Madison Reporter

With the Madison Police Department (MPD) having taken into custody a man charged in connection with an arson at a Dairy Drive homeless shelter, the focus has now shifted to some of the area's lingering issues.

Calls related to the lot have increased over the last month, with several businesses and residents expressing concerns about a number of incidents, including a recent stabbing; the MPD said in a recent NBC15.com report.

Located just across the street from the shelter, Finishline Towing noted that trespassing has picked up since the shelter's opening.

"We did notice that there was people getting into the customer cars when there wasn't anybody around," service manager Justin Pharo told NBC15. 

He added that break-ins at the gated lot have spiraled ever since the shelter started filling pallet homes.

"I mean, as soon as they started housing them over there, I mean there's pieces missing almost every night," Pharo said.

Brenda Konkel; executive director of Mach OneHealth, the group that landed the contract to staff the shelter and bring health care to the homeless; commented that staffers are now working 24/7. She currently has five full-time staff members and others who fill in overnight and on weekends. But that's not enough to continue around-the-clock coverage indefinitely.

"That has greatly decreased the number of police calls; I think it was mostly people who don't live there that were coming in that we were having problems with," she told NBC15.

Konkel cited the installation of more lights and security cameras around the area as a help. She noted that a growing number of success stories are also having a positive effect.

"People have gotten jobs, people have reconnected with family, they have gotten their driver's license and their Social Security cards and all these things; you know when you don't have an address, it's super hard to get so many of these things done,” she said. She pointed out that six former residents have moved out to find permanent housing.

Still, Pharo and others have concerns.

"Once someone finds out they can go somewhere and start taking stuff, they start telling all of their friends, and it can get out of control pretty fast," he told NBC15.