$10M program having ‘hiccups’; CARES Act relief designed to help Indy’s homeless
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Almost $10 million of federal CARES Act money was set aside to rapidly rehouse the city’s homeless population.
The lion’s share of that money was designed to pay one year’s rent, but News 8 found only part of the money set aside for the city’s homeless people from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act isn’t being spent.
News 8 asked Matt Giffin, interim director of the Marion County Office of Public Health and Safety, what’s the holdup. “To be completely honest, there have been some hiccups. I know there have been complaints, people who feel like somebody dropped the ball, getting them somewhere, or wasn’t responsive enough. It is challenging to wrangle all of this.”
Kellie Watson has been waiting for the Rapid Re-Housing Program grant to get moving since July. She has been biding her time, but her patience is running thin. “I wouldn’t wish this on someone I didn’t particularly care about.”
A black mold infestation forced her out her last home. With the help of the Damien Center, she was placed in a hotel near the Indianapolis International Airport. The city has taken over the hotel and budgeted $2.1 million for the care and feeding of 200 or so people; that’s about $7,000 per person.
Another $ 7 million was set aside to get Watson and others into permanent housing.
Watson said she is thankful to have a place to stay. She says the hotel staff have been perfect. But, she is fearful of the private contractor hired by the city to manage the project. When Watson arrived she had access to a nurse and other social services; that ended when the outside contractor Mangas Global Solutions took over, she says.
“You are at risk here. Every night is a challenge,” Watson said.
She says, since Mangas Global Solutions has taken over, residents have been harassed by security and Mangas staff in the middle of the night. Others residents have been thrown out. She says the environment is prison-like and unsafe.
The interim director of the public health and safety office said Watson’s interpretation of Mangas Global Solutions does not reflect its intended role in the project. “We don’t want this to feel like some type of summer camp or some compulsory environment where people are not treated like adults and, for that reason, we are not doing … we have instructed the staff they are not to be doing intrusive room searches because they are not supposed to be violating people’s privacy,” Giffin said.
Watson says she hardly sleeps at night out of fear that security will come banging on her door. “This is a big problem. There is a lot of people, no matter where they are from…. These are human beings…. They treat animals better.”
She expressed her concerns in dozens of letters and emails, and phone calls to city officials, but she says no one has responded to her.
I-Team 8 talked to Mangas Global Solutions, but its representatives declined to be videotaped and referred all questions to the city.
The city is working on the problems, it told News 8.
Indiana State Board of Health on Wednesday reported 5,853 more Hoosiers have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 398,417. In addition, the department said an additional 98 Hoosiers died from COVID-19, raising Indiana’s death toll to 6,207.