Streets to Home Indy to rehouse individuals impacted by Leonard St. encampment closure

INDIANAPOLIS — After a pilot program housed 10 individuals, the Streets to Home Indy program will now work to rehouse individuals in the Leonard Street encampment in Fountain Square.

According to a news release from the City of Indianapolis, officials from the city’s Office of Public Health and Safety, IMPD’s homeless unit, the Coalition for Homeless Intervention and Prevention (CHIP), along with service providers and outreach workers, worked to identify unhoused individuals at the site when the camp closure was issued in late July.

According to previous reports, city officials issued a 17-day notice of their plan to shut down the encampment, located southwest of Virginia Avenue and Leonard Street. Officials said at the time that the area is public property and would be “permanently closed to camping and storage of personal property” starting Aug. 11.

Those identified individuals are now expected to be connected to housing through the city’s Streets to Home Indy program, the release said.

“The Leonard Street encampment has been a top priority for our agency and partners,” Andrew Merkley, the director of the city’s office of public health and safety, said in the release. “We appreciate everyone’s patience – we needed to ensure the best outcomes for our unhoused and housed neighbors, acting with compassion and diligence to find the right solution. Addressing homelessness is a community-wide effort, and Streets to Home Indy perfectly encapsulates the type of collaboration needed. I’m grateful that Streets to Home Indy is able to find housing for these individuals and permanently close this camp.”

The Streets to Home Indy program, started in June, aims to end “chronic and unsheltered homelessness” in Indianapolis by 2028. According to previous reports, the initiative aims to house and provide services to around 350 unsheltered individuals as well as prevent future instances of homelessness through diversion efforts and rapid housing placements.

“By working closely with the City and partners to accelerate our timeline, we are prepared to bring real solutions to those impacted by the Leonard Street closure,” Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, the CEO of CHIP, said in the release. “This is exactly what Streets to Home Indy is designed to do—address encampments through housing solutions, not displacement. With growing capacity, we are ready to meet the moment and connect those at Leonard Street to stable housing.”

The release said that street outreach and navigation teams will work with the unhoused individuals, along with those who have moved from the site on a housing process, which takes around four to six weeks to complete.

No new campers will be allowed at the site. The release said that the Streets to Home Indy program has a “by name list” of all unhoused individuals associated with the Leonard Street encampment. That list includes the ones who have moved to other locations.

“Unhoused individuals not known to the Streets to Home Indy team will not be included in housing efforts,” the release said.

Normally, the camps will not be named before the process begins, to protect the privacy of residents and to prevent additional individuals from sleeping in the locations. The progress of future projects will be shared after a site is closed and residents are housed.

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