Look at any effort to help people experiencing homelessness in Indianapolis, and you’ll see one name pop up again and again.
The Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention often takes a leading role in advocating for the local homeless population and organizing a network of other organizations.
During the last state legislative session, CHIP was one of the organizations that spoke out against a bill that could have landed some homeless people in jail for up to 60 days. That language ultimately didn’t make it into law.
More recently, CHIP has taken the lead on a yearslong initiative to end chronic and unsheltered homelessness by 2028.
CHIP also serves as the lead agency for the Continuum of Care, which is a coalition of homelessness advocates, and organizes an annual census of the homeless population. That data is tied to federal funding and helps advocates make decisions.
Another name you’ll see again and again is Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, the organization’s CEO. She sat down with Mirror Indy to talk about her leadership style, why she became interested in policy and how she doesn’t let negativity take over.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How to ‘slow things down’
I want to start by asking about the grounding exercise you do before meetings. How did that start?
It started in 2020 during COVID. We started setting up weekly calls with homeless service providers and advocates, really trying to figure out how to respond to the pandemic. And it felt really intense and urgent. I think we were all coming to these calls just carrying the weight of the world.
It started with a moment of, let’s just slow things down for a minute. Let’s take a deep breath. Let’s realize we’re all in this together. And, selfishly, it was something I needed just to clear our heads and set the tone of the space and what we’re here to do.
We had also been doing some really cool work with the Kindred Collective. And they did a practice of finding a passage and reading it that really set the spirit of the conversation we were going to have.
How do you pick what to read?
At first, I would spend the night before these calls reading as many quotes and passages as I could. Sometimes I would go down these rabbit holes just reading inspirational things.
Over the years, I’ve gravitated toward a couple artists that I continue to come back to. One is Ullie Kaye, who I found on social media. The other is Pixie Lighthorse. She has a number of books on honoring voice.
Purpose and positivity
Does the grounding help you stay positive? Or is there another more appropriate word?
I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I do try to stay positive because I don’t know what the alternative is. But that’s hard, and that’s not always authentic.
The word that really drives me is purposeful. I try to stay purposeful. And that doesn’t always mean I’m feeling great or that I’m not surrounded by anxiety and uncertainty.
And where I can, I try to bring positivity. Because I think we all need that and to not get taken down by the negativity that’s out there. But that’s not always real, to stay positive. So it’s more about how do we stay focused and purposeful?
Do you ever feel guilty if you start to become too positive or upbeat?
For me, it’s about: Is it authentic? There are days I do feel very positive. And in those moments, I do try to embrace that. But that isn’t always the reality.
So I don’t try to show up positive if that’s not what I’m feeling. It’s more: How do we stay purposeful? And how do we stay focused on what I believe we’re all here and connected to do?
Sometimes, the guilt comes in. There’s great reminders from people in our community about finding joy. This can be really defeating and disheartening work sometimes. That can feel like such a huge weight.
How do you carve out moments to still feel joy so that your spirit isn’t crushed? I think we have to remind ourselves that it’s OK to find moments of joy even when there’s a lot of heaviness and suffering around us. Because what’s the alternative? That we’re all defeated and our spirits are crushed?
‘I need to be outside among trees’
Are there any other ways you try to combat that negativity?
For me, it’s finding moments in nature. When things feel the heaviest, it’s like, I need to be outside among trees, or on the water somewhere. It’s OK to have moments where it’s like, hey, I need a mental health break. I need to just leave and go for a walk.
What I’ve found working in this sector is that people are so driven because there’s an urgency. People see the suffering that’s happening. And sometimes that comes at the expense of taking care of oneself.
I’ve seen far too many times people leave the sector, not because they don’t care deeply, but because they burned out.
Do you have a favorite place to go outside?
Locally, there’s some great places: Ritchey Woods, Fort Harrison.
We go to northern Wisconsin every summer. There’s so many woods and outdoor spaces up there. We love to get to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There’s a whole ecosystem that really helps reset my brain, my spirit.
And then California: Muir Woods, Big Basin. Being among the redwoods, there’s an inspiration that comes from that that I just can’t even describe.
Catching the ‘policy bug’
I want to get into your career arc. What brought you to Indianapolis?
What brought me here, simply, was family. My sister and my niece and nephew moved to Indiana. Family is really important to me. Both of my parents have passed away, and my brother died in his early 30s.
My sister moved here, so I followed her. I thought, I need to be close to you. I want to be around as my niece and nephew grow up.
We actually moved here without jobs, without a house. Thankfully, an opportunity opened with the United Way of Central Indiana working in community impact. That was one of those moments where the stars aligned.
I didn’t know a whole lot about Indianapolis, and I’ve really come to love it.
It looks like you have some experience in a more direct service provider role as a caseworker, right?
I was living in Lansing, Michigan. My first job right out of college was as a case manager at a transitional housing program for homeless youth.
It really set a longer trajectory for understanding the complexity and myriad of issues that cause homelessness.
When I started, this was maybe a decade after the McKinney-Vento legislation was passed to help protect the rights of homeless youth.
That really opened my eyes to the impact that policy can have, either good or bad. So I went back to school to get deeper into policy and the administration of systems. And the policy bug hit me.
I can see how over time you got more into advocacy and organizing. Is that where it started?
That’s absolutely where it started. I really wanted to understand how we could impact greater change by changing policy and changing some of the systems that continue to perpetuate these inequities.
I got my master’s in public administration and then my Ph.D.
There was a little detour. I was in academia for a little while and started teaching and doing more research. Moved to Chicago and taught for seven years.
When you became a case manager, was that like, ‘I need a job’? Or was that already something you wanted to do?
That was what I wanted to do. I originally thought I would go further into social work.
I think I learned through the case management experience that the micro level is something I struggled with. You take home and carry the suffering and the challenges that young people are going through. It was a lot, and I think I started to burn out after a few years.
You mentioned you have a Ph.D. Should I have been calling you Dr. Haring-Cozzi this whole time?
Oh gosh, no. That has never sat well with my personality. I am always Chelsea.
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Mirror Indy reporter Tyler Fenwick covers housing and labor. Contact him at 317-766-1406 or tyler.fenwick@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @ty_fenwick and Bluesky @tyfenwick.bsky.social.
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