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Former Indianapolis school building to shelter homeless families this winter

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Former Indianapolis school building to shelter homeless families this winter


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A former Indianapolis elementary school will shelter as many as 40 families who are homeless this winter as part of a city program that aims to ensure all residents can sleep indoors on frigid nights.

The building, once home to Susan Leach School 68 on the east side at 2107 N. Riley Ave., will open Dec. 15 as an overflow shelter as part of the city’s Winter Contingency Plan, according to a city press release. From Nov. 1 through the end of March, the program puts people in shelter spaces that aren’t available during warmer months.

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Indianapolis Public Schools hasn’t hosted instruction at School 68 since 2009 and uses the building as storage space. The facility has served as shelter space in past years when Wheeler Mission, the city’s largest shelter provider, saw a surge in need during the pandemic.

“The families will be housed in pods of four, but we do have the ability to accommodate larger families,” said Andrew Merkley, the director of homelessness and eviction prevention for Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration. “They’ll be in the gymnasium but also in the classrooms there at the school. We’ll utilize the cafeteria for food.”

Brian Crispin, Wheeler Mission’s senior director of community relations and development, said his organization’s Center for Women and Children downtown has room for 30 families year-round.

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Last winter, however, the center packed in 40 more families who came to Wheeler Mission in need of emergency shelter. The School 68 shelter opening next week is a better solution for those families, Crispin said.

“When we reach numbers that we were seeing in the past couple of years,” Crispin said, “we weren’t able to operate in ways that were helpful to our guests.”

As of this week, Wheeler Mission is sheltering about 660 people in Indianapolis, according to Crispin. The organization doesn’t track the exact number of guests in families, but a 2024 citywide count included 421 adults and children in homeless families. About 1,700 people were homeless overall.

Until School 68 opens, the city is paying for 37 families to stay in hotel rooms to get out of the cold, Merkley said. The money comes from the city’s $578,000 contribution to this winter’s contingency plan. Merkley expects many of those families will move to the School 68 shelter once it opens.

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Merkley said School 68 is a solution only for this winter, and it’s unclear whether the city will open additional shelter space for families. The city of Indianapolis will open a year-round low-barrier shelter on the southeast side by 2027, with 20 units reserved for families of four.

Aspire Indiana Health, a community health provider in Indianapolis, will lead the overflow shelter at School 68, providing medical services and case management to homeless families.

How families who are homeless can find shelter

To find shelter this winter, families can call the Mayor’s Action Center at 317-327-4622 during regular business hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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The city’s Office of Public Health Health and Safety is working with HealthNet’s Homeless Initiative Program and local trustee offices to place families in emergency shelter. Call HealthNet for an appointment at 317-957-2275.

How Indianapolis pays for Winter Contingency Plan

The roughly $1.5 million winter contingency plan is funded by multiple sources, including $750,000 from the Lilly Endowment, $578,000 in taxpayer money from the city, $50,000 from The Indianapolis Foundation, $50,000 from United Way of Central Indiana and more than $63,000 from the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention.

Email IndyStar Housing, Growth and Development Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09





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Indianapolis, IN

Unsettled Friday and Saturday, then summer heat returns early next week | July 10, 2026

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Unsettled Friday and Saturday, then summer heat returns early next week | July 10, 2026


TODAY

Partly sunny and warm with scattered showers and thunderstorms likely through much of the bookends of the day. Highs reach the mid 80s, with a west southwest breeze around 5 mph. It does not look like nonstop rain from start to finish, but this is the least reliable daytime period in the forecast, and any stronger storm could drop a quick heavy downpour with a gusty burst of wind. 

TONIGHT

Scattered showers and thunderstorms remain possible through the evening, then another lower-end storm chance lingers late overnight. Lows settle near the upper 60s, with light wind. The severe risk looks lower than it is Thursday night, but a few pockets of heavier rain are still possible if a boundary stalls close enough to central Indiana.  

TOMORROW

Mostly cloudy and not quite as hot, with another chance for showers and thunderstorms developing mainly after mid afternoon. Highs reach the low to mid 80s, with a light northeast breeze around 5 mph. Much of the first half of the day should be usable, but later afternoon and evening plans will still need a weather eye.  

TOMORROW NIGHT

A few showers and thunderstorms may linger early, then the trend turns quieter with mostly cloudy skies overnight. Lows fall to the upper 60s, with an east northeast breeze around 5 mph. It is a calmer setup than Friday night overall, even if an early interruption is still possible.  

SUNDAY

Mostly sunny and warmer with highs in the mid 80s. An east breeze around 5 to 10 mph keeps the day from feeling too stagnant, and this looks like one of the cleaner forecast days of the stretch. Most of central Indiana should stay dry from start to finish.

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SUNDAY NIGHT

Mostly clear and seasonably mild, with lows around the mid 60s and a light east northeast breeze. Quiet weather continues overnight with no meaningful travel concerns.  

MONDAY

Sunny and hotter, with highs climbing into the upper 80s. A light east wind around 5 mph holds through the day. After the unsettled end of the workweek, this looks like a very usable summer day with heat becoming the main story instead of storms.  

MONDAY NIGHT

Mostly clear and warm, with lows near 70 and only a light breeze. There will be little trouble overnight, and the warmer pattern settles in more firmly.  

TUESDAY

Sunny and hot again, with highs near 90. Wind stays light, becoming east southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon. This is another day where the weather looks broadly quiet, with heat the main thing to plan around.  

7 DAY FORECAST

The main concern in the near term is the unsettled Friday into Saturday period, when repeated rounds of showers and thunderstorms could bring quick heavy rain, especially Friday afternoon and evening. After that, the pattern trends warmer and drier from Sunday into at least Tuesday, with highs returning to the upper 80s and lower 90s while heat index values stay more manageable than the late-June heat. By Wednesday and Thursday, isolated afternoon and evening storms begin to creep back into the forecast, with a more noticeable thunderstorm threat showing up later next week into next weekend.  

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Indianapolis, IN

Indiana Workforce Pell Grant options limited so far

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Indiana Workforce Pell Grant options limited so far


INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Education leaders on Thursday said waiting for rulemaking limited the number of programs approved for a new grant program, but they expect more approvals soon.

Created as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed last year, the Workforce Pell Grant program allows students to use Pell Grants for short-term, direct-to-workforce training programs. The program began on July 1. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana and Vincennes University, which are Indiana’s two two-year vocational and technical institutions, are the only institutions in the state authorized for the program so far, though state officials have said they’ll consider expanding it to other institutions depending on the results of the first year.

So far, state education officials have approved three programs for Workforce Pell Grants: certified clinical medical assistant programs at Ivy Tech and Vincennes, plus an electrical maintenance technician bootcamp Vincennes offers. Final approval must come from the federal government, which has not yet green-lit any of those programs.

Molly Dodge, Ivy Tech’s senior vice president for workforce and careers, said Ivy Tech leaders needed to make sure they thoroughly understood the requirements they would face. To be eligible, a program must have at least a 70% completion rate and a 70% job placement rate. It also must lead directly to a job in a high-growth, high-demand job sector. Dodge said the rules were finalized this spring. After that, she said Ivy Tech leaders began going through each of their courses to see which ones would be eligible.

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“Workforce Pell has a significant requirement related to job placement and wages, and so we need to backward design from an employer, in many cases, to make sure that we’re successful in launching these Workforce Pell programs,” she said.

Tony Hahn, Vincennes University’s vice president for government and legal affairs, said July 1 was the earliest under federal statute the program could begin. In practice, he said the rollout will take some time because programs must be offered for one year in exactly the same format before they become eligible for the Workforce Pell Grant.

“These are often programs that we have offered through Next Level Jobs programs and other Department of Workforce Development funding, but didn’t have the exact same requirements on number of classroom hours or number of total weeks offered,” he said. “And so, we made some modifications and we’ll be able to expand this list.”

Both Dodge and Hahn said leaders at their respective institutions are reviewing their course catalogs for other potentially eligible programs. They said they expect to add approved programs in the coming months.

Dodge said Workforce Pell-eligible programs are often designed with the expectation that you will go to work with a partner employer upon completion of the program, but that doesn’t mean education ends there. She said Workforce Pell Grant programs are stackable and can be pursued as part of a longer-term higher education strategy. Students can qualify for both traditional Pell Grants and Workforce Pell Grants, though not at the same time.

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Hahn said prospective students won’t be able to apply for Workforce Pell Grants until this fall or next spring. If you’re interested, he said you should fill out a federal student financial aid form. He said Vincennes University leaders expect to add information about eligible programs to their application website once approved.



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Indianapolis, IN

Man dies after car crashes into pole on near NW side

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Man dies after car crashes into pole on near NW side


INDIANAPOLIS – A man died in a crash on the near northwest side of Indianapolis.

According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, officers were dispatched to 505 W. 16th St. around 4:15 a.m. Thursday.

A person died in a crash on West 16th Street on July 9, 2026 (WXIN/WTTV)

There, officers discovered a vehicle had crashed into a utility pole. The driver was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries.

The incident remains under investigation.

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