Tag: Occupy Madison

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

Fundraising, fundraising, fundraising!

Our best guesses at what we still need to raise to finish the village at 201 S Stoughton Rd is about $100,000.  Increasing construction costs and the costs of materials is, at this point quite expectedly, throwing us off our budget!

So, we need you, more than ever, to help with whatever you can spare.  This community has been so generous to us during the construction of our first and 2nd villages, they are both paid off and mortgage free!  Village three is our biggest project yet, and we got assistance from the County with purchasing the land, financing and pre-development work, as well as $500,000 for construction.  Unfortunately, the budget for construction is likely about $750,000 – until it goes up again!

Please consider donating if you can.  You can donate here or by clicking on the donate button on the right of the screen at the top (if on computer) or by scrolling down on your phone and clicking on the button.

Or, if you’d like, checks can be sent to 304 N Third Street, Madison WI 53704.

Or, stop by our plant sale Saturday, May 3rd at 304 N Third Street to enjoy music, food, tiny house village tours, good company and of course, plants!  If you can’t make the plant sale, order on-line or stop by Tuesday or Thursday evenings 6pm – 8pm or Saturday or Sunday 10am – 2pm.

Now accepting volunteers!

We aren’t quite ready to start building houses, but we get closer and closer every day!  We know that is what most of our volunteers want to do and we’ll let you know when we are ready!

Meanwhile, we still need volunteers for a variety of other things including:

    • Helping with store shifts (Tuesday and Thursday 6pm – 8pm or Saturday and Sunday 10am – 2pm at 304 N. Third St.)
    • Helping with hanging drywall (Most Monday – Thursday 4pm – 8pm at 201 S. Stoughton Rd.)
    • Help with fundraising!!!

You can see the calendar for any of these events.  Or, to volunteer you can sign up by clicking on the button on the right hand part of your screen (on a computer) or at the bottom (if on a phone)

or this button to have us contact you!

Or just email us at occupymadisoninc@gmail.com and let us know what you are interested in!

 

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.

Plant Sale Preview – Pre-orders now available!

Plants available for sale now! More to come!

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!

Pick up plants as early as this weekend!

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:

    • For orders placed between Monday 12 pm and Thursday 12 pm, pick up is that Friday after 12 pm
    • For orders placed between Thursday 12 pm and Monday 12 pm, pick up is Tuesday after 12 pm