INDIANAPOLIS — Wednesday night, a frost advisory is ramping up a bigger conversation surrounding people experiencing homelessness. The city's longest-standing shelter needs all the help they can get to house people this winter.
"Winter brings a big need in our community when it comes to people who are experiencing homelessness," Brian Crispin, Director of Community Relations at Wheeler Mission, said.
For decades, Wheeler Mission has been the answer to a lot of prayers when it comes to housing people who are experiencing homelessness.
"There are days in the winter where we'll have over 300 people that are beyond our bed capacity that need somewhere to go," Crispin said.
In the past year, Crispin said homelessness in Indianapolis has grown 5%. A demand that is proving to be a bit difficult to meet this winter.
"For the last several months, we've been raising the red flag to say, look, we cannot continue to grow at this pace," Crispin said.
Since the spring, Crispin said the mission has tried to collaborate with community partners to find a solution to help them make ends meet this winter.
“Our resources are spread thin in the wintertime," Crispin said. “When it comes to women and children, we will not have a capacity limit for those individuals. We will continue to find spaces wherever we can. On the men's side, we are going to go above and beyond our bed capacity, to the tune of 100 people and so, but we're not going to be able to go beyond that number.”
Wheeler Mission is privately operated.
"About 80% of our funding, on average, comes from individuals. Those are people writing checks," Crispin said.
He says the rest comes from grants and special events like their Annual Drumstick Dash.
"We do not receive government funding in those respects. So, it's individuals, its private organizations, it's corporations here in this community that keep our lights on and our doors open," Crispin said.
Crispin said they have enough resources to possibly assist up to 100 people once they reach capacity, but then, they'll have to do something they don't want to do and turn folks away.
"I remember the day I walked into Wheeler Mission in 2006, and someone handed me a meal and said, we can help you. I was in the worst moment of my life. If the numbers were where they were back then like they are now, I don't know if I would have come in that front door," Crispin said.
"The city and Wheeler Mission met back in May regarding Wheeler Mission’s goal of reducing its capacity," Andrew Merkley, with the Office of Public Health and Safety, said.
Since then, Merkley says they have been working behind the scenes to come up with a plan.
"The Office of Public Health and Safety has committed $160,000 to efforts to provide shelter for families experiencing homelessness, and we're working with our homeless service provider partners to identify a prioritization method to identify who will be eligible for hotels," Merkley said.
A plan Crispin hopes will help them fill the gap this winter.
"We have 1,700 individuals experiencing homelessness in this community on any given night. And so, all of those people are going to be looking for a place to go," he said.
Your help can go a long way, whether it's through money or volunteering your time this winter. Crispin said staffing is a major struggle in the winter.
