Save the date! We’re having our first live plant sale since the pandemic. Stop by on Saturday May 6th from 10am – 2pm, peruse the plants, enjoy music by Sunshine Daydrink (noon – 2) and partake in some light refreshments.
If you can’t make the plant sale, you can order pre-sale online starting Monday April 17th or you can stop by the store Tuesday and Thursday 6pm – 8pm or on the Saturday 10 – 4. We hope to announce additional hours soon.
On We
dnesday, December 28th we purchased a new property to build our tiny houses and to create a third tiny house village! Our first village will be 100% done in the spring, adding the final (9th) house. Also this spring we will finish the landscaping and exterior work at 1901 Aberg for our second village.
Meanwhile, starting in January we are going to be working on starting the process of building our larger tiny houses to replace the conestoga huts. We will build the components in the basement at our new property while we apply to rezone the property.
Conestoga Huts to the left, “larger tiny houses” below.
Read more about it:
If you missed our holiday sale last weekend, we’re sorry to miss you! However, we do have some last hours before the holidays where you can stop by and purchase items for loved ones AND help raise funds for Occupy Madison.
Our Store Hours are as follows:
There are lots of items made by residents and supporters to choose from including:
We also have t-shirts and postcards and much more!
You can also drop off gifts for Santa’s Without Chimneys!
These beautiful bouquets of flowers that you can pre-order here https://checkout.square.site/
Grown with the help of Moonflower and our very treasured Chavva Isreal of Occupy Madison
Pick up at either of the following locations August 4 – October
Pre-ordered $15.00 bouquets will be available for pick up starting August 4th thorough October.
Flowers (if not sold out) can be bought or picked up at our store at 304 North Third Street. Our hours of operation of our store is the following. Keep in mind we only have flowers available on Saturday as to guarantee freshness.
Occupy Madison is currently taking applications for currently homeless individuals to join our two villages!
Occupy Madison is taking applications for the fall. We currently have 8 – 10 openings at our properties located at 1901 Aberg Ave. and are hopeful that we may be able to obtain another property within the next year. We are inviting people who are experiencing primarily unsheltered homelessness to apply to be a member and start earning sweat equity towards living in one of our current villages or a potential 3rd village.
About Occupy Madison
Living in our villages is a commitment! Community living is not for everyone, it requires agreeing to our community agreement, participating in weekly meetings and contributing to the village you live in by doing chores and tasks. Occupy Madison is a 100% volunteer run organization where the people who live in our villages run the villages, are board and committee members doing all functions of the organization.
Living at Occupy Madison has always been free to the people living there. However, people have to become members, become active members by earning “sweat equity” towards their homes and remain active participants in the governance and decision making in the organization. Membership is obtained by attending orientation, attending two General Membership Meetings and being voted in by the current membership. Sweat equity is earned by participating in meetings, helping build items we sell in our store, participating in work days and helping us get our coffee cart up and running. Our goal is for residents to earn enough money through village sales and fundraising to create sustainable villages.
Since 2014 Occupy Madison has housed 42 individuals. We are happy to report that while we consider this a permanent housing option for folks, we have also had 11 people who have stayed with us get into housing. 4 people have gotten into treatment or are in the criminal justice system. While we have asked some people to leave, to the best of our knowledge only 2 people are currently experiencing homelessness. And sadly, two of our community members have passed away.
Current waiting list folks need to re-apply so we know they are still interested, but will be prioritized.
Currently, we have about 180 people on our waiting list! However since October 2020 when we started the waiting list, we know that some people have gotten into housing, some people have moved out of town and sadly some people have passed away. Additionally, we are experiencing difficulties reaching the people on the waiting list due to phone numbers that have changed and emails that are no longer read. In order to ensure we are reaching those who currently want to live in a tiny home in our cooperative villages, we are inviting people currently experiencing homelessness to re-apply for current openings at both 1901 Aberg and 304 N 3rd St. People who have expressed interest in the past will be prioritized in the order that they were on our original waiting list.
How do I apply?
Our preferred way is to indicate interest by filling out this google form. We understand not everyone has access to a computer or phone that can fill out the form, so you can also call or text 608-305-4707 and leave your name, best way to contact you (phone or email preferred but other ways accepted and you may use the phone or email of someone who can get a message to you quickly), your current living situation (street/tent, vehicle, shelter, staying with friends or family, expecting to be homeless soon, etc) and if you have previously expressed interest by emailing or leaving a voicemail.
304 N 3rd St Occupy Village
1901 Aberg Occupy Village
If you are interested in the 3202 Dairy Drive City run campground run by MACH OneHealth/Kabba Recovery Services, speak to an outreach worker, Beacon or shelter staff to take the VISPDAT as they use Coordinated Entry to accept residents.
Plants are now available for sale here! Be sure once you are there to click on “order now” to see all the plants!
This year we are using Purple Cow organic soils
Our plant sale will be fully live later this week, but for now, we know we have a certain amount of plants available and will be adding several more.
If interested in the sneak peak, you can view what we now have available. Be sure to also check back later in the week!
At this point, any plants ordered by Friday (5/7) at 10pm can be picked up Saturday after 12pm.
Plants ordered on Saturday (5/8) can be picked up on Sunday (3/9).
After that pick ups will be as follows:
Your man-cave or she-shed need a few new items? Fan of Dale Klee (old car photos) or Ted Crow (sports caricatures)? Packer’s fan? Need a boatload of holiday decorations? Music fan? Need a Wiggie’s memento? Or an old parking meter? You just never know what you might find in our silent auction.
The auction will be on line 4/20 – 5/14 at midnight, just click here to see all the goodies. You can pick up your winnings starting 5/15. All proceeds will go to help with the ongoing costs (water, electricity, toilet paper – the necessities!) of our two villages.
If the silent auction is not your thing, you can donate through the donate button on this page or watch for our spring plant sale coming up May 8th!
So much has been happening we haven’t had a lot of time to write about it! Tonight we had our neighborhood meeting with Alder Syed Abbas and city staff. I promised to get the slides from tonight up on the website – so they will follow this write up.
We received unanimous consent from Urban Design Commission on 4/14 to recommend approval to the Plan Commission. We have two more public meetings to go to get permanent zoning:
City staff recommended people send their comments to pccomments@cityofmadison.com.
And without further ado, here are the slides!
Tomorrow (4/3) from 11 – 2 Occupy Madison is hosting a soft launch mini-open house with an Egg Hunt for the kids at 11:30. The architect will be there with his latest drawing of what the village will look like when completed if we get our permanent zoning. Looks like the weather will be great! Feel free to share on Facebook as well!
Spring is here and at Occupy Madison we are ready to celebrate our new home, our new neighborhood, our new community. We are inviting neighborhood residents to come see the village, bring your kids for an egg hunt, preview the permanent zoning plans we have for 1901 Aberg and get to know your neighbors better. Egg hunt will be at 11:30 and there will be prizes for everyone – and secret surprises for whomever finds a tiny rubber duckie or a “Celebrate” message in their egg! Refreshments, and flower wreath making and more!
Ok – so here’s a few drawings and some informaiton to get your imagination flowing about what the village at 1901 Aberg Ave will look like if we get permanent zoning. Continue reading “Sneak Peek at Preliminary Renderings and Permanent Plans for 1901 Aberg Ave.”
