Indianapolis low-barrier shelter, housing hub to break ground by end of 2025

INDIANAPOLIS -- The groundbreaking for Indianapolis' 150-bed low-barrier shelter and housing hub, which will serve unsheltered individuals and help them find permanent housing, was initially scheduled for late 2024.




City officials tell FOX59/CBS4 that shovels are expected to begin turning earth at the corner of Shelby and Georgia streets before the end of this year, now with an opening date sometime in 2027.




"We had to acquire some additional real estate to make sure we had the proper turning radius for emergency vehicles and things like that. We've been in design mode since the beginning of the year," said Aryn Schounce, a senior policy advisor to Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett. "The shelter will provide access to emergency shelter for those who need it, who cannot access it in our shelter system now, but Streets to Home seeks to permanently rehouse individuals and provide them with services."




Schounce said some persons without shelter who had been living along East Washington Street are already being assessed for the city's Streets to Home program and referred for permanent housing.




City crews were also cleaning up the underpass beneath I-65 on East Washington Street where more than a dozen people had been sleeping and camping out.




Some of them relocated to a vacant lot next door to the Salvation Army store along the entrance ramp to southbound I-65.




"We got garbage cans. One. Two. We keep it clean," said Kishon Moore, the self-proclaimed mayor of the half dozen tents on the asphalt lot. "You got zero complaints. They won't mess with you."




For two blocks along Leonard Street in Fountain Square, several tents bordering the grass between homes and northbound I-65 have garnered the attention of city officials, who said they will begin an assessment of the campers and determine their housing needs in the next few days.




"These are permanent closure of these campsites," said Schounce. "This is not moving folks around to a different location. This is getting them into housing and getting them supportive services to retain housing and connect them with whatever services they need to be successful and thrive."




IMPD and the Department of Metropolitan Development have already moved to take back Lugar Plaza at the City-County Building, which has become a hangout location for those without homes or anything to do all day.




Swing seating has been removed from the location and wooden benches will soon be dismantled.




Several months ago, IMPD and emergency responders revived nearly a dozen people who were rendered unconscious due to drug overdoses across the street from the Plaza, which also attracts bus riders disembarking at the Julia M. Carson Transit Center.




Half the homes in the 1000 block of East Georgia Street are for sale, as a potential buyer said he was unaware of city plans to build the housing hub and shelter at the end of the street.




"The location is good until you told me the story here," said Adam Moore, representing a corporate buyer who was touring one of the homes with a realtor. "I do have second thoughts but we are still interested in purchasing it and I do have doubts I didn't have before I talked to you. There's definitely concerns there."




The city has already purchased one of the four houses on the block which has several vacant lots and two industrial buildings.




Moore tried to look on the bright side of the pending development.




"It looks like if the city does do anything here the place is probably gonna be more safe and maybe more activities and that would be good for investors but at the same time I don't know if I was buying this place to live here being that its going to be with the homeless shelter here I don't know if I would consider buying it for myself."




Back along East Washington Street and the I-65 on ramp, Moore said he would welcome any city support to move him and his friends off the vacant lot they call home.




"There's some good people in Indianapolis. We put the tents up and people come over and bring us water and food. We appreciate all of it. All we want is, we homeless, don't run us out. Where you want us to go?" he asked. "Help us out. We don't wanna be outside. But if you help us out, we won't be outside."





via: https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indianapolis-low-barrier-shelter-housing-hub-to-break-ground-by-end-of-2025/