Indy to appoint ‘homelessness czar’ to prioritize permanent housing

INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — At an August screening of a documentary about solutions to homelessness, Mayor Joe Hogsett made a promise: His administration would form an advisory group to pursue the end of chronic homelessness in Indianapolis.

The first details about that group became public Sept. 25 at a meeting of more than four dozen people who work on homelessness issues in the city.

The Mayor’s Leadership Council on Homelessness will consist of around 17 members, including a “homelessness czar.” The members will come from a variety of backgrounds, largely from business, philanthropic and civic sectors not currently well represented in the city’s homelessness response, according to Emily Koschnick, executive director of the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee.

The purpose of the group is to create “an influential and knowledgeable inner circle” to amplify the mayor’s influence in pursuit of Housing First policies, Koschnick said.

Housing First is a model that prioritizes placing people into permanent housing without meeting other conditions that can bar people from accessing other subsidized housing programs. It is guided by the principal that stable housing is a prerequisite to solving those other issues, such as substance use. Participants are expected to abide by a typical lease agreement and are provided with services to help them succeed.

Other cities have seen success with the approach. Milwaukee, for example, saw a 92% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the first five years of adopting the Housing First model.

[New city homeless shelter to break ground this fall]

The goal of the mayor’s council is to leverage influence at the city and state level to find new funding streams and opportunities for collaboration. That will be important as the city looks at a new year with a new governor and fewer protections for people who are homeless, said Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention.

The U.S. Supreme Court this year affirmed the right of local governments to criminalize sleeping outside without providing people with another place to go, a decision that has led to sweeps of homeless camps and harsh policies in other states, Haring-Cozzi said.

“This is the best table, in my opinion, to tackle some of those issues and to empower those who have the relationships at the Statehouse to go represent and educate folks as to why (criminalization) would absolutely exacerbate homelessness; it would divert funding away from the solutions that we know work,” she said.

The mayor’s council will hold its first meeting Oct. 1 and will continue to meet monthly for the time being. The meetings will not be open to the public, Koschnick said, and it’s currently unclear whether meeting minutes will be available to the public.

Homelessness has been an intractable issue in Indianapolis, where the Hogsett administration pledged and failed to end chronic homelessness by the end of last year. Indianapolis’ latest count showed a slight increase over last year in the number of people experiencing homelessness. 

Who’s on the council

Here are the organizations that will be represented on the council:

• Mayor’s Office
• Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
• Marion County Prosecutor’s Office
• City-County Council
• Office of Public Health and Safety
• Department of Metropolitan Development
• Representative from the Indianapolis multi-faith community
• Blueprint Council, the decision-making body for Indianapolis’ homelessness response coalition
• Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention
• United Way
• The Indianapolis Foundation
• Indy Chamber
• Downtown Indy
• Central Indiana Corporate Partnership
• Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County
• Indianapolis Housing Agency
• Person with lived experience

Reach Mirror Indy reporter Emily Hopkins at 317-790-5268 or emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis.