GREENFIELD — The early morning call came into the Hancock County 911 dispatch center. A woman walking along the Pennsy Trail came upon a homeless man who made camp at one of the rest areas. She told dispatch that the homeless man needed to be removed because he was keeping people from being able to use the bench along the trail and his living supplies were cluttering the area.
State homeless numbers from 2023 show that 91 out of 92 counties in Indiana, excluding Marion County, totaled 4,398 homeless people. That’s 710 more people than the previous year.
Greenfield Police Department Deputy Chief Chuck McMichael said that GPD officers do encounter homeless people in the area.
“We have homeless folks here in the city but, the majority of the time, they are not causing problems or anything like that,” McMichael said. “We do have a homeless population that does seem like over the past couple of years is growing.”
McMichael noted that the department is not overly concerned about the homeless community and said that, when officers encounter a homeless group or person, they usually try to provide resources.
“We have information we give out though places like Hancock Health and all the programming they offer,” McMichael said. “We want to get them in contact with people who can help them if they want help, and we do make sure they don’t have any medical needs.”
Center Township Trustee Thomas C. Lopez says that while the homeless community in Greenfield and Hancock County isn’t large, the population is growing with an estimated three dozen or so homeless people making the county their resting spot.
While some communities establish housing and render as much aid as possible to homeless people, local officials, for the most part, try to make sure the homeless community doesn’t break any laws, has a safe haven in inclement weather and has access to resources if needed.
Lopez said that he tries to bring awareness to the growing homeless need in the city of Greenfield and the county to make sure county officials do not turn a blind eye.
“We do have a population of homeless in our community, and last year we saw 33 people come into our warming shelter,” Lopez said. “There really is not a place for us to send the homeless or needy in our community where they can go for help.”
While the county does have the Hope House, Lopez noted, he’s only been able to place one person there due to the fact there is rarely availability for the homeless in the shelter.
“The Hope House has the misconception of being a homeless shelter, but it is not,” Lopez said.
Dealing with the homeless population is something Lopez and Jim Peters, head of the Hancock County Community Organization Active in Disaster, have discussed at length. The two say that providing a warming shelter during the winter really isn’t the answer to helping the homeless get back on their feet long-term.
Lopez has taken over helping Peters and will handle the warming center at the Boys and Girls Club this winter, but he wants to do more for that community and is hoping county officials will help.
“I’d love to have a permanent structure for the homeless in our area, that way we could provide a cooling shelter in the summer as well and we can provide shower services and other services,” Lopez said. “We’d also like to be able to provide a place for them to have some storage.”
Lopez has visited other communities offering the homeless permanent shelter — a real address where they can have official paperwork sent while trying to get back on their feet.
“We have resources at our facilities to help people, including getting them jobs, but we need a place where people can stay while they’re starting to get their lives back together,” Lopez said. “We partner with many places, including Hancock Health.”
The Good Shepherd community, 471 W. Green Meadows Dr., Greenfield, Lopez noted was supposed to be designed to help disadvantaged residents have a place to live at a lesser price, including the homeless. However, Lopez says there is not room for the homeless there.
“That is a fixed asset facility in this community, but they open it up to anybody, but it’s supposed to be for the elderly and the fixed income, and now it’s opened up to families or anyone,” Lopez said.
Lopez wants to see the county step up and find a dedicated place for the homeless in the area, a place where they can stay and have an official home address where paperwork could be sent until they can get back on their feet.
County commissioner Gary McDaniel said county officials are aware there is a homeless community in the county. McDaniel noted that when he was on the Greenfield City Council they always allocated funds for places like the Hope House and the soup kitchen and that officials try to get treatment for people suffering from various issues.
“As far as the mental health side of it, now that I’m with the county we’ve allocated funds and we’ve actually allocated opioid money,” McDaniel said. “Hopefully we can get somebody off the streets and get them into a productive life again.”
But, how does that happen?
When officials with the GPD helped save a homeless man who was thinking about jumping off the I-70 overpass, the man was taken to Indianapolis for a mental evaluation. When the Daily Reporter tried to follow up and find the man, to see if he was given assistance or was simply released after being checked out, no one knew where the man was or what happened to him.
McDaniel said the ultimate goal is to get homeless people help if they want it and have them become productive members of society.
“Nobody wants to see anybody be homeless,” McDaniel said. “I pay attention to this all the time and I want to do something to get them off the streets, but at the same time you have to be careful because after 10 years of grant money that goes to help the seniors, the homeless, I saw that budget go from $80,000 up to about $300,000 thousand in 10 years.”
McDaniel noted that, if the county should come up with a place for homeless people to stay, there is a fear that, if they build it, more homeless will come.
“There are two sides to every sword,” McDaniel said. “If you do something like that (provide a homeless shelter) yes, that’s what will happen. I’ve seen the population increase since the soup kitchen has been opened up. But, I don’t know if there is an actual right answer.”
McMichael said that, many times, they’re called to deal with a homeless person who is in a place they shouldn’t be, like in a city park after hours.
“If they’re in a city park during the day and not causing problems, setting up camp and building fires, things that are prohibited through city ordinances, there really isn’t much we can do,” McMichael said. “Most of the problems we run into, they are not on city property but are on private property, just off the Pennsy Trail, so then it becomes unless we get a request from the owner of that property to have them removed, there is very little we can do.”
McMichael noted their officers try to help the homeless when they can, including providing rides to the Wheeler Mission in Indianapolis, where there is housing, “but, again a lot of them have come from Indianapolis, and they don’t want to be there because they run into other homeless people with the violence and the crime.”
McMichael said the department treats homeless people just like everyone else, in saying they have rights despite not having a home.
“They have a right to be on public areas and public property the same as anyone else,” McMichael said.
