In 2011, Frank Crawford, an unhoused Bloomington resident, died. He was disabled, struggled to walk and was too sick to be living outside, Forrest Gilmore, the executive director of antipoverty nonprofit Beacon, said. He rotated between nursing care and the streets, beginning the cycle each time he would become too sick for the streets and too healthy for the nursing home. He was released from nursing care for the last time two weeks prior to his death.
“He died next to a dumpster on the old Ponderosa site,” Gilmore said.
It was Frank who provided the namesake for Beacon’s Crawford Apartments, which are a collection of permanent supportive housing units for chronically homeless people. Frank’s story continues to drive Beacon to this day.
“How can we do something better for people like Frank?” Gilmore asked.
Gilmore’s anecdote was directed at a packed room of concerned neighbors Monday night at the Southern Knoll Community Center. The subject of the meeting was Beacon’s plan to move the Shalom Center, a day shelter, from 620 S. Walnut Street to 1201 W. Third Street — a decision that came unexpectedly to some residents who feared the move would create a sense of unsafety in the Prospect Hill and Near West Side neighborhoods.
Beacon, which is the largest provider of nonprofit housing in Bloomington, operates a night shelter called Friend’s Place in addition to the Shalom Center and Crawford Apartments. Gilmore told the crowd the decision to move would allow the organization to provide expanded services.
Plans for the new facility
Gilmore said the new facility will provide 20 new supportive housing units for chronically homeless people as well as five work-to-live apartments. People living in those five apartments would complete work such as maintenance, security and custodial services on the site in exchange for housing.
The facility would also have a training kitchen, where unhoused individuals can learn culinary skills, and an employment center, which would include computers and job searching opportunities. The site will also include a clinic run by Bloomington organization HealthNet and potential partnerships with Centerstone, Indiana Legal Services, Roadways to Recovery and the local police and fire department. The latter partnership may involve an office for downtown resource officers, Gilmore said.
Beacon is working with a local architecture firm, Springpoint Architects, on the project. Dawn Gray, a principal architect at the firm, said the first floor of the building would include the day and night shelters while the second floor would have the housing units. The site in general would have “attractive fencing” instead of a chain link fence and would have ample green space.
Gilmore said the project is expected to cost $14 to $16 million. The organization has already secured $7 million in funding distributed by the state and expects some funding from Monroe County and around $2 to $2.5 million from the New Markets Tax Credit Program. The group plans to raise the remaining $5 million through a capital campaign, which is an intense and targeted fundraising effort used by nonprofits.
Gilmore said plans for the Shalom Center are currently up in the air, but that they will likely sell it and use the funds for the new site. When asked why Beacon did not just expand the Shalom Center at its current site, Gilmore said the center’s location on a floodplain made their plans for expansion not possible.
Public expresses concerns, optimism
Community perspectives on the proposed move and expansion were mixed.
A woman in a “YIMBY” shirt — a political phrase standing for “Yes, in my backyard,” indicating that an individual supports development in their area to achieve affordable housing — applauded the organization’s housing first approach, which she said was a truly effective way to reduce homelessness.
Gilmore agreed and said Beacon’s Crawford Apartments have a 90% success rate when it comes to keeping its residents housed.
Another resident expressed gratitude for the thoughtfulness of the meeting but also admitted she was fearful the change would bring negative impacts to the area, even if that fear is not based on data or science. Although not much research exists on the topic, a San Francisco news outlet analyzed areas near shelters for unhoused people and found crime either decreased or stayed the same after the shelters opened. However, another study found property crime in the immediate vicinity of winter shelters in Vancouver, Canada increased.
“Being close to poverty and being close to struggle has impacts, and that brings up fear,” she said.
Peter Dorfman, who runs the blog The Dissident Democrat and is a fierce opponent of the direction of Bloomington’s zoning policy, asked why many residents are just now hearing about the move.
Gilmore explained the process of buying a property makes it difficult to be public about it without drawing more competition to the purchase. He added that a Herald-Times article about the move came out in February 2022.
Others expressed concerns that unhoused individuals might spend time in nearby parks.
“I want my kids to feel comfortable where they live, and sometimes I don’t feel comfortable,” one woman said.
Another woman emphasized the importance of seeing the reality of homelessness so people continue to care and work for a solution.
“We need to remember that this facility will be here,” she said. “We don’t want it out of sight. We don’t want to not know that’s happening.”
The statement caused the crowd to erupt in applause. Dorfman spoke again to echo the comments.
“My concern is that by moving all of these services a mile west, they disappear from people’s day-to-day consciousness, and I’m concerned that it will reduce the level of support,” he said.
Gilmore said he had thought about that concern as well but doesn’t think this move will cause homelessness to completely disappear from downtown.
Near the end of the meeting, a woman asked what percentage of people who are chronically homeless use Beacon’s services and refuse to get a job. Gilmore responded by answering the question — 10-15% of the homeless population classify as chronically homeless — but pushed back on her assumption that these individuals were homeless because they wanted to avoid work.
Instead, most chronically homeless individuals have disabilities, physical conditions, severe mental illness and suffer from substance abuse disorders, he said. Having a combination of these issues can be deadly, with the average age of death for people who are chronically homeless sitting at 47, he said.
Though Beacon has signed a contract for the purchase of the property for the new facility, the sale is dependent on inspections and city zoning approval, according to the HT. The Bloomington Board of Zoning Appeals will hear Beacon’s conditional use request for the property at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in City Hall.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the estimated cost of the project.
