The Bloomington City Council approved an emergency order on Monday that will close the homeless tent encampment located near downtown and relocate the residents to an indoor shelter.
The encampment is in an overflow parking lot at Eastview Christian Church. The emergency declaration enables the Salvation Army to expand indoor shelter capacity over the winter months. The encampment started in October of 2023 and grew over time.
Monday night’s measure waives fire and maintenance code requirements for the shelter on the western edge of downtown. The city says other safety protocols will be put in place to ensure residents’ safety.
“We believe that the risk is too high to go yet another winter without providing some sort of shelter for those that are unhoused in our community,” city manager Jeff Jurgens said during the meeting, where the council voted unanimously for the plan.
Ward 7 council member Mollie Ward emphasized that “obviously there’s more to be done, and this is really just the beginning of work that has been underway for a very long time.”
Ward also asked for some clarifications on the safety measures being put in place, and pointed out that relaxed fire and maintenance code requirements still represent less of a hazard than people trying to “start fires out in the cold.”
Home Sweet Home Ministries, located near the encampment, has said that many of its occupants are not prepared for congregant housing.
“This is probably not going to be the solution for some that cannot go into a congregant setting,” Jurgens told WGLT after the meeting. “So this… is going to be a short-term solution for a number of people, but there are going to be some people that decide they’re just going to continue to live in a tent this winter.”
Jurgens added that longer-term solutions for those individuals need to be explored, and that those responses to the encampment will be announced soon.
Bloomington mayoral candidate and former state representative Dan Brady spoke about the emergency order during public comment before the meeting. He proposed the former Owens Nursery property recently purchased by the city be used as temporary housing during the coming winter season. No staff or council members addressed that possibility during the meeting.
Housing initiatives
Also Monday, the council heard an update on the city’s housing initiatives that are focused on providing more affordable housing and expanding access to home ownership in Bloomington.
City officials presented data that there has been a “continuing decline” in available single-family units in McLean County since 2008, with a particular drop since 2019 and again in the last 12 months.
Deputy city manager Billy Tyus said the city is “racing to figure out how to get new units built, but obviously there’s some issues with having that happen not just here, but across the country. So while we pursue new construction, rehabbing older units is critical for a lot of reasons.”
On addressing the housing crisis in general, Tyus said, “It’s the right thing to do.”
City officials and council members all expressed concern for those who are above the income threshold for government assistance, but find home ownership out of reach for them in this economy.
Even when they can afford a down payment, Tyus said many individuals “still can’t afford some of the work that needs to be done” on the home.
City officials floated several potential programs for the city to be involved in, including purchasing and rehabilitating older or neglected homes, providing maintenance assistance, and providing a pre-approved housing catalog to streamline the approval process for housing development.
Tyus said a similar catalog has been used in South Bend, Indiana, that has made reviews of applications “significantly faster than in most communities.”
Other potential options include a five-year Equalized Assessed Value (EAV) tax freeze, community impact days, and partnerships with nonprofits and Heartland Community College to help fund and get some of the necessary work done.
Tyus said that some of these proposals could come before the council for approval as early as this month.
