Indy homeless camp raises concerns

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) - The homeless find fellowship under a bridge in downtown Indianapolis. But a large homeless camp just a mile from the city's landmark Monument Circle is drawing complaints from nearby business owners, who say its residents intimidate employees and mess up the area.

More than three dozen people call the camp under a Davidson Street railroad bridge home each night, and city leaders say finding an answer won't be easy, or quick. Ideas being floated have included tent cities, a practice from the Great Depression that has made a comeback in Washington and Oregon.

Sgt. Bob Hipple, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's liaison to the homeless, said the real solution is to get camp residents more than food and blankets.

"It's getting them to the resources they need," he said.

Outreach workers say some well-intentioned people who bring food to the camp are thwarting efforts to get its occupants off the streets by making street life more palatable.

But the homeless at the camp say they dislike shelter rules, including those that ban alcohol use.

"Worse than prison" is how Scott Atkins describes shelters.

By contrast, Atkins, 52, says the bridge is "a little place where you know everyone, and people look out for each other."

Atkins is a former purchasing agent who serves as the unofficial mayor of the camp, where sheets of plastic are strung from pillars to create "rooms" for the bridge occupants and blankets and sleeping bags cover the sidewalks to serve as floors.

Many of those present are considered chronically homeless and may have alcohol or
drug issues or mental illness.

Outreach worker Donnie Robinette says the number of homeless in the city has risen since last year. Outreach workers conducted their annual homeless census in January but don't have results yet. Last year's total was 1,454.

"There's just no doubt about it in my mind," he said. "We're seeing more people."

The Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless reported 730,000 homeless people in 2008, about the same as 2007.

Executive director Neil Donovan said the number will be up this year.

"With the foreclosure crisis, it's clearly rising," he said.

Richard Campi, president of Friends of Historic Fountain Square, said many residents empathize with the homeless but are upset by squalor and sometimes rude, drunken behavior of the camp dwellers.

The homeless live in tents on the sidewalk and loiter in the street, strewing garbage over a large swath of the area.

"A lot of people are scared of what's over there," he said.

Rhonda Stafford is among them.

"I lock the doors," said Stafford, who works as a bookkeeper at a nearby business. "I never used to lock the doors."

Stafford and others want the homeless colony gone. They've called the police, the mayor and Homeland Security.

Campi is intrigued by the resurgence of tent cities in western states. Some have populations approaching 100 people and are city-sanctioned.

"It sounds rather extreme: tent city," said Campi, who lives near Davidson Street, "but maybe that's something to consider here in Indianapolis.

That, or FEMA trailers. At least it might be a little better organized than what we've got. It could at least have some Port-o-lets."