New housing plan for Bloomington’s ‘street homeless’ adds case managers, effort to stem inflow
On Tuesday, a new housing action plan was unveiled at a press conference at Bloomington’s city hall.
The press conference was held by Heading Home of South Central Indiana, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson, and heads of a half dozen nonprofits that provide services to homeless people.
The plan focuses on the “street homeless” (aka the “unsheltered homeless”), as contrasted with those who are currently staying in a shelter, but don’t have a permanent place to live (aka the “sheltered homeless”).
Elements of the plan include: coordinated outreach; more money for case managers; increased efforts to prevent homelessness in the first place; an increase in the number housing units with rents under $500/month; and an effort to reduce the inflow of homeless people from outside the area that includes Monroe County and the counties next door to Monroe.
The nonprofits attending Tuesday’s press conference helped to develop the housing plan.
The plan focuses on the street homeless population, because of the recent significant measurable increase in those numbers, both locally and statewide.
Included in Tuesday’s briefing from Heading Home director Mary Morgan were the results of a survey done in May this year for Monroe County. The increase in the numbers for street homeless were consistent with the statewide trend in the data for the annual PIT (Point in Time) count, which is conducted every January.
For the Monroe County count, which was done on May 13, 2024, 117 people reported sleeping outdoors or in vehicles the previous night. That’s about four times the 29 people who were counted as street homeless for the 2019 January PIT count.
The May 2024 survey was conducted by staff of New Hope for Families, Beacon, Wheeler Mission, HealthNet, Centerstone, and Middle Way House, which are all members of the South Central Housing Network.
Morgan wrapped up the press conference by recognizing the challenges inherent in solving the problem of homelessness, but by expressing optimism. Morgan put it like this: “We have many challenges, and we are clear-eyed in identifying those challenges. She continued, “We are also optimistic, and we are united—and determined to address this crisis in a meaningful way.”
In Thomson’s remarks, she drew on what she’d heard from a single mother at a listening session she’d held at one of the shelters since becoming mayor. Thomson reported, “I had a single mom speak up and say: You know, I came here, because Bloomington has such great services for the homeless, but you only have enough to keep us all homeless.”
About the observation from the single mother, Thomson said, “That is not who we want to be. We want to be solving this problem.”
Stemming the inflow
Thomson then addressed one of the immediate priorities in the plan’s list, which reads:
4. As a short-term measure to address inflow, enact a temporary moratorium on welcoming people from outside our region to overnight emergency shelters, provide reunification services for out-of-region people, and explore other ways to mitigate the increase of non-regional residents experiencing homelessness. (Note: The group did not reach full consensus on this recommendation.)
Thomson said, “It has been a difficult decision…” She added, “We are going to work hard on reunification.” Thomson continued, “We need to build excellence in solving the problem for each individual and family that is experiencing homelessness, before we continue to open our doors to the rest of the state and nation.”
It was Forest Gilmore, executive director of Beacon, Inc., who is also an ordained minister, who responded to a question from The B Square about reconciling the recommendation to stem the inflow of homeless people with the moral obligation of “kindness to strangers” that is included in so many of the world’s spiritual traditions.
Gilmore said, “Welcome-the-stranger is a super powerful moral imperative—and it’s a moral imperative for everyone—it’s not just a moral imperative for Monroe County, or for the region.”
Gilmore continued, “The real challenge is that every community is not stepping up to that imperative.” He added, “Communities and states that are the most effective at addressing homelessness are ones in which each community takes responsibility for those who are becoming homeless in their community.”
Gilmore said there are limited local resources. That means that everything has to be a larger effort than just the region of Monroe County, Gilmore said. The expectation to live up to the moral imperative needs to be called upon “not just in ourselves, but of everyone, both in Indiana and beyond,” Gilmore said.
Earlier in the press conference, Gilmore talked about the fact Beacon has historically already focused its efforts on Monroe County. Gilmore put it like this, “We target Monroe County residents—with exceptions for people who are fleeing domestic violence and fleeing discrimination, LGBTQ discrimination, other types of discrimination.”
The plan notes that there was not 100-percent agreement among the groups that helped develop the plan about the item that addresses inflow of homeless people from outside the region.
Why do service providers support the plan?
Melissa Burgess, with HealthNet, said she knows the plan will have a big impact. She is most excited about the enhanced outreach that HealthNet will have funding to do. Case managers help build relationships and trust, Burgess said.
Related to case managers, it is the lack of adequate case workers for service providers like HealthHet and Centerstone that has been cited by the mayor’s office as one reason for the delay in clearing the encampments along the Rail Trail south of Country Club Drive and North of Gordon Pike.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson said, “We do still intend to close that camp in the next couple of weeks.” Thomson added that many of the people who were camping there have relocated. That’s consistent with The B Square’s observations early Tuesday morning. Some of the individual campsites where people were previously living looked abandoned, while people were still inhabiting others.
Burgess acknowledged that HealthNet is currently short of its desired number of street outreach workers right now. The few who remain “are doing all the heavy lifting,” Burgess said.
The housing action plan calls for funding more street outreach staff—at least 12, in order to achieve a 10-1 best practice ratio of clients per street outreach worker.
In the world of homeless service providers, street outreach workers and case managers have overlapping tasks, but they are distinct jobs. The plan also calls for 10 more case managers to be placed at homeless service providers—Beacon, HealthNet Homeless Initiative Program, Middle Way House, New Hope for Families, and Wheeler Mission.
For the additional case managers and street outreach workers, the estimated cost is around $1 million for each kind of worker, for a total of $2 million. The sources of funding identified in the plan include local income tax revenue (LIT), allocated to the city of Bloomington and Monroe County government, the Lilly Endowment, and other private philanthropic organizations.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Dana Jones, with Wheeler Mission, also identified additional case managers as an important part of the plan. He noted that the tagline for Heading Home is a goal to make homelessness “rare, brief, and non-repeating.” Wheeler Mission’s shelter helps to make homelessness brief and non-repeating, Jones said. That depends on having case managers meet someone as soon as they arrive so that they can get aligned with support systems, Jones said.
Emily Pike, with New Hope for Families, picked up the “rare” part of the tagline saying that the thing in the plan that stands out most for her is the idea of diversion—helping people never to enter shelter. Pike said that her organization typically does not get as much of a chance as it would like, to work on making homelessness rare.
Pike is excited about the fact that the new plan calls for New Hope to work on preventing families from ever entering a shelter—more carefully, intentionally and collaboratively than before.
Also at Tuesday’s press conference, Carrie Stillions, with Middle Way House, expressed support for the additional case managers called for in the plan. She noted that Middle Way House services survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking. Stillions said Middle Way house is in the process of transitioning its time-limited apartments for families to a permanent housing model.
In her opening remarks, Thomson noted that many of Bloomington’s shelter beds are unoccupied, even though there are many unsheltered homeless people living in the area. Morgan later corrected the mayor’s specific number, pegging the number of vacant beds on any given night at around 50.
Even at the smaller number of 50, the point that was made in a reporter’s question is still valid, Morgan said: There’s some reluctance for the unsheltered to use the available beds. The plan unveiled on Tuesday addresses that issue, Morgan said, by calling for an analysis of bed use, and a determination of specific kinds of shelter beds that might be needed. Morgan gave “medical respite” beds as an example of the kinds of beds that are needed.
Homelessness as a community topic: What’s coming up?
At its meeting this Wednesday (Aug. 7), the council is slated to hear a report from Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson on the topic of encampments on encampments and service provider recommendations.
In the city council’s 2025 budget priorities, conveyed to the mayor as a mid-June letter, one priority is listed as follows: “Fund 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.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, Thomson responded to a B Square question by indicating there will not be any funding for non-shelter options included in the 2025 budget. It’s for the same reason there are no non-shelter temporary options included in the plan that was unveiled that day, Thomson said.
When the plan was being developed Thomson said she told the city’s nonprofit partners: “I would much rather invest a larger amount of money in actually solving a problem than continue to put money at really mitigating the effects of a problem.” She added, “if we want to work with people to actually get permanently housed and to heal from the traumas that they have experienced in their lives, we need to be investing strategically in a plan that we think is going to work.”
Thomson has also announced that in a week, on Tuesday, Aug. 13, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. there will be a public workshop about the plan. The location has not yet been determined. Thomson called it a “participatory workshop to help us source ideas for how to best implement this plan and collaborate together.”
The following day, on Wednesday, Aug. 15 Aug. 14, starting at 6:30 p.m. Bloomington’s city council will be convening a “consensus building activity” focused on the topic of street homelessness.
From the Heading Homing Housing Action Plan:
Immediate priority needs
1. Support robust, coordinated street outreach and linkage to services, including emergency shelter and housing.
2. Strengthen case management support.
3. Strengthen diversion efforts to prevent homelessness.
4. As a short-term measure to address inflow, enact a temporary moratorium on welcoming people from outside our region to overnight emergency shelters, provide reunification services for out-of-region people, and explore other ways to mitigate the increase of non-regional residents experiencing homelessness. (Note: The group did not reach full consensus on this recommendation.)
5. Increase the number of housing units with rents under $500/month.
6. Bolster security and services for permanent supportive housing to reduce exits to homelessness.
7. Increase the number of beds for medical respite.
8. Determine any need for additional shelter beds.
Long-term priority needs
1. Restructure the local criminal justice system to emphasize in-patient recovery and mental health care for people experiencing homelessness who repeatedly commit crimes in the community, moving away from long-term imprisonment and arrest-and-release approaches.
2. Continue to invest and advocate for additional housing to address the 9,777 gap in available units (both owner-occupied and rental) at $500/month or less. This approach should include converting higher-rent units to more affordable rentals
[Note: The reporter is the spouse of Mary Morgan, who is director of Heading Home of South Central Indiana.]
