BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University students are fighting for the rights of the homeless near their campus.
Some students led a demonstration Wednesday night at "People's Park" to protest the removal of homeless encampments.
"I love this park," Susan Grubb said. "I love everybody here. Everybody's my friend."
Grubb has built relationships over the past 15 years, since she started going to People's Park in Bloomington.
"This park right here saves everybody's life," she said. "When they don't have a home or a place to go, this is where everybody goes."
But lately the folks who gather here to laugh, sleep, sing and socialize say there's been a push to keep the homeless out of People's Park.
Some say it's gentrification.
"As the poorest get poorer and poorer and more desperate, they have less and less of a place to be," said Marc Haggerty, a Bloomington resident.
Others claim it's an effort to separate IU's student population from the homeless.
"Sometimes it's scary, but if you just keep to yourself, there's no harm," IU student Natasha Valk said.
"I think it's a matter of education, learning to co-habitate the same public space and learn to live in the same town," student Chris Meulbroek said.
That's all Grubb said she wants -- a chance to be part of a community that loves and supports her an her two children.
"These cops come here and mess with us," she told a crowd Tuesday. "We're the locals. Leave us alone."
