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Park Board Strikes Down Special Use Policy On Tents In City Parks

The Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners voted against a policy update that would remove tents and other camping structures in city parks.

Special Use Policy #13040 prohibits overnight camping in public parks, but the policy change that was on the table Tuesday night also prohibited daytime shelters as well.

READ MORE:  Parks And Rec Policy Update Would Remove Tent Encampments From Parks

“We had received enough reports and phone calls and concerns about the situation at several of our parks in addition to the amount of trash," Parks and Recreation Dept. Administrator Paula McDevitt said. "And we turned to our policy manual.”

The rules of the special use policy require people to have a permit in order to stay in a park between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

"If there is a permanent encampment in a park space or structure such as a shelter, it restricts access to and/or discourages use of that space by the entire community," McDevitt said.

But for the last several months, public spaces like Seminary Park on the westside of town have become a dwelling for people experiencing homelessness. And as winter climates have set in, more tents and camping structures have been built to keep people warm. 

“The homeless folks are part of our community. That’s why they are our responsibility," community resident Cathi Crabtree said. "I think this is cruel and heartless and I can’t believe that we’re even considering evicting folks when we have no alternatives to offer them.”

Over 230 community members virtually attended Tuesday night's meeting, an overwhelming majority of which opposed the change in the special use policy.

"It's the fact that we have very exclusionary housing in Bloomington," resident Timothy Clark said. "Our city budgets are not adequate to the task of housing people."

Several times during both the public comment section of the meeting and discussion between park commissioners and city staff, it was said that the problem of homelessness does not fall on the Parks Dept. 

“It really goes outside of what the parks’ jurisdiction is, and so I would really want to say that we need to come together as a community and figure out how do we solve the underlying issues, so that people won’t need to be in the park," said Beverly Calendar-Anderson, the city's director of the Community and Family Resources Dept.

In a press release sent out about an hour before the meeting, the city said it has invested $400,000 this year into agencies that help combat against homelessness through the Jack Hopkins Social Service Grants program. 

"City staff has coordinated with area shelter directors and other partners to help prepare frequent park users for a possible change in the way the park may be used and connect them with options for daytime resources and overnight shelter, if needed," the press release said. 

The city said both the Beacon's Shalom Center and Wheeler Mission report availability. 

“Outreach workers from these organizations along with BPD DRO's and Neighborhood Resource officers and social workers will work together to connect people in the parks to services and community resources,” McDevitt said.

But the pivot to strike down the change to the special use policy still left many community members concerned.

"If all of these services were so effective, then why are there still tents in the parks? We cannot narrow our view and think that if we get rid of the tents, we have somehow solved the problem," Clark said.

The Board of Park Commissioners voted 1-3 against the policy change. Commissioners Israel Herrera, Kathleen Mills and Ellen Rodkey voted no, while Les Coyne voted yes. 

"This issue needs urgency because we are in the middle of a pandemic and we're also in the middle of winter," Herrera said. "This needs to be taken care of as soon as possible because people will be in their tents."

Ethan Burks is a multimedia reporter for WTIU/WFIU News. He focuses on the issues that concern the city of Bloomington in his work for City Limits and he anchors WTIU Newsbreaks. Before coming to Bloomington, Ethan worked at KOMU in Columbia, Mo.