Category: Occupy Madison Tiny Home Village

How to become a member/resident of Occupy Madison

Are you currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness?  Are you interested in living in a tiny house village?   If you are – here’s what you need to do!

Become a member.  Show up to two general membership meetings and express interest in becoming a member.  General membership meetings are the first Sunday of the month and we have been hold special GMMs to make the process go faster, the meetings are at 6pm at 1901 Aberg Ave.  Upcoming meetings are all at 6pm at 1901 Aberg Ave.

    • November 2nd
    • November 16th
    • December 7th
    • December 21st

Make sure to have an email address you can provide to the organization so you get notificaitons.

Show up to two orientations.  We hold two orientation meetings two times a month.  Orientations are at 201 S. Stoughton Rd. at 11am (1st orientation)and 1pm (2nd orientation)

Earn sweat equity hours.  You need 160 hours to be able to move into a house.  When you earn 500 hours you are eligible to become a steward and get a wooden house instead of a conestoga hut.

Get voted in to a village.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to us at admin@occupymadisoninc.com

Update from 201 S. Stoughton Rd – Village 3

Last summer we finished the garage and got approval for the zoning at 201 S Stoughton Rd for our 3rd village.  We also sold the property to the county for the next 10 years and worked on final sign off to get our building permit.

We also worked on setting up our shop in the basement where we will be building the components of the tiny houses which will be assembled in this garage.

And we moved the conestoga huts that Bachmann Construction had allowed us to store in their yard!  Thank you Bachmann!

This spring we got our building permit and we are busy working on the interior of the building.  It looks a lot different than when we started.

The photo above is before we started putting in the walls . . .

Our current project is dry walling!  If you are interested in helping out, we are there most nights Monday – Thursday 4pm – 8pm hanging drywall.

Taping and mudding is coming next!

 

Update from 1901 Aberg Ave. – Village 2

Spring is here and the village is in bloom!

Village residents have been busy helping with our third village, getting ready to accept new residents and helping with the store and our upcoming plant sale.

Last fall we nearly completed the last items on our list for the redevelopment of the village.  Well, except for the new wooden houses, which we will begin building in the fall when it gets too cold for outside renovations at the third village.

We spent time finishing up the landscaping, planting trees and cleaning up around the village.

We continue to enjoy  the savings in electricity with the new solar in place!

Residents are excited to finish renovations on Village 3 this summer so we can start building the wooden tiny houses for the fall. These houses will replace the conestoga huts and give them more living space!  We will then use the conestoga huts for the residents at the 3rd village until we build the larger houses.

Update from 304 N Third St. – Village 1

For the past few months, the 304 Village has been busy!

On Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 – 8 there are shop shifts where residents can come and make items for the store.

These are also the store hours so residents and volunteers have been busy training residents from Village 2 (1901 Aberg Ave) to learn how to work in the store.

You can stop by the store Tuesday and Thursday 6pm – 8pm or Saturday’s and Sunday’s 10 – 2 and we should be open!

And of course, we have also been BUSY BUSY BUSY planting, transplanting, watering and tending to our plants for our upcoming plant sale!

Please stop by our plant Sale on Saturday, May 3rd 10am-4pm for food, music, plants, tiny house tours and more!  And if you miss the plant sale, for the next month or so, you can stop by during store hours and purchase plants for your flower or vegetable garden!

Occupy Madison celebrates 10 year anniversary of 1st Village

Can you believe it has been 10 years?

Join us to celebrate and raise funds for our third village!

Sunday, November 3rd

    • 10am – noon – Join us at 304 N Third Street to see the very first village!
    • noon – 2pm – Join us at 1901 Aberg Ave. to see the 2nd village!
    • 2pm – 5pm – Join us at 201 S. Stoughton Rd. to see the home of the 3rd village and our new place to build houses!

At each of the villages you can take a tour, meet the residents, purchase items made by our residents and enjoy a scavenger hunt of sorts!

To donate:

Send a check to
Occupy Madison Inc.
304 N Third St.
Madison WI 53704
Or donate on line through PayPal (smaller monthly donations are particularly appreciated!)

 

To volunteer:

Leave your information here!

 

Funding for Occupy Madison Inc Projects

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway has proposed using federal spending for the needs of the houseless in Madison and specifically Occupy Madison. The mayor’s blog post can be found here.

The part of the post that impacts the organization:

Homelessness Support – $8,650,000. Funding supports a variety of strategies to support persons experiencing homelessness in Madison such a permanent men’s shelter and additional tiny houses, including an Occupy Madison Solar Project that will reduce housing costs.

We have been talking about having a solar array for years, and funding has always been a major obstacle. Our proposal is to have a solar array on the rooves of the main buildings at both villages and panels on every tiny house. This will not only cut operational costs so funds can be directed towards getting people into houses and a healing community, but we will also be doing our part to contribute to a green infrastructure.

We are currently working on finishing Phase 2 of OM Village, adding another shower, laundry facilities, a kitchen, and a community room to the existing building. After this is complete, we will be able to move four more people into the village and focus on building 22 tiny houses to replace the conestoga huts at the village on Aberg Avenue. Simultaneously, we are looking at more properties in Madison to put more tiny houses to get the unhoused into housing.

Link for how to get a tiny house here. How to volunteer and donate are on this site in the menu above.

Wiggie’s Memorabilia Silent Auction

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!

Finally! Sign Up to Volunteer!!!!

Finally!  We have a way for you to sign up for some of the first shifts!  We will add additional shifts as we sort out who is leading which activities.  There are 5 tabs right now:

    • weekday house building (starting Wednesday)
    • weekend house building (starting this weekend)
    • working at 304 N 3rd Street to get ready for 5 transition houses (this weekend)
    • working at 1901 Aberg Ave to build the fence, so we can install the electricity so we can move the newly built houses to the site (Nov 14 & 15)
    • accepting donations for the new village (Nov 14 & 15)
We will be adding more shifts and we’ll notify you when we do.  If you would like to volunteer for an activity that is not on this list, let us know!  We will be following up with several folks today who had specific offers, but if you don’t hear from us, feel free to nudge!
Also, donations of food and drinks for the volunteers would be greatly appreciated!  You can drop donations off a the sites during the work shifts.
Thank you for helping us make this a reality!
The Occupy Family