Inflation, supply chain issues may force design tweaks for Madison’s permanent men’s shelter

City staff weigh expense of community kitchen while finding ways to cut costs

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As the design plans for Madison’s permanent men’s shelter on Bartillon Drive wrap up over the next several months, inflation and supply chain issues in the construction industry are squeezing some of the facility’s expected features.

“We were hoping to not have any bunk beds,” project manager Jon Evans tells Isthmus. “Ideally we’d have all the beds side by side.” But a reduction in the building’s more than 20,000 square foot footprint would quickly shave off up to a million dollars or more in construction cost savings for the $21 million project. So, with almost half of the shelter’s space dedicated to sleeping quarters, about one-quarter to one-third of its 250 beds are now planned to be bunked.

Evans says a tour of the Higher Ground permanent shelter in Minneapolis helped the team become more comfortable with including some bunk beds in the project. Higher Ground only uses bunk beds and told the team from Madison that they cause few issues or complaints from guests. Still, says Evans, bunk beds can be triggering to those who have spent time in jail or in an institution and aren’t as accessible to older guests and those with mobility issues.

A planned kitchen is also being reconsidered. “The kitchen is also something we’re kind of realizing is a very expensive endeavor,” says Evans. Building a kitchen would dramatically reduce ongoing expenses once the shelter opens, but installation and the necessary equipment to make it functional costs millions of dollars. “Catering meals is super expensive. It’s the biggest chunk of the operating budget” at the city’s current temporary shelter on Zeier Road, adds Evans. “If we can make meals on site, we can be cheaper per meal and more efficient.” Evans says the team finalizing design plans prefers to make investments that will lower operating costs in the long term, but the steep price tag has forced them to ask themselves, “Can we actually afford to build the kitchen up front?”

A planned geothermal heat exchanger and rainwater capture system are similar up-front expenses designed to save on utility costs in the long term. Evans says the team has been working with Porchlight, which has already been chosen to operate the shelter, on making the tough choices about which features should be prioritized amid high construction costs and which might be able to be added later, after the facility opens. 

The project, jointly funded by the city of Madison and Dane County, is also reducing construction costs by building the structure out of wood — cross-laminated timber to be exact — rather than steel. Not only do the materials cost less, but the labor does too: Carpenters are cheaper to hire and more plentiful than ironworkers in the current labor market.

Everywhere in the construction industry, says Evans, “things are taking longer and they’re more expensive. That’s what we’re seeing on this project too.” Steel and other metals have jumped in price by 30 to 50% or more in recent years. Lead times for electrical equipment have gotten dramatically longer, and a large backup generator desired for the project is likely to take a year to be manufactured and delivered.

“We thought a year ago we were going to hit a watershed where the [private] market says ‘we’re not going to do this stuff,’” adds Evans. But the appetite for construction hasn’t wavered, especially in Madison. “We haven’t hit that tipping point in our area where the economy’s cooling off.”

Some project timelines for the shelter have been bumped back slightly and the project is now expected to open in the second half of 2025.

The Bartillon Drive shelter will provide a permanent space for men who are experiencing homelessness, a population that has been shuffled to temporary shelters around the city since the coronavirus pandemic closed the church basements that previously served as shelters. Over the last three years, the city has used temporary spaces at the Warner Park Community Center, a former Fleet Services building on First Street, and a building on Zeier Road. Once the Bartillon Drive shelter opens, guests at Zeier Road will move there and the temporary shelter will close.

In giving input on the new permanent shelter, guests at the Zeier Road shelter and others with lived experiences of homelessness cited safety, privacy and noise mitigation among their chief priorities. That input led to a plan to create several smaller rooms with a few dozen beds rather than a single large open sleeping area with hundreds of beds.

“What became really clear is that safety is so critical,” says Evans. He says daily life for those experiencing homelessness can put them in a heightened, high-stress state, and that smaller and less populated rooms can de-escalate tensions and make guests feel less cramped and crowded. The separate rooms can also allow for different guest preferences. “Maybe we have a more active dorm,” says Evans, “or one for people who work third shift and need to sleep during the day.”

Evans says guests also showed concern for neighborhood safety. He says the sentiment of potential guests was “‘We don’t want to feel like we’re a burden. We want to feel like part of the neighborhood while we’re here. We want that sense of community.’”

The city recently bought an adjacent property to the shelter site, formerly home to a McDonald’s, that could be redeveloped to house related services like a medical clinic or a space for case management. Evans also says the city is considering an open house for interested members of the public before the men’s shelter officially opens in 2025.