What Trump's attack on 'Housing First' means for Indy's effort to end chronic homelessness

Indianapolis Star

04-08-2025

Leaders of a new city-backed program to essentially end street homelessness say it was designed so that local taxpayer and philanthropic dollars will fund the $8.1 million Year 1 cost.
But it's unclear how leaders will raise the money to pay for the three-year effort's $50 million estimated price tag, as Republicans at the state and federal level become increasingly hostile toward the "Housing First" approach that's foundational to the new effort, called Streets to Home Indy.
In the nation's top office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order July 24 that aims to steer money away from "Housing First" efforts and empower city and state governments to crack down on unsheltered homelessness. Critics are especially worried by Trump's calls for more "involuntary commitment," a process by which health workers can forcibly detain and medicate people against their will.
Streets to Home Indy aims to get ahead of any policy shifts. By next June, the program aims to house more than 300 people known to live unsheltered across Indianapolis in homeless camps, abandoned buildings or vehicles.
Over three years, the plan is to move the quarter of Indy's homeless population that is unsheltered or experiencing chronic homelessness — meaning they have been homeless for more than a year and have at least one health issue — into permanent housing. (About 60% of people facing chronic homelessness are also unsheltered, according to a 2024 count.)
Overall, the goal is to make the experience of homelessness in Indianapolis, where the homeless population exceeded 1,800 people in 2025, "rare, brief and non-recurring" by the end of 2028, leaders say. Along with Streets to Home Indy, another important part of that effort is the publicly funded low-barrier shelter that will add 150 temporary beds by 2027.
"It's not that we are going to completely end homelessness. People will experience housing crises," Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, CEO of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, said during a recent town hall on Streets to Home Indy. "But what we have to do is end street homelessness, because people shouldn't experience a housing crisis that leads them to the streets. There should be safe, inclusive places for people to land and get them to housing."
With the nation's homeless population reaching a record-high of more than 770,000 people last year, many conservative politicians are demanding tougher approaches, such as banning street encampments and forcing homeless people into treatment centers and hospitals.
The tangible effects of Trump's July 24 order remain unclear. But Republicans' embrace of its intent could foreshadow challenges in paying for Indy's new three-year effort, which Haring-Cozzi estimated will cost about $50 million. That money will primarily pay for rental assistance, moving costs and social workers who direct clients toward housing, medical treatment and government benefits.
State Republicans have already criticized Housing First programs and shown their willingness to ban street camping on public property. Earlier this year, the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill that would have forced local police to clear any homeless camps and potentially arrest people who wouldn't comply. State senators let the proposal die without a vote.
State Rep. Andrew Ireland, an Indianapolis Republican who supported the bill, said at the time that the goal was not to put homeless people in prison, but to leverage that threat to force them into mental health and substance abuse treatment.
In a statement supporting Trump's order, Ireland rejected the idea that mandating treatment is cruel while refusing to shut down homeless camps is compassionate.
"President Trump is right: Letting people set up permanent camps in our parks and on our sidewalks is not compassion, it's chaos," Ireland said in a written statement Aug. 1. "It's unsafe for families, bad for neighborhoods, and often traps people in cycles of addiction and crime."
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Advocates for homeless people agree that allowing them to live and die on the streets is unacceptable; that's why the Streets to Home Indy program exists.
But they insist the solution is to build and maintain more housing with voluntary social services — not to push people from one camp to the next or force them into a behavioral health system that's already short on beds and workers. Critics also say that while homeless people do have higher rates of addiction and mental health issues, Trump is exaggerating their role while understating economic issues like higher rents and stagnant wages.
Even with lackluster federal investment, the Housing First philosophy — which places homeless people into housing quickly with few conditions and then offers services — is proven to help break the cycle of poverty.
Of more than 380 people housed so far through the Housing to Recovery Fund, a local Housing First initiative established in 2019, more than 95% have remained stably housed for at least a year, according to the Central Indiana Community Foundation.
Housing First policies are also credited with a drastic reduction in veteran homelessness nationwide and in Indianapolis since 2010. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness in Indianapolis fell to 125 people this year, whereas nearly 400 veterans were homeless 10 years ago.
"Supportive services are way more effective when people are in housing," Haring-Cozzi said, "and not in survival mode."
Because of recent turmoil at the Indianapolis Housing Agency and uncertainty in the federal government, Indy's service providers pushed for Streets to Home Indy to get started with local dollars. The Year 1 money comes in three equal parts from the Indianapolis City-County Council, a public-private partnership called the Housing to Recovery Fund and donations from philanthropic and religious groups.
The $50 million cost for three years could drop significantly if the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides more housing vouchers by way of the IHA, Haring-Cozzi said. Other possible funding sources she cited are already strained Medicaid dollars that state legislators could direct toward homelessness programs, money from the state's opioid settlement and increased philanthropic donations.
"We fully know that that is possible," Haring-Cozzi said of the $50 million price tag. "We're working every angle we can to have sustainability for the full initiative."
There's reason for doubt, though. The city's five-year plan to end chronic homelessness by 2023 fell short, despite a surge in federal dollars to help local governments address the issue.
From the start of the pandemic through summer 2021, Indianapolis spent about $35 million in federal money on homelessness and housing. That included $15 million to pay for hotel rooms for homeless people to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in shelters.
Haring-Cozzi blames that prior effort's failure on a shift to survival mode necessitated by the pandemic.
But some like Michael-Paul Hart, the Republican minority leader on the Indianapolis City-County Council, remain unconvinced. Resistance from him and other councilors could be an obstacle, as the city prepares to budget more frugally in anticipation of lower-than-expected property tax revenues due to a new state law.
"The first time we had a number close to ($50 million) was COVID ... and we spent that in a year and a half and people were still unhoused," Hart said after attending the town hall. "So what keeps people housed after the 12-month timeline they're proposing here?"
"My concern," he added, "is repeating the past."