Bloomington is finding ways to manage city's homeless population

By: Taj Simmons

BLOOMINGTON — More than 300 people are currently homeless in Bloomington, according to Heading Home of South Central Indiana. Mayor Kerry Thomson wants to do whatever she can to bring that number down to zero.

"In Bloomington right now, I think we are barely treading water with our homelessness," Thomson said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. "The safety nets that we have in place have become flooded."

The city of Bloomington recently hired a homelessness response coordinator and the Community Foundation of Bloomington & Monroe County received a Lilly Grant worth more than $7 million this year to reduce homelessness.

Thomson said Bloomington is doing what it can to manage the homeless population, but accused other nearby cities of making its issue worse.

"Individuals are being brought to Bloomington by other jurisdictions," Thomson said. "Just as an example, an individual was at IU Health here from Avon and needed medical care for 20 days. At the end of that 20-day period, that person had nowhere to go and was forced to stay in the hospital for another 23 days."

Homelessness is widespread across Bloomington, but Seminary Park is traditionally known as the most notable gathering place.

"We're still losing a lot of business because people won't come down here for that reason," said Ty Osborne, who owns a furniture store across the street from Seminary Park. "I have to work for an hour to an hour and a half before I can even open my front door. There's so much bedding and clothing and half-eaten food."

Bloomington Police raided Seminary Park last week to search for people dealing drugs to the homeless population. BPD did the same near the Crawford Apartments on Henderson Street and Winslow Road on Tuesday.

"They are preying on people who are most vulnerable, people who have substance abuse disorder," Thomson said. "They are finding ways to make money while creating a lack of safety in our community and causing extreme challenges for those who are the most vulnerable."

Osborne said the Seminary Park occupation has largely cleared out after last week's police operation.

"It looks better today than it has in 15 years or more," Osborne said. "They've got it cleaned up and hopefully will do their part in keeping it cleaned up."

However, Thomson said police enforcement will not solve homelessness in Bloomington.

"We cannot arrest our way out of the homeless problem," Thomson said. "If you arrest people, they will be back in our jail then end up back on our streets. It has to be housing and services."