Bloomington gives formal notice to Crawford Apartments for non-compliance, sets Aug. 1 deadline

In a news release issued late Tuesday, the city of Bloomington announced that it has given formal notice to the owner (Cinnaire Solutions Corp.) and property management company (Continental Management) for Crawford Apartments on Henderson Street that they are in default of agreements with the city.

In its two buildings, Crawford Apartments provides 61 units of permanent supportive housing.

The city's deadline for compliance is given as Aug. 1, 2025. For now, according to the Bloomington mayor's office, none of the current occupants of Crawford will be forced to vacate the premises. According to Forrest Gilmore, who is CEO of Beacon, Inc. which provides supportive services to Crawford tenants, 40 of the 61 units are currently occupied—not all of the units are habitable.

One agreement cited in the formal notice is dated 2012 and relates to conditions on affordability housing during a specified timeframe. Also cited in the formal notice is a covenant for deed restrictions made in 2016. According to the formal written notice, issued on June 18, a verbal warning was given one day earlier.

The basic issue is the physical condition of the property, which according to the city is in violation of Bloomington's rental housing code, specifically the Residential Rental Unit and Lodging Establishment Inspection Program under Title 16 of Bloomington's local code.

The city's action will not have come as much of a surprise. A month ago, the city's HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) director, Anna Killion-Hanson, told The B Square that she's been working on the issue since she took the position at the beginning of Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson's term in 2024. At that time Killion-Hanson wrote, "[O]ngoing tenant-related violations and repeated damage have made sustained compliance very difficult."

A month ago, Killion-Hanson wrote: "We are reaching a critical action point." That point was reached with the formal notice sent on June 18.

The city's news release notes the longstanding issues with Crawford Apartments, quoting Thomson, "The Crawford Apartments are intended to be a place of refuge and recovery. We understand that many in our community have come to see Crawford as a symbol of what isn't working; my commitment is to work towards a system that does."

According to the city of Bloomington, the decision to issue a formal notice was not precipitated by a single event, but rather by "the accumulation of persistent issues: a high volume of emergency response calls, ongoing code violations, vacant and damaged units, and a lack of sustained solutions."

According to the city, from Jan. 1, 2024 until May 13, 2025, Crawford Apartments generated a total of over 1,500 calls for service, or an average of around three per day. According to the city, the breakdown of calls looks like this:

• Law enforcement: 1,141 calls for service
• Emergency medical services: 237 calls for service
• Fire department: 135 calls for service

The city calculates that about 6% of the Bloomington police department's working hours during that period were spent responding to incidents at Crawford Apartments.

Reached by The B Square on Tuesday, Beacon CEO Forrest Gilmore said that he thinks it's a "good thing" that the city has taken formal action. Changes need to be made at Crawford, Gilmore said, and it is important that outside pressure be brought to bear on the situation. Gilmore says he thinks the property owner and property manager are now taking the issue seriously.

Gilmore said that Beacon will do what it can as a supporting service agency to help the property owner and the property manager bring things into compliance. Gilmore also said that other permanent housing facilities in Bloomington where Beacon provides supportive services are successful, and he thinks that Crawford can be, too.