Mayor Kerry Thomson addressed housing challenges in Bloomington in the wake of arrests at Seminary Park and Crawford Apartments at a press conference Tuesday at City Hall.
She expressed the importance of focusing on the problem regionally and curbing the relocation of people experiencing homelessness from other jurisdictions being moved to Bloomington.
Thomson also gave updates on the status of the Hopewell neighborhood, a project that began in 2021 and has been symbolic of the city’s efforts to reduce housing costs for both middle class and low-income Bloomington residents. She alluded to efforts to remove obstacles and friction stunting developers in the permitting and building process.
Arrests in encampments and low-income areas
Mayor Thomson confirmed arrests were made at Seminary Park last week and addressed new arrests made this morning near Crawford Apartments, a housing complex geared toward housing individuals experiencing homelessness.
Thomson said those arrested were suspected of dealing drugs within low-income and unhoused communities.
Bloomington Police Department Chief Mike Diekhoff added the city will continue targeting drug dealers for arrests in the future.
“Drug dealers prey on these people hanging out in the camps, in the parks,” Diekhoff said. “We are focusing our efforts on taking the drug dealers into custody so that they aren’t able to deal drugs to people who have addiction issues.”
Thomson said despite President Trump’s executive order last week intended to spur arrests of individuals experiencing homelessness, the city does not believe arrests are the proper way to address the issue.
“If you arrest people, they will end up in our jail — perhaps overnight,” Thomson said. “Then they’ll be back out on the streets. They then will have a record that will cause them to be much more difficult to be housed. This will perpetuate the issue of homelessness not only in Bloomington, but throughout the United States.”
Homeless population from other jurisdictions
Thomson claimed a portion of the unhoused population within Bloomington consists of individuals from other jurisdictions. She did not cite any specific jurisdictions but noted for the city to solve its housing challenges, it must take on only as much of the problem as it can handle.
“The safety nets we have in place have become flooded,” Thomson said. “And that flood is happening in a multitude of ways.”
When housing-insecure individuals are relocated to new cities or regions, it cuts them off from their local support systems and communities that may otherwise be able to help, Thomson said.
She told the story of one unnamed individual who needed medical treatment at the Regional Academic Health Center in Bloomington for 20 days, but ultimately spent another 23 in medical respite when they were unable to find somewhere to go.
The IDS reported last year 456 individuals were experiencing homelessness in Bloomington and Monroe County, an uptick from 2023’s number of 427. Heading Home, an organization partnered with the city in ending homelessness, reportedly conducted a survey earlier this year, but those numbers are not yet available.
“You can’t teach a drowning person to swim,” Thomson said. “In Bloomington right now, I think we’re barely treading water with our homelessness.”
The city recently hired Brian Giffen as homelessness response coordinator, a role that will facilitate resource and personnel allocation to addressing issues faced by the homeless community.
Updates on development of the Hopewell neighborhood
Thomson and several city officials addressed the development of the Hopewell neighborhood, citing plans to rework the permitting process which has been significantly slowing developers and driving housing costs.
Thomson said builders and developers often have to wait 12 months before their permit is approved, leading to an entire year of paying employees with no work to be done. This artificially inflates the cost of developing in the city, and thus increases the price on Bloomington consumers.
Thomson said revisions to the permitting process could be complete as soon as the end of this year. With new policies in place, Thomson hopes several developers can take on the Hopewell project instead of leaving it in the hands of just one.
David Hittle, Bloomington director of planning and zoning, added the city’s Unified Development Ordinance makes it appealing to build a house or a massive student housing complex — both of which Bloomington has in droves.
“It makes it relatively hard to build everything in between, which is where we serve the middle class and the lower-middle class — the people that work for the school system or work for the government that can't afford to live here,” Hittle said.
One city official said the average wage in Bloomington is around $22.85 while the average price of buying a house in Bloomington is $379,000 — two numbers that are incompatible.
Thomson ended the conference on a hopeful note.
“If there is any community in the United States that could solve homelessness, it’s Bloomington, Indiana,” she said.
