INDIANAPOLIS — More than 300 people likely sleep in tents on the streets of Indianapolis every night. A new initiative could make sure they all have a stable place to call home before much longer.
The Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, the City of Indianapolis, and local faith leaders and philanthropists unveiled the Streets to Home initiative this week. The plan already has $8.1 million in the bank to address homelessness in the city.
"This is a huge crisis here in our own city," said Rev. David Greene of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, who also serves on the Mayor's Leadership Council on Homelessness. "This is our opportunity to say we're really serious about people that sometimes get ignored and that we want to hide during certain events in our town. In reality, we need to fix the problem."
"We have to stop the tropes about homelessness," added Rabbi Aaron Spiegel of the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance. "It's not people with mental health or substance abuse issues, it's not their fault. It's a system fault."
CHIP outlined the new Streets to Home system on its website, which is broken down into three phases.
Phase one of Streets to Home plan is to use the initial $8.1 million to find permanent housing for Indianapolis tent camp residents and clear the camps by June 2026. The money would also be invested in homeless services such as outreach, case management and assistance in finding homes.
"It's not just saying some stuff that sounds good," Greene said. "Here's the goal, here's what we're going to do, here's who is accountable, knowing 12 months from now everyone is going to be held accountable on this."
Phase two would start next summer. It focuses on finding permanent housing for people living in shelters with help from re-established Indianapolis Housing Authority vouchers.
Phase three would build on the first two steps and try to end homelessness in Indianapolis by 2028.
"This is a solvable problem, and community is the way we solve it," Spiegel said.
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