Indy community leaders urge mayor to address homelessness crisis

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis church leaders and community advocates are banning together to write a formal letter to Mayor Joe Hogsett asking him to help them solve the city’s homelessness crisis.

John Miller, of Indianapolis, found shelter just three days ago — after 13 months of waiting.

“It’s been pretty long and hard,” Miller said. “I mean, everybody’s trying to help you, but they got their own long wait list of their own.”

The list is long, and the wait can be deadly. Just a few months ago, Miller’s friend froze to death while waiting for housing.

The city estimates there are about 1,700 people experiencing homelessness in Indianapolis, and many more are on the Indianapolis Housing Agency’s section 8 waitlist.

“It currently has over 8,000 people waiting for housing, which means if you can qualify for public housing assistance, you would, and will be homeless without someone to help you,” community advocate Wildstyle Paschall said.

Paschall gathered earlier this month with at least 50 other community members looking to solve the issue, including Purpose of Life Ministries Senior Pastor Rev. David Greene, Sr.

The group says the problem can be fixed with funds through city government, along with corporate and philanthropic partnerships — all things they believe can only be brought together by Hogsett. The group chose to write a formal letter to the mayor.

“It was unanimously determined that only Mayor Hogsett has the ability to raise the necessary
resources to solve homelessness in Indy and the community must raise their voices and hold
him accountable,” the letter says.

Paschall says they are asking for a detailed plan with benchmarks to lower homelessness in the area. The group says they are aware of the IHA’s recent hiring of a new director, but feel she needs the support of the mayor to make change.

“We’re helping with that, we’ve got numbers that we would love to talk to the mayor and his people about,” Paschall said. “There are people in this city and organizations that want to help, and really it’s going to take the mayor to go bring everybody together to get the resources so that we can fix public housing.”

To help tackle the issue, Hogsett formed the 17-member Mayor’s Leadership Council on Homelessness last fall. The council also includes a “homelessness czar.” The members represent varying areas in the city, including philanthropic and business sectors.

“On October 1, 2024, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC) convened the first meeting of the Mayor’s Leadership Council on Homelessness (MLCH) at my request,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in response to the letter. “This group represents passionate leadership from Indianapolis’ civic, philanthropic, corporate, and healthcare sectors. I, along with each member of the Leadership Council, is unified by the same mission: to end chronic, street homelessness in Indianapolis and to reduce racial disparities for those experiencing homelessness. The MLCH is tasked with finding solutions to achieve that goal, which includes activating human and financial resources, removing barriers to implementation, as well as leveraging each member’s sphere of influence to enact meaningful change. We have laid the groundwork for change with the MLCH and are pivoting to stakeholder engagement and action that results in demonstrable impact in the lives of our unhoused neighbors. Whether it is through the new master leasing program or the ongoing work to add even more permanent supportive housing units, the City remains focused on utilizing its resources and community partnerships to support our unhoused neighbors.”

Greene is on the council, but wants more to be done.

“We have to stand up,” Greene said. “That’s what the Bible commands of us, what God expects of us, and so to see people suffer in a country as rich as ours and the state. We’re able to do other things, clearly. Why aren’t we able to do more to solve the homeless problem here in Indianapolis?”

Miller tells me he believes any support from local leaders will lead to him staying off the streets, and making sure his friends do too.

For a full copy of the letter, click below.