern has not gone away simply because the proposal may be delayed. We believe it is important that we continue this conversation now rather than waiting until the proposal is brought forward again. We recognize that there are people who are struggling, and we believe we have a responsibility as a community to help provide meaningful support. Our concern is whether Mount Hope Lutheran Church is the appropriate location to provide that support, given the proximity to our schools, its residential surroundings, and the resources available in the immediate area. This location is in a residential neighborhood and is extremely close to our schools. We are talking about an area where children walk to and from school every day, families live, and residents expect a certain level of safety and stability within our neighborhood. One of the city's responsibilities is to protect the safety and well-being of its residents, particularly our children. We are asking you to remember this when considering a facility that could significantly serve a significant number of individuals overnight. The proximity to schools and the surrounding residential population should be an important part of your decision. We also believe we need to take a look beyond simply providing a building where people can sleep. A successful warming shelter requires wraparound services and resources that help individuals move towards stability. That can include access to transportation, employment opportunities, mental health and substance abuse services, food assistance, case management, medical resources, and other community support. The Mount Hope location does not appear to provide the level of wraparound services that would be needed to adequately support the people the shelter is intended to serve. Simply putting people in a building overnight does not address the underlying challenges that they may be facing. We respectfully ask the council to look at the bigger picture if this proposal comes before you. We hope you will carefully consider whether this is the right location, not just whether it's a location that's available. We can support people in need while also recognizing that location matters. We can care about those experiencing homelessness while also protecting our children, our schools, our residents, and our neighborhood. We are asking the council to be proactive rather than reactive. Take the time now to identify what a successful warming shelter needs to look like and where it can be located so it provides meaningful support to those in need without placing unnecessary burden on a residential neighborhood or our schools. Thank you for listening and taking these concerns seriously.

Thank you for your comments, Ms. Gast. Are there any other residents that wish to address the council under public participation?

Hi, I'm James Heindel, live at 2053 South 86th Street, right across the street from Franklin Elementary School. And my wife and I have been there for 48 years and raised our boys there. So my biggest concern about this warming center is the children. The warming center will be kitty corner from Franklin Elementary School. and i've noticed the last year or two that there are more children walking instead of being driven by their parents to school so that and the high school is a block away central high school is very close and concerned about those kids being exposed to potential issues with the people staying there i have some questions also i want to know if the common council has looked at facilities that do this kind of thing for others and examine ways to get continued funding if this is approved and Don't know what will happen in the future, so I think that it's important to Council to examine what will. More than a one year event. And I've also heard, but I don't know if this is true, that people are going to be bused to this warming center. And if that is true, are they coming from the city of West Allis or are they coming from other municipalities? And if they're coming from other municipalities and tax dollars get involved, should other municipalities also be involved with this forming center? If there is other. People being bused from outside with Dallas. Oh, I already said sorry repeating myself is the proposed center. Prepared to handle someone who shows up on drugs. Or having an overdose or carrying a weapon. Are they going to be able to handle that kind of situation? will counselors be available for these people most of them probably need some kind of counseling will there be increased security in the area is the west alice police department going to be able to to provide increased security to our neighborhood especially for our children in the morning in the afternoon and i do see children out even at dusk or after dusk so i think the funding for the future also has to be considered maintenance for this facility custodial services will increase is food being provided what about a food service from a facility like that and laundry services all those services if they're going to have a daily event even if it's only in winter are going to require maintenance and some kind of funding Thank you for hearing my concerns and my questions.

Thank you very much.

And if you'd like, I have a copy of these questions.

You can leave them with the attorney and we can distribute to the council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hengel. Anybody else wish to address the council under public participation this evening? Oh, turn the mic on, please.

There we go. Thank you. Hi, my name is Donna Jonason. I live at 1945 South 83rd Street in District 3. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I'm here to encourage you to create zoning rules that would allow for an emergency overnight winter shelter, winter warming shelter in West Dallas. I've been a West Dallas resident for over 40 years. My children all attended Franklin Elementary, Frank Lloyd Wright Middle School, and Central High School. for the past 10 years i've been the coordinator of the hope ministries at mount hope lutheran church we serve unhoused families and families in severe poverty in west dallas many of our referrals come from the west dallas school system we serve children from franklin elementary from central high school nearby us but children from all over the district and their families. Anywhere from 100 to 200 children each year in West Dallas schools are unhoused at some time during the year. We also receive referrals from community social workers, from other churches, and we currently serve about 200 families representing about 900 people. I've become increasingly alarmed at the increase in housing insecurity in West Allis in the past two to three years. There are currently no shelters, no overnight or otherwise in West Allis. Our families have to go to Milwaukee to find shelter when they're on the street or living in their cars. Shelters in Milwaukee often have long waiting lists, especially in the winter, can be up to 200 people on the waiting list to get into a 24 hour shelter. We currently have two families that we're serving who are living in their cars. We have a married couple with three children, one of whom is severely autistic, and we also have a grandmother trying to raise two grandchildren trying to escape domestic violence at the same time. If it were winter, they would have no place to go, and they could greatly benefit from an overnight warming shelter. I have also received phone calls late at night in the winter from families we have served who are in crisis and have no place to sleep. They have exhausted all resources. They've called every emergency number available, and I have no answers for them. They end up sleeping outside, sometimes moms with children. I'm concerned about the increasing number of unhoused people I see in our neighborhood. They are here. They are sleeping on the front lawn of our church at 86 and Beecher. There are many who seek shelter at the public library a few blocks from my home and my church. They are walking along our streets looking for a place to rest. I want to make clear I've never had an issue with an unhoused person. My concern is they are human beings and should not have to be without shelter in extreme heat or cold. They are residents of West Allis. This is not a problem that will go away. It's here right now and it's getting worse. We now have a coalition of 10 churches in West Dallas, churches who have been in this community for decades, serving people in poverty and people who are homeless. We have been on the front lines, interacting with these people and trying to serve them. And tonight, this is an exciting opportunity for you to think about for the city of West Dallas, its religious institutions and its residents to find solutions so that unhoused people are no longer wandering our streets without a place to sleep. It's time for West Dallas to support one small step, an overnight winter warming shelter. So we are here tonight to urge you to create zoning laws that would allow for overnight winter warming shelters. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thanks for your comments. Anybody else wish to address the council under public participation?

Good evening. I am Pastor Stephen Boyhunt, and I serve Mount Hope Lutheran Church at 8633 West Beecher Street, and I represent the over 200 members of Mount Hope Lutheran Church. I'm here to speak in favor of a temporary seasonal overnight warming shelter as directed by both my congregation and my faith. The idea for a seasonal overnight warming shelter in West Allis may seem relatively new, but this idea did not take place in a vacuum. Nearly a year ago, a public meeting was held for all concerned and interested in how the West Allis community would respond to rising homelessness among our population. A common issue that was identified was that West Allis has zero overnight warming shelters. And in fact, West Allis community members have to seek out outside assistance. After several meetings with community liaisons, input from more than half a dozen long-standing West Allis congregations, and leadership from homelessness and housing advocates, Mount Hope ended up being the only location to seriously consider opening its space to such a project. Homelessness in West Allis is on the rise. And as government, over 100 children in the West Allis public school system experience housing insecurity any given year. Until better systems are in place, such as low-income housing, better healthcare, and better food security, this is the most basic level of care we can provide at this time. It is not a sunshine and rainbows kind of project. It will be work. It will need open communication and dialogue. It will need dignity and respect given to all. However, when dozens of lives a night are on the line, it's work worth doing and worth doing well. This is why I urge the city to research, investigate, and carefully consider an amendment that would allow monitored seasonal temporary shelter services to be held in West Allis. While the urgency is clear, we want to do this right. With the support of our faith partners, county resources, community leaders, and the general West Allis community, we have the opportunity to be the model of what this life saving care can look like. Mount Hope has been working with the unhoused population for the last 10 years, serving roughly 900 plus people this year with zero major incidents. Mount Hope and its partners seek to serve the most vulnerable among us in West Dallas, just as we have done for the last 100 years. You're invited to take a step in saving lives in our community.

Thank you.

thanks for your comments excuse me is there anybody else that wishes to address the council never mind uh good evening mayor devine and members of the council my name is ariana hones and i live at 1555 south 74th street thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight in favor of an overnight warming shelter in west allis I come here as a resident, but I also have the immense honor of serving as the chair of the Hope Ministries Advisory Board at Mount Hope Lutheran Church, an institution that's expressed willingness, as you've heard, to host an overnight shelter here in West Allis. And I want to just first offer an invitation to connect with me and to connect with the team at Mount Hope Lutheran Church to learn more about the decade-plus work that has been happening there to support families and to support children who are unhoused in our community to come visit us and to see what is happening there. Whenever I talk to people in West Allis and ask what they care about the most or what they love about this place, they tell me that this is a place that cares about community. It's a place that cares about the desire for people to connect, to have opportunities to connect with each other, support each other, and to make this place a better one to live not only now, but for future generations. So as a community member, I believe I have, and I believe we all have, a shared moral obligation to support our most vulnerable neighbors. This doesn't mean, I don't think it has to mean, that some people get less. It means that we invest in resilience and we invest in relationships and that we share in the duty of keeping each other safe. Without an overnight warming shelter, our neighbors, people who we work with, people who go to our schools, people who visit our institutions around this community will not have a safe place to rest during the coldest months of the year. These are families and children and the elderly. They're gonna live in their cars. and on the streets, and they're also gonna live in unsafe domestic situations. We have an opportunity, and it's a really exciting one, I think, an opportunity to serve as a model for what it looks like when neighbors come together to look out for each other. So I urge you to take up this opportunity. I have full confidence, full confidence in the team of professionals at Milwaukee County, which I know you're gonna hear from later, to operate a safe and dignified and well-resourced operation. But moreover, I have full confidence in Mount Hope to serve as a host that is responsive to the needs of the community. We're all so much closer than we want to think to housing instability. It's been luck and privilege that have allowed me to always have a roof over my head. It's been luck and privilege that's provided me with a strong safety net and support system. There's an entire community of neighbors who stand in support of this project and are committed to its success. They're committed to ensuring that guests of the warming shelter and neighborhood residents, homeowners, renters are safe. They're committed to this. So I ask that my alders, Halverson and Nowling take this issue up and work with our city's planning committee on rezoning. And I ask that when Mount Hope Lutheran brings this proposal forward to this body, that you vote in support of it and vote in support of caring for our community in the way that it deserves. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mayor, all the persons and members of the public. I live at 1555 South 74th Street, West Allis. My name is Angelito Tenorio, and I'm honored to be the state representative for the 14th Assembly District, which covers the majority of West Allis and parts of Milwaukee and Tosa. I'm so proud to be from West Allis because we are a community that looks out for one another. We are hardworking, welcoming, compassionate, and empathetic. We believe in helping our neighbors, treating people with respect and dignity, and coming together to make our community safer and stronger for everyone. And that's what this temporary warming shelter is all about. This is about making our community safer for our unhoused neighbors during the coldest, most dangerous months of the year. It's about making sure that West Allis families, women, and children who have nowhere else to go have access to a safe, warm place to rest at night. It's about making sure that when someone in our community is going through one of the hardest moments of their life, that they have somewhere to turn to. No family should have to wonder where they're going to sleep. No mother should have to choose between staying somewhere unsafe or sleeping outside with their children. And no child should go without basic security of having a roof over their head. Providing a safe place for people to go is good for the people who need help, and it is good for our community. I also want our neighbors to know that this shelter will be run by professionals at Milwaukee County who have the experience doing this work. They'll be responsible for operating the shelter and helping connect neighbors with services and making sure that the shelter is operated and managed safely and responsibly. And they are committed to working with our community, with the City of West Allis. They will listen to our neighbors, take feedback, adjust hours, answer questions, work with Mount Hope and the City of West Allis and the surrounding neighborhood to make sure that the shelter is successful and safe. Through the shelter, West Allis can be a leader and a model in Wisconsin in tackling homelessness. I would like to continue to be part of this conversation and I want to make sure that the voices of our residents are being heard. And we know that this overnight shelter is only one part of the solution. At the state level, I'm committed to continuing to fight for investments to tackle homelessness, to help people get back on their feet. That means building more affordable housing, making sure that people experiencing homelessness have access to the wraparound services and the support they need to find permanent housing. It means creating more good paying jobs in our community so that working people can make ends meet. Making sure that folks can afford a home, raise a family and build a secure and safe future for themselves right here in our community. And that's what our West Allis values are all about. We're about taking care of our neighbors because we believe that everyone in our community deserves dignity and that we work together to make our community safer and stronger for all of us. I'm so grateful to Mount Hope for stepping up and I'm grateful for the county for the work that they'll be doing to make sure that this is successful and safe in our community. I encourage you members of the council and the mayor to meet with Mount Hope leadership, to meet with Milwaukee County staff, to tour Mount Hope's facilities and to make an ordinance change to allow for an overnight warming shelter here in West Dallas. and approve their application when it comes to you. This will save lives in our community. And I look forward to continuing to work with you to make sure that this is successful for the families, the women and children that need an overnight warming shelter. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Anybody else wish to address the council under public participation?

Hello, my name is Tiffany Stark. I am in District 1. My address is 6414 West Burnham Street. I am a long life West Allis resident, and I also am a social worker for 20 plus years. I know I don't look that old, but it's been a minute. So I am here to give comments in favor of the West Allis Warming Shelter. And I'm a social worker, so I work in the micro field with individuals, but I'm also a macro person where I look at systems and change. And right now, we are in a housing crisis. And people are being taxed out of their homes. Rent is too expensive and unaffordable. And wages are not going up to keep up with the costs. Where are people going to live? and even the elderly, because some of these people are on fixed incomes and their taxes are going up and they don't have the money. But guess what? If they try to go rent something, they make they don't make enough money and then they make too much money for a market value apartment. So where are people going to live? This is a serious question that we are going to need to figure out the way the costs are going. Also, sorry my very very first field placement i won't tell you how long ago that was but was at the salvation army emergency lodge on 6th and walnut and one thing that i learned and i was very surprised that when i was there most people assume people are homeless due to mental health issues and addiction And what I learned was, and I was very surprised, many people that were at the shelter had jobs. They don't have enough money to pay for rent. So where do you go? And then if you are working, a lot of times you are above the income limit for low income housing. So you're stuck in catch 22. You make too much, but then you don't make enough. So again, the cost of rent is continuing to go up. and a lot of people deserve everyone deserves to have housing that is a basic need that's a basic right and people that don't have this it impacts everyone in the community and a lot of people are scared that people are here walking around and if we have this warming shelter well the people are already there They're walking around everywhere. We have so many more homeless people over the last, I would say, five years than I've ever seen. I've lived in West Ellis for 47 years. I mean, it's a crisis. And as a social worker, you know, working with people that are homeless, I hand out information in the winter of warming shelters. This is not the county's first warming shelter they're proposing in West Dallas. They have other warming shelters. They just don't have enough shelter beds and we need more warming shelters and we don't have anything in this area. So the county is professional staff that would be running this facility. It's not like it's just anybody without credentials or that can provide wraparound services to help people. So that's something I think people need to understand. And I will say in my field, every winter I see people die because they're outside and they freeze, or they come in with severe frostbite. This is preventable. No one should die. I mean, we need to look at what community is. And community is looking out for others. You know, we're all a couple, could be a couple paychecks away from homeless. And how would you feel if you were in that situation? It's a reality. The way things are going, any of us could be homeless. You don't know what happens. You could have a medical issue and you lose all your savings. You never know what could happen. We need to be more community. And I don't understand why nobody would want to do this. Why would you not want to help each other? so those are pretty much the comments i have and i hope that you guys consider and talk to all the stakeholders and get the right information before you make a decision um because this is this is people's lives and we we need to be community and look out for one another thank you thank you miss stark looks like we have room for or time rather for one more speaker if there's anyone else that wishes to address the council

Good evening, everybody. My name is Neil Stefik. I'm just here to let everybody know how frustrated I am. I had court for the last time this past Friday. I doubt anybody knows what happened, but the judge threw everything out, said this is the stupidest thing he has ever seen in his life, being a judge. So now what? That means the city took away my license for nothing. I knew it was going to happen. So where do we go from here? I tell you, the last year and a half has been pretty tough. I've had my city lie to me. This shouldn't be happening. This should not be happening. COVID happened six years ago. I do everything the government tells me to do, and I get screwed over for it. I'll leave it at that.

Thank you. We can do one more. Bring it home, Cindy. I'll turn my mic on to tell you to turn your mic on. All right.

My name is Cindy Radke. I live at 8519 West Beecher Street. I'm here also about the Warmington Shelter. I agree with every one of you. We need something. It is not the right location. You don't put it by two schools in a residential area. You need to find a place that is the correct place, not just to put it in to put it in. We need to find the right location. Thank you.

Thanks very much.

That will wrap up our public participation this evening. Thanks everybody for participating and being a part of it. That is really how democracy should work, and I was glad to see and hear so many voices this evening. We will move on to part F. We have two presentations. The first one is from our intern, Avery, who is wrapping up, and I will turn it over

good evening my name is avery kane i am the undergraduate intern with the city of west allis i'm the city management intern um and who am i exactly i obviously i'm the undergraduate intern i am currently working on my bachelor of arts in urban studies with a sociology minor at the university of wisconsin milwaukee um i've worked for the city since june 10th 2026 and a majority of my work has been done with the planning and economic development departments but i've also dabbled in marketing and engagement housing as well as the gis department which is the mapping department and a major goal with this internship for me was to learn how local government works on a day-to-day basis and to develop my knowledge of potential career interests within local government specifically the city management position Now, what did I do this summer? I attended, prior to my onboarding back in early June, Aaron emailed me and told me, hey, Avery, there's a conference coming up in late June. Do you want to come? I was just like, yes, I would love to come to the conference. So I attended the Wisconsin City Management Association conference that happened La Crosse, June 24th through the 26th. And most of what I did there, it was a lot of networking, but I met interns from cities all across Wisconsin. I met somebody from Union Grove, from DeForest, and a couple of other local municipalities that aren't as big as West Allis, but what they are doing was also incredibly impressive. um i ended up learning a lot about cities across wisconsin mostly from colleagues but also from the panels and the sessions that i got to attend through the conference and a major highlight for me was on the second day there was a baseball game that we all attended and between The end of the conference that day in the baseball game, I actually got to walk around the city of La Crosse and their downtown. And their downtown was absolutely beautiful. I hit a bookstore and a record store and spent too much money. And then the two weeks after that, I went to the Beloit Road Senior Housing Facility. And I ended up helping senior residents with the online portion of housing. Their housing assistance examination needs to happen every single year. And with that, their documentation needs to be updated every single year. So I went and I helped input their new information in and make sure that they had all their documentation. And my favorite part was interacting with the residents because they were very gossipy. I loved hearing. all of it. I loved hearing all of it. It was absolutely fantastic. I had a lot of fun, even if it was work, but a lot of good conversations were had. and i believe a week or two after that i worked on a commission a planned commission powerpoint um for the july 22nd commission meeting um i asked steve if i could do it and he said sure go right ahead so i ended up doing three different um three different staff reports i had to look at three different ones and make sure to input all the information into the presentation and i was told the day after that the powerpoint went really well and it was um an experience for me because i actually got to learn how to read and format a staff report for the individual needs of each um for each license or every single change that west allis or the residents wanted to do that came to plan commission One of the more one of the bigger things that I did was working on opportunity zones. Opportunity zone designation is important because it attracts investment and developers to underprivileged areas and they get the designations happen by census tract. So we had our eyes on three different census tracts all in a row with one tract that wasn't eligible eligible splitting them in the middle. And I assisted with the submission of all three for a designation. And I mostly I documented the census data. They there was a lot of housing and economic needs that I ended up documenting, as well as poverty and income levels through there. And it's very important because there is a lot of money that goes into developing like apartment complex excuse me apartment complexes or businesses and attracting investors outside of the city really does help bring new businesses and new housing into the city and i believe that our applications were incredibly strong granted only 25 percent of applications actually get through and get designation but i have a sneaking suspicion that we're gonna get at least one And two weeks ago, we had our fall 2026 partisan primaries, which I ended up working a full day at Nathan Hale High School. It was my very first time working in election and 16 hours is the amount of time that I spent there. And oh my God, that was a long time. to be at the high school. But I mostly, I checked people in, I handed out ballots, and I helped register people to vote. And once again, absolutely loved interacting with community members. I showed people how to vote who had never voted before. I showed people if they needed to bring additional documentation, what they needed. And overall, it was a incredible experience to actually interact with all those people. um and i absolutely loved it and within the last week i've been working on a tiff budget in an area kind of sort of around state fair looks like it's closest to Anyway, excuse me. But I was learning how to make a TIF budget for a potential new TIF. And what I mostly did, it was a lot of research. I had to look at potential development in the potential TIF region. And I had to actually go drive out there and just look at what was around there. There's a lot of duplexes and businesses that I had to document down. some industry that I had to document down as well. And it was a lot, it was very interesting actually going out and looking at all these things and being like, wow, what can we put here that isn't already here? And it was really exciting. I loved it. Now, my big culminating project, I started this literally my first day here, and I'm still working on it. It is a continuation of West Allis' work with their West Allis Living Streets Initiative, where they bring public art to West Allis. I'm not sure if you guys have seen all the art murals or the utility boxes that have popped up around the city, but this is a lot of work on that initiative. And what I did is I helped to create a interactive map that will be available to the public soon using GIS to document all arts installations throughout the city. So all the murals and the statues, and there are two kiosks along Greenfield Avenue, all the benches that have been popping up and the utility boxes. And I went out, I took photos of everything that we didn't have documented already. And we wrote new information. We found missing information that we didn't have prior. And it has been an incredible amount of work, but considering I absolutely love working with maps, it was really fun. Even if it was a lot of work. And I can, we have it up in Google. If I can pull it up. a little bit, this is basically what it looks like. We have the entire map of West Allis with the West Allis colors. We currently have the Get Outta Here Gone by Sandy Ploy up on the screen. So you can click here, you're able to zoom in and look around. And right here we've got our, you know, all of our information as well as the artist's website. And we have a majority of the art pieces in here. And it has been, obviously, a lot of work. Three months plus were. But we are really, really excited to release this to the public so that you guys can get a feel for everything that happens within the city outside of all the buildings and the housing that's going up. Because public art is so important to the quality of life within a city. How many of you have gone through a city and been like, man, a mural could go on that wall. That would be so cool. So that's what West Allis is trying to achieve, and that's what I was trying to achieve in my art map. And if I can make this bigger. All right. And that's all I've worked on this summer. And I want to say thank you so much to the city of West Dallas for the opportunity that I have received. I feel so incredibly spoiled with the level of care and dedication that the city has towards its residents and towards making sure that the city is the best place that anybody could live. And I am very grateful for the opportunity to work for everybody here.

Thank you. Thanks Avery. For the presentation, does anyone on the council have any questions for Avery?

Mayor Devine?

Anybody that doesn't want to speak at the same time have questions? I don't know who that was.

Go ahead, Alderman Grob.

Alderman Grob.

Oh, it's not even so much a question, Avery. I am just so pleased that you have such a great connection to the two cities I love the most now that you've been to La Crosse and West Dallas. If I've loved the city more than anywhere close to West Dallas, it's La Crosse. I'm glad you got to be there. And I just love that you were working on the map with the art. And thanks for being part of the team this summer. Great work.

Alderman Keene and then Alderman Novan.

Very nice presentation. Your enthusiasm is contagious. I see great stuff in your future and hopefully West Dallas will have you back one of these days when you're ready to make it full time and fill some shoes. I do agree with the art, it's just such a great concept. As you said, I've gone to many towns, I'm like, look how cool that mural is and look how cool that is. So to really amplify that for tourism and kind of gives our city something cool about it, something niche, it's just awesome and just congratulations.

nice job we're happy to have you thank you all the roman novak i was pretty much going to say exactly what all our women keen did your enthusiasm is contagious and i'm with her i see you doing amazing things and it's such a good infusion of energy that i hope so many other kids in college and interning really take that and run with that like you have so congrats and good luck

Thank you. Any other? Alderman Halverson.

Gen Z, right? You are? Okay. So as a millennial growing up, you know, we were blamed for everything and never, you know, we were told that everything sucked because of us. And then that transferred to you guys. This is an example why that's never true. Like these people, these kids do exist. And like the passion that Avery has and, Again, we've already said enough, but we need more people like you in government. We need people, obviously, to get elected and do all that stuff, but the real work happens behind the scenes with stuff that you do, so thank you.

Thanks, Alderman. Any other questions from the council? All right, that will conclude our first presentation, and we will move on to item number five. Milwaukee County Coalition on Housing and Homelessness presentation.

all right hi everybody i am wendy weckler i'm the coc director for the united way and milwaukee county sure okay i'm wendy weckler i'm the coc director for united way milwaukee county coc director at the united way

my name is nick tamari i work at milwaukee county i'm here representing the milwaukee coalition on housing and homelessness i just want to say i really had a chance to come to some of the community meetings that have taken place over the last several months and i know started maybe a year ago around issues focused on poverty housing instability and homelessness just really being impressed and and happy to be able to listen to some of the community conversations that have been taking place. Aaron Hearn, the city administrator, had reached out and just, I talked to Wendy as the director of our continuum of care and that Milwaukee Coalition on Housing and Homelessness. Just with the ask, which I was really happy that it was, that we were receiving, just to come and talk around the type of work that we do. So again, appreciate the opportunity.

And I'm just so excited you're talking about homelessness. Like, that's wonderful, because a lot of people aren't even trying to discuss it. So I appreciate the conversation and am glad you're all here. So this is the current state of homelessness in Milwaukee County. HUD makes every COC, which is like the coalition of people that work with homeless people around the country, they make us all every year on a Wednesday in January count all the homeless people in our jurisdiction. which sounds crazy but it really does there's people nick is outside counting homeless people we get as many people as possible into various shelters and warming shelters to make sure we get an accurate count of the homelessness so on this particular date in january you can see there were 978 individuals that were homeless 94 of those were sheltered that includes people in warming rooms there were 60 individuals that were outside on that night Um, annually as a system in Milwaukee County, we serve just over 11,000 ish people. Um, and on point in time night just sort of the makeup of the populations. 69 were households with Children. There were 99 veterans. There were 29 youth, like 18 to 24, so not quite grown up, but not quite kids either. Ages 55 and older, there were 270 individuals. That is currently the fastest growing segment of our homeless population. And by far the largest amount of people were single adults. This is sort of, we're able to pull out zip code data. So every person that comes into the homeless system, we collect a lot of data about them. We're able to pull out, we ask them where they stayed the night before, where they lived before they became homeless. Most people answer 414. And then we get their address, and then we look up their actual zip code. So you can kind of see this is a representation of the zip codes. Now obviously there's overlap in your zip codes, but the representation of people that came from zip codes that include West Allis. Common pathways into homelessness, I'm sure you're all familiar with these, it's eviction, it's job loss, it's health issues, it's family separation, kids have moved away, parents are aging, can't quite afford to remain where they are, that type of thing. Working adults make up the largest portion of our homeless population, and as someone stated, a lot of those adults are working. And about 25% of our annual clients are children under the age of 18. 68% of our households self-report that they have zero income at entry. Now, sometimes people think they'll get more or better services if they under-report their income, so that number is to be taken with a little bit of a grain of salt, but there are not a lot of rich people trying to live in homeless shelters. The current system of services includes street outreach, warming shelters, emergency shelter, transitional housing, which is like housing for up to two years with really intensive services. Rapid rehousing, which is putting people as quickly as possible into their own apartment units, assisting with their rent. They pay a portion, an agency will pay a portion. and providing case management services while they're in those units for up to two years. Permanent supportive housing for those that are disabled with really long histories of homelessness. Housing navigation, a lot of our people have a hard time finding an apartment. They've been evicted at some point. They don't maybe, look the best, they aren't the most desirable tenant, they don't have a ton of security deposit money always, so housing navigators really help find apartments that will accept people with some of those housing barriers, and then obviously access to behavioral and health and substance use services. How someone enters our system, the vast majority of our people enter our system by calling 211. It's like 911 but for social services. 211 gets them connected to what's called the Coordinated Entry System in Milwaukee County, which is the front door to all the homeless services. And that is run by the Division of Housing. So the continuum of care as a whole is made up of four parts, the lead agency and collaborative applicant. These are all required by HUD that funds a lot of the work we do. The coordinated entry lead and the HMIS lead. So United Way serves as lead agency and collaborative applicant. The coordinated entry lead is the Milwaukee County Housing Division. And then HMIS stands for Homeless Management Information System. Statewide, all the homeless people are put into a single database. So we can see if someone is coming, if all of a sudden there's a lot of people coming from Manaqua to Milwaukee. We can see that, we can track that, we can try to reach out to their people in those other places and see if there's a way to get them back to a more supportive network or if Milwaukee is that more supportive place for them and they're coming back to us. And HMIS allows us to do that. So the role of the coalition, it's sometimes called the Milwaukee Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, sometimes it's called the COC, we'll settle on a name someday, I promise. We coordinate 100 and plus member organizations, nonprofits, government agencies, funders, advocates, that all just have an interest in helping homeless individuals. We identify system gaps, develop response plans. We're governed by our own board of directors, which is made up of elected officials, housing authorities, all kinds of different groups. United Way became the lead agency this year. I started my job in April, but for 26 years before that worked at Hope House in Milwaukee and ran that agency for the last 11 years. So had a lot of experience with the system already. We provide coordination, oversight, engagement, and try to bring resources into our system. One of the big things we do along those lines is we're responsible for applying for a $17 million grant from HUD that is distributed out to all the agencies in the system that provide HUD funded housing services for homeless individuals and families. This is just some general ideas, not necessarily specific to West Allis, but some things cities can do that are helpful if they are interested in working more with the homeless. Making sure you're pleased and code enforcement officers and public works people all know just the basics of what to do when they find someone that's homeless and how they can get them connected to the system because the more homeless residents are connected to coordinated entry. the more likely they are to be able to access resources easily. Support zoning, participate in COC planning and data, and fund prevention services and tenant-based rent assistance. Approaches that can create challenges is enforcement only without that connection to resources. Just moving people from one location to another without getting them connected. Sometimes people need to move, but if you can get them connected in the middle, that's super helpful to all of us. And just not working with the wider system as you develop your policies for working with the homeless. Our system is currently funded, like I said, there's a $17 million grant from the federal government. Milwaukee County puts in a lot of money for coordinated entry operations. They have ESG funds. They have housing authority prioritization for our population. They contribute CDBG funds and they contribute tax levy. State funding comes in for homeless assistance programming and a little bit of ESG funds. philanthropic and private, foundation grants, United Ways, Safe and Stable Homes, corporate giving, all that kind of thing, and then the city of Milwaukee puts in a significant amount of their CDBG and ESG money as an entitlement area. Gaps remain, there's not enough permanent supportive housing. A lot of the housing isn't affordable to our people. Someone on disability that gets SSI or DI gets like $970-ish, depending, a month. You used to be able to, in Milwaukee, find an apartment that you could live in on your own for that. and it's really, really challenging to do now, and there are not very many choices, and they're usually full. Street outreach capacity on the point-in-time night, there were 60 individuals outside, but that's, you know, 60 individuals day after day after day after day, it's not the same people, and so making sure they connect to the system, getting them housed, it's just a lot of work. And then services for an aging population, it is the fastest growing portion of our population, And they have just, any of you with older parents or my grandmother that I was taking care of forever, they have a lot of very specific needs that they're not afraid to share. So some opportunities moving forward, obviously increasing the supply of permanent housing, strengthening prevention programs. In our system, we serve about 11,000 people a year. For the last five or six or seven years, 74 to 75% of those people have been homeless for the first time. So it's not that we aren't keeping people housed once we house them, it's that there are new people entering the system as a way to access resources. and no one should have to become homeless to access resources. Expanding behavioral health services and just deepening your involvement in planning work and using the data to guide your work. Did I forget anything?

I don't think so. Yeah, a couple of comments just to add on my end. I have a focus on the older population and I just wanted to kind of highlight what Wendy talked about that here locally, but also nationally, fastest growing demographic into homelessness is the older population, 55 and up. And I've been able to work in a project over the last couple of years called an Elder Justice Project with our Adult Protective Services. service area at the county and it's just been incredibly instructive for me and the people we're working with we're creating what's called a medical respite program now to really fill a pretty significant gap we see in the system of people that are not really able to go to even regular shelters that exist you know i know there's a lot of talk about warming shelters here tonight and i think again we really appreciated the opportunity to come and talk more generally about issues of housing instability and homelessness and that's really what what you know bringing wendy as the director of the continuum of care is about and i think just broadening the conversation much further i'll be honest we don't really even like warming shelters ourselves we don't really want to have them uh and our focus would be to really work within a system and to have the resources to prevent need for warming shelters it's not a reality yet so we have to talk about that as as you know an important life-saving effort in the middle of winter but our goal is really prevention so you know as you you know um look at your community and and you know west allis being a part of the milwaukee county and that coalition on housing and homelessness um i i think and especially from the the leaders that i work under at my and working under Wendy, we wanna keep people in their homes and we wanna work especially with people who are what we call category two homeless, couch surfing, staying with families, friends, and look at the best ways to work and support those individuals and families to prevent them from ever needing something like a warming shelter. So again, appreciate the opportunity to be here. Welcome, any questions that we might be able to answer?

Thanks for the presentation. I'll now see if anyone on the council has any questions for our presenters.

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Keene.

Tons of random overall questions, but thank you for coming in and starting the conversation. As I think everyone in this room so far has agreed upon, there's a need, right? um i don't think anyone's denied that there isn't a need to help those um especially those that are underserved and struggling but so thank you for coming here tons of questions clearly what avenue we go in but it's a good starting point thank you any other questions from the members of the council all right that'll wrap up the presentation thank you very much

and we will move on to item g our standing committees will be meeting during recess those room numbers of those meetings are listed on page two of your agendas if you are here for a specific item of interest that will be acted on whether it's a permit or a license or something like that and you're not sure which room to go to when we break for recess please stop one of us and we'll make sure to get you to the right place Move on to item M. I'm sorry, item H. M is for mayor. H is the mayor's report. Just a very few brief informal things. I'm sure we all know that the state fair has ended and I'm sure that we all know that it didn't end on a high note, which was incredibly unfortunate and basically just flat out stupid. This is not a new situation. I think that Sunday nights have traditionally been semi-problematic. more so than any other problems you would have when you have a million visitors come to your community over 11 days. But I am thankful for the police response in that neighborhood, as well as all the first responders that dealt with it i am glad that there were no injuries to fairgoers i also as you all probably know sit on the state fair park board and i am going to be connecting once once things settle with staff and bringing up to the board they've they've made changes they have tried to proactively address these things in the past We have not had incidents like this since probably 2011. So it's been 15 years that things have been manageable, but Sunday night was not manageable and that's got to stop. So I just want to express my thanks for everybody that responded in positive sense to that. I want to reiterate that That Midway area and the fair was fun and joy for probably 150 hours, and then it was marred by 90 minutes of idiocy on Sunday night. So that's all I will say about that. That concludes my mayor's report this evening. Are there any reports from the alder persons?

Mayor Devine?

Alderwoman Grove.

i just wanted to give a shout out of thanks to all the city staff and the people who work the primary election sometimes that can turn out to be a long night but you know everybody working and doing their part to make sure that all residents got to participate and just appreciate all those people who step up and work at the polls thank you any other all the person's reports

Mayor Devine. Alderman Halverson. Pack 584 for the Cub Scouts. They were doing the flag ceremony at AmFam Field today for the Brewers game, and I missed it. But, you know, this work's important, too. But I just wanted to give them a shout-out because it sounds like the Brewers won 11-0, so obviously it was because of them. And if you do have a kid, boy or girl, that would like to join Cub Scouts... Look us up, PAC 584. Thanks.

Thanks, Alderman Halverson. Any other reports from the other persons? Alderman Weigel?

Mayor Devine, just the traveling beer garden is coming for an extended stay at Greenfield Park starting this Thursday evening. And they're actually in this Thursday is a special night because there's an art and hops night market associated with it. So that's this Thursday. It's from 5 till 8 p.m. in Picnic Area 3A, which is just off like 122nd and Lincoln on the southwest side of Greenfield Park. I'll be there, I think, most of the evening with the Friends of Greenfield Park, also a recently created friends group supporting Greenfield Park. Thanks.

Thank you, Alderman. Any other reports from the alderpersons? Seeing none, Alderman Haas.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor Devine. I move for approval of the July 21st, 2026 Common Council Minutes.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Are there any corrections or errors on the minutes? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it, the minutes are approved. We do not have any standing committee reports this evening.

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Haas.

Regarding item L, our consent agenda, do any elder persons wish for separate action on any of the items contained in our consent agenda? Then seeing none, I move for approval of item L, the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. There's no discussion. I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson.

Aye.

Keene. Aye. Novak. Aye. Noling. Aye. Roth. Aye. Turner. Aye. Weigle. Aye. Grisham. Aye. Grove. Aye. Haas. Aye. Ten in favor, zero opposed.

Motion carries.

Mayor Devine. Alderman Haas. I move that the Common Council stand in recess until the conclusion of our committee meetings.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are in recess. Good evening. Let's call the council back to order, and I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson. Here. Keene. Here. Novak. Here. Noling.

Here.

Rote. Here. Turner. Here. Weigle. Here. Grisham. Here. Grobe. Here. Haas.

Here. Ten present. We have a quorum. We have no administration committee report, so we will go right to public works.

The Public Works Committee recommends passing of item 49, denial of item 51, and adoption of item 52.

Mayor Devine, I move in accordance of the committee report. Thank you, Alderman Rote. Any discussion? Hearing none, I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson.

Aye.

Keene. Aye. Novak. Nolene. Aye.

Roth. Aye.

Turner. Aye. Weigel. Aye. Grisham. Aye. Grob. Aye. Haas. Aye. 10 in favor, zero opposed.

Motion carries, thank you very much. We'll move on to the Economic Development Committee.

I will read out item 54 separately. The Economic Development Committee recommends holding of item 53, adoption of item 55, and approval of item 56 with amendments recommended by the CDA.

Mayor Devine, I move in accordance with the committee report.

Thank you, any discussion? If not, I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson.

Aye.

Keene. Aye. Novak. Aye. Noling. Aye. Rote.

No. This was on the bail in Zalderman. Those are all three.

Those are the three files?

What number? These are the three files? Oh, I'm sorry. OK, they'll be not. I apologize.

I apologize.

Turner? Aye. Weigel? Aye. Grisham? Aye. Grove? Aye. Haas?

Aye.

Ten in favor, zero opposed.

Now we have item 54.

Now the Economic Development Committee recommends adoption of item 54. I move in accordance with the committee report.

Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I will ask our clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson.

Aye.

Keene. Aye. Novak. Aye. Noling. Aye. Roach.

No.

Turner.

Aye.

Weigel. Aye. Grisham. Aye. Grove. Aye. Haas. Aye. Nine in favor, one opposed.

Motion carries. Thank you. And then we'll do public safety.

The public safety, or I'm gonna read out, I'm sorry, I'm gonna read out item 57 separately.

Okay.

The Public Safety Committee recommends a granting of item 58 and adoption of item 59. Mayor Devine, I move for approval of the Public Safety Committee report.

Thank you. Items 58 and 59, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson. Aye. Keene. Aye. Novak. Aye. Noling. Aye. Roach. Aye. Turner. Aye. Weigel. Aye. Grisham. Aye. Grove. Aye. Haas. Aye. Ten in favor, zero opposed.

Motion carries and then we'll take up item 57.

The Public Safety Committee recommends granting of item 57.

And I will ask the clerk after the chair makes the motion to call the roll.

Thank you for that gentle reminder. No, I just did it in reverse. I move for approval of that item. I almost called the roll before you moved approval. That's okay.

So we're good, we're good. Move for approval. Item 57 is before us. I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Halverson. Aye. Keene.

Aye.

Novak?

Present.

Noling? Aye. Roach? Aye. Turner? Aye. Weigel? Aye. Grisham? Aye. Grobe? Aye. Haas? Aye. Nine in favor with one abstaining.

That motion carries.

Mayor Devine? Alderman Haas. I move that the council stand adjourned until our next scheduled meeting Tuesday, September 1st.

Second.