Plan to end homelessness in S. Indiana released
A strategic plan to end homelessness in Clark and Floyd counties, announced Thursday morning by city and county officials, includes plans for a new day shelter, better client management services and increased housing assistance across Southern Indiana.
The plan, known as Vision 2025, comes after nearly two years of meetings among homeless advocates and aims to eliminate homelessness in the area by 2025 by setting attainable goals for local service providers to increase their homeless outreach services.
The last national point-in-time count, done in January, showed Clark and Floyd counties have nearly 300 people on the streets or in emergency shelters on any given night.
Vision 2025 calls for a new day shelter, better client management systems to increase efficiency in the intake process and a beefed-up housing initiative to ensure people don’t come out of shelters, prisons and rehab programs and end up on the streets.
Melissa Fry, director of the Applied Research and Education Center at Indiana University Southeast, coordinated the $30,000 study. Fry said the plan can, and should, inform decision making behind various homeless initiatives.
“These efforts will require significant coordination and commitment on the part of our community, local government, area philanthropies and our service providers,” Fry said. “There is no silver bullet.”
The first step in the plan is to create the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana. Leslie Townsend, social services director of St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities, 601 E. Market St., New Albany, announced that a number of local service providers had recently signed a memorandum of understanding for the coalition.
The coalition will include the Center for Women and Families, Jeffersonville Housing Authority, New Albany Housing Authority and a number of local homeless advocate organizations.
The Jeffersonville City Council has paid most of the bill for Vision 2025, but Fry said funding for many of the initiatives outlined in the plan will hopefully come from grants and private donations.
Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore would not say how much money the city was willing to commit to future initiatives, but said he believes the goal of ending homelessness in Clark and Floyd counties is attainable.
“These people are the experts, and I want these people on our team,” Moore said. “We are ready to implement their plan.”
However, not all homeless advocates in Southern Indiana were as optimistic about the plan.
Paul Stensrud, director of Jesus Cares at Exit 0 ministries, said he is on the streets every day delivering services to the most vulnerable in Southern Indiana and criticized the homeless task force for being more concerned with goals than actual action.
“The $30,000 they spent just sitting around and talking about plans could have been put towards paying for the new day shelter they want,” Stensrud said.
Stensrud stepped down from the Jeffersonville Homelessness Task Force that called for the study after the City Council approved a camping ban last year, though he and ministry volunteers have remained connected to council leaders and the homeless, The Courier-Journal previously reported.
Both Exit 0 and Haven House Inc., two of the largest shelters and grass-roots outreach groups in Southern Indiana, were absent from Thursday’s event.
The Southern Indiana Housing Initiative will become the fiscal agent for the coalition and will receive donations for the coalition while it applies for nonprofit status.
The first round of funding will go toward the creation of two full-time positions at the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana. Townsend said service providers are currently working on a business plan for the coalition.
Reporter Roberto Roldan can be reached at (502) 582-4649. Follow him on twitter at @ByRobertoR.