City leaders are divided over how to address homelessness as a major camp faces closure and federal pressure mounts.
INDIANAPOLIS — Solving the homeless crisis in Indianapolis is a topic that divides our city leaders.
Is the solution more housing? More services? Or is it time to start over and go back to the drawing board?
Rev. David Greene, president of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, says there’s a “recurring failure of leadership” after the city said they’re shutting down the Fountain Square homeless encampment along Leonard street on Aug. 11.
“All we’re doing is moving the pain from one part to another place,” Greene said.
City leaders say outreach services from The Professional Blended Street Outreach Teams, IMPD’s Homeless Unit, and other service providers will be out offering temporary and permanent housing options to those living at the encampment.
But Greene, who is part of the Streets to Home Indy board, says the city should have waited to shut down the camp until the program reached out directly to campers.
“This is just going to force them to say, ‘now I gotta go’,” Greene said. “They’re concerned about ‘Where am I going to stay at next?'”
Neighbors say they have dealt with enough, from rocks thrown at homes to people being chased with sticks.
“Friday (July 28), the agencies provided notice for closure of the camp due to the increasing public safety threat it poses to both neighborhood residents and the unhoused community,” the Office of Public Health and Safety said in a statement to 13News. “OPHS has a responsibility to the public health and safety of all Marion County residents.”
Debbie Conway, president of the Bean Creek neighborhood association, disagrees with Greene’s “housing-first” approach.
“Indianapolis is a great place, we just need to think outside the box and just do it,” Conway said.
Instead, Conway is calling on the city to establish a centralized, sanctioned camp where people can set up their tents legally with city oversight and access to services.
She launched a petition to get city leaders to sign on to the solution. She says it’s a temporary fix that has worked in other cities like Louisville’s Hope Village.
Opened in 2022, Hope Village has provided housing to more than 60 residents and has helped many of them transition into more permanent housing.
Using “kiosk huts” donated by CVS and initially used for COVID-19 testing, the 50 structures come with heating and air conditioning, electricity and community restrooms, showers and laundry facilities. Residents of Hope Village also receive three meals a day and snacks.
According to Louisville officials, 38 people have moved from homelessness to Hope Village over the course of 10 months. Over 100 people have been provided shelter and services, helping them stabilize before moving to permanent housing.
Programs like these are what Conway hopes the city can use as a blueprint for helping the unhoused population.
“It’s needed to give people dignity, a safe place to be and a central location so that anybody who wants to minister to these individuals can go there and do it,” Conway said.
Numbers on the rise
Meanwhile, the number of unhoused Hoosiers is on the rise in Indianapolis.
The Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP) reported a 7% increase this year compared to 2024 after their annual Point in Time count.
They found more than 1,800 people living on the streets, in shelters or transitional housing. More than 400 of those people reported experiencing “chronic homelessness” — a 24% increase from 2024.
In their report, CHIP attributes the rising rates to a systemic housing issue. That includes things like a limited housing inventory and rising home costs.
The national picture
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at removing unhoused people from the streets and possibly committing them for mental health or drug treatment.
Trump directed cabinet heads to prioritize funding to cities that crack down on open drug use and street camping. Lawmakers say the goal is to make people feel safer.
“Shifting these individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment is the most proven way to restore public order,” reads the order.
Greene says Trump is “paving the way” to make it “easier” to criminalize homelessness, thus calling for city leaders to act fast.
“We need to get people housed because that freight train is coming,” Greene said. “If we don’t house them, many of them are subject to being found, incarcerated in jail.”
Conway fires back at Trump, asking why the homeless issue wasn’t addressed earlier.
“Why can we quickly build Alligator Alcatraz for people who are not citizens quickly, but here we are talking about (homelessness) over and over again?” Conway said.