Monroe County's COVID-19 positivity rate is the lowest in the state, vaccination roll-out is ongoing, why the city continues to remove people experiencing homelessness from a city park, and a site plan is being presented for the IU Health Bloomington Hospital redevelopment project.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more during a Facebook Live Zoom event Tuesday. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Indiana COVID numbers are slowly decreasing. Monroe County has the lowest positivity rate in the state. Are we starting to turn the corner a little bit here?
Hamilton: I'm really proud of our community, it's been a long road, it's still in it, we're in a marathon still. From early on, frankly, and we as most people know, we've had tighter regulations and earlier restrictions than the state as a whole. And I do think that has helped us having more people wearing masks, having more people really be socially physically distant from each other and such.
As a county, we were averaging two deaths a day for a period of time. In December, we're now one death a day average. And we had a couple days with a zero day seven day moving average. So deaths, our case numbers, and our hospitalizations are all trending in the right direction, which is good, of course. And it wasn't clear, that would happen after the holiday.
Hren: From the meetings you've attended, forums, the questions that we are getting here is. does it matter which vaccine you get, there's the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Hamilton: Right, those two are in emergency use authorization now and I think a third one may be coming. Let me say I'm not a doctor, not a health professional. But I do believe both of those approved vaccines are kind of used interchangeably. They're both, according to the data that has been shared, extremely effective, very, very effective vaccines. If we're going to get to the real protection that we want this year, we really want to have that ramping up. I'm really happy Indiana University I believe is soon going to be doing shots themselves. There'll be a vaccination delivery point, which is really helpful but all of it depends on getting the vaccines.
READ MORE: IU Health Tops 10K Vaccines In Bloomington, Ready To 'Flex Up' For More
Hren: That's something last week Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett was worried about, is there going to be enough vaccine. Are you hearing or seeing anything about production not being able to keep up?
Hamilton: It's really good that we've had vaccines developed so quickly that we have to remember, scientists here and around the world did an amazing job of getting really effective vaccines. I am pleased that the Biden administration, which of course takes over January 20 at noon, has very aggressive plans to increase the speed of vaccinations even invoking I guess, the defense production act and those kinds of things to make sure we're producing the vaccines as quickly as possible. That's job one. I expect that the vaccine production will continue to ramp up.
Hren: We had a number of questions come in about those who are homebound. Will someone be able to administer the vaccine to them?
Hamilton: Yes, the health department takes the lead on that - we've offered any way we can help. For example, our fire department is likely to become a distribution point. And they could do some of this delivery to the various places including homebound. There are definitely plans in place for that on site delivery. And again, that's mostly driven by the health department. But I know all of us are standing ready to help do that as we can.
Hren: Let's move on to this ongoing issue of those experiencing homelessness having their encampments removed. This past week on Twitter, the city released a statement about a visit to your home by housing advocates. Can you explain that a little bit more - who came to your home? What did they say?
Hamilton: Let me just first say I've been personally involved in trying to help improve housing, reduce housing insecurity, improve having housing for everyone, much of my professional life, it's something I care deeply about. I was around the table when Shalom began here in the community. 20 plus years ago, I've was the president of the board of Shalom, which is now called Beacon and have been a direct volunteer in various ways.
READ MORE: New Homeless Shelter Opens Alongside The B-Line Trail Near Switchyard Park
I've had people at my house, which is not something I recommend in these days of concern, but who've come to express a view about how we're treating our parks, our city parks. I have talked with people experiencing homelessness and heard about challenges. Anger doesn't really help us solve many problems. I think collaboration and focus. This community cares a lot and is making a lot of difference. We have emergency shelter beds sufficient to get everybody out of the cold. And we're going to continue to try to make sure people aren't exposed to the elements. We had a tragic death, on Christmas Eve of a person who died of exposure from being outside. We don't want people living and sleeping outside. And we do have shelter beds for people to get in out of the cold.
Hren: I was there one night, when they were checking up on the homelessness in the park, the message from them was that the tent is their home, they don't want to go to a shelter. A female asked if her boyfriend could come along and they said no. Some might have religious requirements, there could be some LGBTQ issues. So what's the message then of removing their encampment if they say that's their home?
Hamilton: I guess the point I would make is those emergency beds. They may not be ideal for many of us, but they're emergency shelter beds to try to protect people's life and health. We also have hotel rooms for people experiencing COVID or have been exposed to that and a range of emergency shelter beds.
There are individuals who either choose or some who have challenges that steer them away from getting indoors or being in a shelter bed. And that's a that's a big, big challenge. We don't want people living outside. But some people do - that you don't get to just choose wherever you want to live outside. In a city, we do not allow encampments in the downtown public park, you can't do it in the middle of a sidewalk or private property, other people's private property. So we're trying to make sure people get into into safe spaces outside of the elements, which can be fatal. And we'll continue to work on that.
Sometimes we group people and act like they're all the same or have the same challenges. And they don't, they're different challenges. Each story is important and different. And we work very, very hard to try to make sure everybody can get the best situation they can.
Hren: So if many of these encampments just ended up moving elsewhere or get spread out through the city, is that a better alternative? I've heard there has been some at Switchyard Park, for example.
Hamilton: I'll tell you what the the experience that we had at Seminary was, we had in December of handful of people who are gathering during the day, very few, if any, sleeping over in early December. And we were seeking to end that. We did a moratorium on that and actually did get up to somewhere around 20 people sleeping per night, in Seminary Square, maybe even a little more.
We gradually worked with folks to find better alternatives. And we got that 20 down to 15. And then we got that 15 down to 10. And we're working person by person with our partners to try to find better options, then it came down to eight and by the middle of last week goes down to three or four people sleeping over. And there are some encampments out in the woods and that are kind of hard to see and hard to find. And we continue to work with people there to do the same thing to help them find better options.
Hren: One more quick thing on this, I know a lot of people have been upset about this issue. I wanted to paint this picture because it kind of hit me when I saw an advertisement for one of those dining experiences on Kirkwood Ave. with the bubble because of COVID and I was thinking, the city is closings streets for fine dining, but just a couple blocks away there is a homelessness issue. Is the city sending mixed messages?
Hamilton: I don't know that they're mixed messages. The focus is trying to keep people healthy and safe and respond to the pandemic and to respond to the city challenges. We know employment is important. And we've tried to help employers find new strategies to keep doing what they do safely with people. And we've been flexible about the use of facilities that way. On the other hand, we're also trying to make sure people stay safe in the winter. And sleeping outdoors in the winter is not safe.
Let me give a shout out to the shelters. They've done a fantastic job of protecting our our residents, including from COVID, we've only had, I think five cases a very small number of cases positive from shelters because they've been so careful with expanding their physical layout and protocols and protecting people. And that's a testament to try to help keep people safe.
Hren: One more question from a Jim on email, why did it take six years to complete construction on West 17th. The entire interstate highways have been built in less time.
Hamilton: I'm not sure six years of construction is accurate. But I do know that the 17th Street project did get delayed. We had some, frankly, we had some construction issues that occurred in the process that took about a year longer than it should have, in my view. I'm sorry about that. I'm glad it's open. Now it's going to be a really important corridor. We'll continue to do the best we can. And I'm appreciate everybody's patience.
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