States and localities face crossroad on homelessness policy

The city of Indianapolis says it has no plans to change the way it deals with homeless residents, despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows cities to move, ticket or arrest people sleeping on the streets.

The Hogsett administration told IBJ it plans to stay the course on its housing-first strategy even as other states and localities make changes. The city does not ban people from sleeping outside on public property.

The Supreme Court in June decided in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson that relocating, ticketing and arresting people sleeping on the streets does not violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars “cruel and unusual punishment.” That decision reversed a previous ruling by the Ninth District Court of Appeals, which covers Western states.

“The Hogsett administration is committed to not only finding permanent solutions to homelessness through its housing-first approach but to make housing in Indianapolis equitable and affordable for all who choose to call this city home,” a statement from the Hogsett administration said.

Housing first is a strategy gaining attention nationwide that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness and offering support services but not requiring they be used. The traditional approach to battling homelessness requires people to complete service programs that address behavior problems, such as addiction, before they are offered housing.

The city’s statement also noted the administration’s support for the Homeless Bill of Rights, which the City-County Council passed in 2015. The ordinance states that “no one should suffer unnecessarily or be subject to discrimination or arbitrary treatment based on his or her homeless status.”

That measure was amended in 2021 to allow the Office of Public Health and Safety to close homeless camps when there is evidence of health and safety concerns. The office can also close camps if sufficient temporary housing or shelter space is available. So far this year, just one camp has been closed; that was due to high flooding risk.

But even with city assurances that it is staying the course, advocates for people experiencing homelessness are concerned state lawmakers might force a different approach on Indianapolis.

Cicero Action, the lobbying arm of Cicero Institute, a Texas-based, nonpartisan think tank that has lobbied states to ban street camping and direct funds away from “housing first” programs, registered to lobby in Indiana late last year.

Then, last session, State Rep. Michelle Davis, a Republican from Whiteland, introduced a version of Cicero’s model legislation. It did not receive an initial hearing. Davis did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention Executive Director Chelsea Haring-Cozzi called the Supreme Court ruling “extremely disappointing.” The CHIP leader said she’s confident that Indianapolis is “not going to be reactive to it in any kind of negative way,” but she worries state lawmakers might reintroduce legislation modeled after Cicero’s approach, which she called “anti-housing-first” and focused on “sweeping people off the streets.”

Arguing approach

Cicero Institute says it is focused on “fixing broken systems in the public sector” by developing and fighting for policies at the state level that “restore liberty, accountability and innovation in American governance.” The organization has been at work in other states.

Last year, it successfully lobbied Kentucky lawmakers to approve the Safer Kentucky Act, which outlaws camping in public spaces except where cities have created designated areas and allows the state attorney general to sue cities that don’t enforce it.

The law also defunds permanent supportive housing programs that don’t have rehabilitative or behavioral requirements.

Cicero argues that current federally backed approaches aren’t working and that banning street camping gets people into shelters.

“I think a lot of these questions are … what is our tolerance for human suffering on the street?” said Devon Kurtz, public safety policy director at Cicero Institute. “And unfortunately, out of a sort of very cautious version of compassion, a lot of people in this space are actually quite willing to let people suffer on the street. I’d say our position is that we’re simply not willing to do that.”

Homeless service providers and advocates believe it’s a “bad sign” that Cicero has hired a lobbyist here, said Hale Crumley, policy director at Prosperity Indiana, a not-for-profit focused on housing policy.

Crumley said organizers from other states have told her that, based on their experiences, the bill filed last year will likely come up again.

“After it’s there, it’s like playing Whac-a-Mole. ‘You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube,’ is what someone said to me,” Crumley recounted.

Cicero’s Indiana lobbyist is Republican consultant Joey Fox. When contacted for an interview, Fox referred IBJ to Kurtz.

Bryan Sunderland, executive director of Cicero’s lobbying arm, Cicero Action, told IBJ the organization has been in touch with “a number of lawmakers in Indiana who have expressed interest in advancing solutions to help address the needs of homeless individuals.”

Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray declined to comment about the issue. House Speaker Todd Huston did not respond to a message.

On the streets

In Indianapolis, homelessness on the streets appears to be getting worse, downtown business owners told IBJ.

According to data from CHIP’s point-in-time count conducted each year on a day in January, it is. In the 2021 count, 263 people were unsheltered; that was 13.6% of all people experiencing homelessness. This year, the unsheltered count was 339, 19.9% of the total.

The overall count, 1,701, was up 5% over 2023.

The point-in-time homeless count is a snapshot of homelessness in the city used for federal reporting requirements. It includes people on the streets and those in emergency shelters, transitional housing and safe havens. But it doesn’t include people staying with others temporarily, often called couch-surfing, or instances where multiple households share a single living space. It also doesn’t count people in institutional settings, such as hospitals and jails.

The business owners IBJ spoke with agree that more needs to be done to reduce the number of homeless people sleeping downtown but that making the behavior illegal might not be the best approach.

Kameelah Shaheed-Diallo and her husband, Ben Diallo, have owned J. Benzal Menswear at 22 E. Washington St. for 15 years, half of the time at that location. Shaheed-Diallo said the unsheltered homeless population living near the storefront has caused more difficulty in recent years for employees and customers.

“The symptom that I kind of think about is, ‘When we go to open the store, is there an issue with opening?’” she said, “And I would say at least once a week … we can’t even open the business without someone having to do cleanup of bodily fluids, which is a lot.”

Shaheed-Diallo said that she wants to be part of the solution in tandem with other city stakeholders, and that the solution lies in providing more housing options. “We’ve just seen a lot of evidence that policing doesn’t solve homelessness,” she said.

Command Coffee in February opened a storefront on Monument Circle that used to house a Starbucks location. Starbucks left that location in October 2022, citing safety concerns. Owner Danny Heller said Command employees maintain a consistent policy against giving away free items to homeless neighbors, which Heller credits as the reason his coffee shop is not facing the same problems Starbucks did.

When people experiencing homelessness gather inside his coffee shop or right outside, politely asking them to leave usually works, he said. Having a police presence is important, but so is building relationships with and understanding the people living nearby, Heller said.

What he wants to see more of is outreach and security on the weekends, when he said attention for people on the streets is lacking.

The Cento family has operated Cento Shoes for 54 years at 33 S. Meridian St. The owner, Mike Cento, acknowledged “much smarter people than me” are looking for solutions, which he said are clearly needed. He sees people struggling with severe mental illness walking through downtown streets talking to themselves, but he said his brother’s suicide three years ago changed the way he views them.

“I would hate to have anybody go to jail for that, but they need to do something,” Cento said.

Currently, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department operates under general orders that being homeless is not a crime. Individuals who are homeless or appear to be so can’t be forced to move from public space they have a legal right to be in (a downtown sidewalk, for example), although police may ask them to move for safety or security reasons.

A city ordinance does bar homeless individuals from camping or sleeping in a way that blocks the right of way on a public sidewalk. But asking passersby for money, or panhandling, isn’t illegal in Indianapolis under most conditions.

The Homeless Unit within IMPD is focused on offering resources and help, Maj. Tabatha McLemore told IBJ, rather than policing violations of the city’s panhandling restrictions.

“It’s a constitutional right to be in the area, and if you want to ask for assistance, you just can’t be aggressive about it,” McLemore said. “If it becomes aggressive, that’s when we would step in and be able to make that arrest if we need to.”

Officers also are allowed—if an individual is gravely disabled or is likely to cause harm to themselves or others due to apparent mental health problems—to transport an individual to a hospital for a mental evaluation and treatment.

Policy debate

Cicero Institute’s model legislation would give police officers in Indianapolis and across the state a greater role in managing where homeless individuals sleep—even making arrests when it might be in the person’s best interest. Kurtz used Utah, where the weather can become cold enough for people sleeping outside to die of exposure, as an example.

“In my view, that’s a pretty easy case,” he said. “Of course, you force them to go inside, even if that means arresting them.”

He said those who view camping bans as punishing the homeless misunderstand the approach. Police likely wouldn’t take a “no tolerance” approach to these bans, and the bans would instead give officers the ability to “manage” homeless camps, he said.

“In communities where there is enough capacity to shelter them … we really need to be taking seriously that leaving people on the street is not an option for them or for us,” he said.

Prosperity Indiana’s Crumley said Cicero’s priorities are “proven ineffective,” “expensive” and “dehumanizing.” She said that, aside from continuing to invest in housing, cities can deal with the appearance concerns caused by homelessness by providing more public amenities. These can include sanitation stations where unhoused people can shower or storage lockers to store their belongings.

Haring-Cozzi, executive director of CHIP, said the cities that are successfully addressing homelessness have explicit, coordinated encampment-to-housing strategies, like the city’s planned master leasing program.

She said Indianapolis will likely “continue to do the right thing here” by focusing on resources and connecting people to housing.•