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The Indiana Daily Student

Institute helps Hoosiers fight homelessness

In spite of leading a difficult life, Franklin “Road Dog” Crawford maintained a “sense of humor and lively spirit,” according to the Corporation for Supportive Housing’s website.

A resident of Bloomington, he faced chronic homelessness and required frequent stints in the hospital. After he died, his body was found in the dumpster.

When Crawford Apartments were opened in September 2013, they were named in Frank’s honor.

Since that day, the complex has proven to be an effective way of combatting homelessness. If Frank had lived longer, the website states, it’s likely he would have been one of the building’s residents.

“Our first Crawford Homes program showed enormous success,” said 
Reverend Forest Gilmore, one of the leaders of the project dedicated to housing the most vulnerable of the city’s homeless. “We showed over a 92 percent housing stability rate, so we’re able to maintain housing for people who had previously spent years, if not decades, in homelessness.”

Crawford Apartments employs a “Housing First” strategy of combatting homelessness. This technique involves providing stable homes and access to services without having prerequisites like sobriety or stable employment.

The building houses individuals with a variety of ailments. Many are physically disabled, some suffer a mental illness and others struggle with addiction.

With this stable housing situation, however, the residents housed in the 25-unit apartment complex experienced a 65-percent drop in emergency room visits and an 88-percent drop in 
incarceration, Gilmore said.

“It’s clearly a program that works,” said Gilmore, who is also the executive director of the Shalom Community Center. “The only fault in the first one is that it can’t help all of the people in need in our community who could benefit from its services.”

CSH provided the perfect forum for solving this problem. At the sixth annual Permanent Supportive Housing Institute, representatives from Bloomington attended meetings, workshops and presentations with people from all around the state to discuss ways to end homelessness in Indiana.

“We bring together service providers, housing developers and property management companies and then work with them to create supportive housing solutions,” Lori Phillips-Steele, the CSH director, said.

By the time of the institute’s finale on Aug. 13, the team from Bloomington was prepared to present a plan for opening a new unit of Crawford Apartments.

“We’re hoping that it will be able to provide up to 40 apartments for people experiencing chronic homelessness,” Gilmore said.

In order to turn this hope into a reality, Gilmore explained that the Crawford team is planning fundraisers, researching grant opportunities and exploring partnerships.

Gilmore said the group enjoyed working on the plan while surrounded by like-minded individuals. .

“I think that sometimes, when dealing with supportive and homeless services, a lot of people think that only their town is doing anything,” he said. “It’s nice to be connected with other communities from other areas and learn from each other, realize that we’re all working towards the same goal.”

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