Indianapolis plans to open a homeless shelter with wraparound services and a short-term leasing program in 2026, according to the Department of Metropolitan Development. 

The shelter will operate as part of a housing hub that will make resources such as health care available.

The city recently purchased land east of downtown to build the complex, which will sit near the 1000 block of East Georgia Street just east of Interstate 70 in Fountain Square.

But you won’t find any blueprints yet.

The city first will host private meetings with agencies and organizations that are involved with the homeless community in Indianapolis — including the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office and service providers such as Horizon House — to figure out how to best use the space that will span three separate addresses.

The design phase could be complete by the end of next year, Department of Metropolitan Development Director Rusty Carr said, with construction hopefully beginning in early 2025.

The timing is dependent on funding.

The council on Monday approved implementing an Economic Enhancement District that will require property owners within the Mile Square downtown to pay an annual fee that will go toward initiatives such as street cleaning and homelessness outreach. The city expects to put $1.5 million from the EED annually toward operating the housing hub.

The Indianapolis City-County Council allocated $12 million in the 2022 budget for the project.

The city also will apply for a $20 million state grant next year that Indiana lawmakers earmarked for communities to build low-barrier homeless shelters, which are shelters without strict sobriety requirements or mandated participation in religious programs.

A similar low-barrier shelter model in San Antonio called Haven for Hope shows how Indianapolis’ housing hub could work.

Indy Chamber led a delegation of business and government leaders to the site in 2019.

Terri Behling, communications director at Haven for Hope, called the facility a one-stop shop, where people have a place to sleep, along with access to legal services and even a vision clinic.

The model is working, Behling said. More than 90% of people find housing within a year of leaving the San Antonio shelter.

City department called for low-barrier shelter 2 years ago

Combining a low-barrier shelter with access to other resources — including people to help track down government documents such as a birth certificate — is meant to keep people in line to eventually live in permanent housing.

“You can’t really think about your job prospects or the documents you need to get if you’re looking to try to actually get food and shelter every single night,” Carr said. “It just doesn’t work like that at a human level.”

The Office of Public Health and Safety recommended building a low-barrier shelter in a 2021 report.

At the time, the most recent census of the homeless population in Indianapolis showed the highest number in 10 years at 1,928 people, although the report notes methodology changes because of the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to the increase.

Since then, homelessness has improved slightly — down to 1,619 as of the 2023 count — but has still remained mostly steady despite Mayor Joe Hogsett’s pledge to effectively end homelessness by the end of this year.

Rules about religion, alcohol and drugs can turn people away

The city’s 2021 report said Indianapolis needed a low-barrier shelter in part because other shelters can have strict requirements, including policies against drug and alcohol use and not allowing pets.

William Bumphus, director of Wheeler Mission’s men’s shelter, said he knows those rules can make people turn away from getting help.

He said the shelter has dropped its religious requirements such as attending chapel, but those components aren’t completely gone.

“It’s not like we just stopped talking about Jesus,” Bumphus said.

Temporary units available 

Also included in the housing hub model is a “master leasing” program, where units will be available to people so they have a place to live while waiting to get into permanent housing.

Rodney Stockment, the city’s senior strategy director for homelessness, said the master leasing program will start with an initial 12 units around February or March 2024 at the St. George Apartments building on the corner of West 21st Street and Senate Boulevard.

Lauren Rodriguez, deputy mayor of public health and safety, said the goal is to have 200 master lease units available within the next five years.