Indianapolis must take responsibility for homeless families this winter
The City of Indianapolis has never held or led a winter contingency plan for people experiencing homelessness. Indianapolis is one of the only cities of its size without a city funded response/shelter. In the absence of a city-driven initiative, Shepherd Community Center and some community churches created a winter response with some weather-activated shelter options.
This Community-led process began in the 1990's and has stayed a community project with Wheeler Mission taking the lead in the mid 90’s. At the beginning of 2024, Wheeler made it known that they can no longer sustain the effort alone. Until a few weeks ago, there was little conversation or planning for this winter.
The City has not historically led, funded or participated in Winter Contingency, until their first involvement when COVID Funding became available. Philanthropy has been the only consistent funder.
As of this writing (November 12, 2024), the city has major missing pieces for family overflow for the 2024-2025 Winter. They’ve released a statement that they plan to use an abandoned school building that:
Requires boiler maintenance, cleaning, and setting up and securing the livable space.
No plan to bring in food and bottled water (there are no provisions for potable water).
There is no way to cook food.
There are no bathing facilities and families will have to bus to the YMCA to use showers. There’s no plan or vendor for that transportation.
There’s no plan in place for a service provider to provide staffing and supervision of staff.
There are no policies and procedures to ensure proper intake, basic needs assessments, safety (background checks), etc.
No provision for supplying winter clothing.
There is no plan to provide transportation for children to get to school.
There’s no plan for case management and an agency to help assure families can find secure housing after the shelter.
The six Indianapolis family shelters are at capacity. We know that between 40 and 50 families a night are seeking shelter, at least half of which have children. The family shelters are doing more than they can do while the Office of Public Safety and Housing (OPHS) pontificates. OPHS must take action now. It’s already too late - it’s already cold.
Contact Deputy Mayor Lena Hill, and tell her this is not ok. Use the link below to email her.
You Can Help!
While we need to hold the city accountable, the immediate need is serving the families who will suffer. We need:
In-kind donations: St. Vincent de Paul is coordinating donations, and they continue to come to the table. This will include blankets/pillows, winter clothing items (clothes, jackets, shoes), baby items (formula, diapers). We would love to get donations for things for kids to do there - like toys and books, a smart TV with a Netflix subscription. Fill out this form and we’ll contact you as soon as we have more information.
$$$ donations: We are still exploring how to collect and distribute funds. Fill out this form and we’ll contact you as soon as we have more information.