2024 count: Doubling of ‘street homelessness’ in Monroe County’s region compared to 2023
Every January, the IHCDA (Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority) helps organize a PIT (point in time) count of people experiencing homelessness in the state of Indiana.
Released last week, the results from this year’s PIT count show a doubling of unsheltered people (aka the “street homeless”) in Monroe County’s region of Indiana, compared to the 2023 PIT count.
Monroe County is part of Region 10, which also includes Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Morgan and Owen counties. About 75 percent of the total homelessness count for Region 10 is contributed by Monroe County.
In raw numbers for Region 10, the number of unsheltered homeless people grew from 73, as measured in the 2023 PIT count, to 142 in 2024.
The total number people counted as homeless in Region 10 also grew, from 427 in 2023 to 456 in 2024. But that’s a 7 percent increase, compared to the 100 percent increase in the unsheltered count.
From 2023 to 2024, the count of sheltered homeless people in Region 10 actually decreased, by about 11 percent, from 354 to 314 people.
The patterns in the counts of homeless people in Region 10 are consistent with the numbers statewide—that is, in the “balance of state” figures, which include all of Indiana besides the city of Indianapolis.
The number of unsheltered homeless people in the balance of the state has doubled over two years, increasing from 597 in 2022, to 804 in 2023, to 1,138 in 2024. That’s compared to an 11.5-percent increase in sheltered homeless people.
Conducting a PIT count is one of the requirements for funding set forth by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for community organizations that are working to end homelessness.
The release of the 2024 PIT numbers will likely form part of the backdrop for upcoming local public policy discussions on homelessness.
Those discussions will include a presentation this Wednesday (Aug. 7) from Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson to the city council.
There’s an item on the council’s meeting agenda under “Reports” from the mayor and city offices that says “Report from the Mayor on encampments and service provider recommendations.” There was no information related to the mayor’s presentation on homeless encampments included in the city council’s meeting information packet, when it was posted last Friday.
Homeless encampments along the Rail Trail south of Country Club Drive and north of Gordon Pike, were originally due to be cleared around now (in early August), based on the 30-day notices that were eventually posted on July 3.
Also on the city council’s Wednesday agenda is an appropriation ordinance [App Ord 2024-02] with a connection to policy on homelessness. The ordinance includes as part of its effect an additional appropriation of up to $500,000 to the city’s HAND (housing and neighborhood development) department, to allow HAND to absorb and redistribute the money that is being returned to the city from Heading Home of South Central Indiana.
The money that Heading Home is returning to the city came from the city’s ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding. The idea is for HAND to distribute the money directly to agencies providing services to homeless people, based on Heading Home’s recommendations. HAND will administer the regulations associated with ARPA compliance, instead of assigning that responsibility to Heading Home.
The same appropriation ordinance includes two other separate topics and funds—general fund money to support the addition of a deputy clerk’s position in the clerk’s office, and food and beverage tax revenue, to increase this year’s budget for the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB).
In a mid-June letter to Bloomington’s mayor, Kerry Thomson, the city council included the funding of Heading Home as one of its priorities.
In connection with homelessness, the council also included in its mid-June letter funding for: “one or more safe temporary housing options other than overnight shelters, such as safe parking area(s), designated camping area(s), or Single-Room Occupancy building(s), including any associated staffing needs.”
Thomson’s proposed 2025 budget is expected to be released in about three weeks, just ahead of departmental budget hearings in front of the city council, which are on the council’ schedule to kick off the week beginning. Aug. 26.
Designated camping areas are unlikely to see funding in Thomson’s budget, based on her statements made earlier this year in connection with the closing of encampments, which she reiterated during her April 8 state of the city address.
“There’s no dignity in living in a tent, Bloomington,” Thomson said during her April address. She added, “And there’s very little dignity in a community that thinks that it can do no better. We can do better. We are Bloomington.”
At a “traveling town hall” held on July 10 at the St. Thomas Lutheran Church. Thomson responded to a question by saying, “I really believe homelessness is solvable. And if any community can solve this problem, it is Bloomington, Indiana.”
For its regular meeting on Aug. 14, the city council has swapped in a “consensus building activity” (CBA) on the topic of street homelessness. The topic of the CBA was announced at last Wednesday’s city council meeting by council president Isabel Piedmont-Smith, who said she wants to focus on how best to address street homelessness “in the short term.” She added, “We’ve talked a lot about longer term, but short term, it’s becoming a pressing problem.”
[Note: The reporter is the spouse of Mary Morgan, who is director of Heading Home of South Central Indiana.]
