Lawmakers continue to move a bill they say could connect homeless people with resources through interactions with police. The measure makes it so people can be charged with a class C misdemeanor for camping or sleeping in public areas.
After hours of testimony on Wednesday, Senate Bill 285 passed on to the full House on an 8-5 vote.
Bill author Sen. Cyndi Carrasco (R-Indianapolis) said the proposal is about getting people off the streets, and disagreed that it criminalizes homelessness.
“The bill is structured so that the initial interactions [with law enforcement] are focused on intervention rather than punishment,” she said.
The legislation requires police to give homeless people a warning to move 300 feet. After 48 hours, if they don’t do so, the police can then charge a person with a misdemeanor.
Carrasco, like many of her Republican colleagues, noted that things like encampments needed to be broken up. She said the bill is a compassionate effort to get people off the streets.
“This bill reclaims public property and prevents the buildup of encampments by requiring movement every 48 hours,” she said.
Other lawmakers, including committee chair Rep. Wendy McNamara (R-Evansville), said they were tired of coming to Indianapolis and seeing homeless people outside. After twelve years, McNamara said she didn’t feel the state - and particularly Indianapolis - had made progress in addressing homelessness.
“I stay up here in Indianapolis and have to step over feces, step over urine, step over homeless people,” she said. “How do we address this?”
Lawmakers repeatedly noted that the bill offered “off-ramps” into diversion programs, either towards shelters or other local resources.
But advocates said there are oftentimes nowhere to divert people, and not enough resources to meet the needs of those without homes. The bill does not offer any added supportive services.
Others testified that any criminal charges will inevitably make it harder for people to find housing in the future.
Multiple law enforcement officers spoke against the bill, and said they had not been included in the process to draft the legislation at all.
Jeff Balon, President of the Indiana Sheriff’s Association, said attaching a criminal element to homelessness will have an impact on their resources.
“Us and the county jail becoming a homeless shelter, a quasi-homeless shelter, is not the answer,” he said.
Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal was similarly concerned about the cost of keeping homeless people at the jail.
“You can’t say it’s not criminalization while there’s a criminal charge tied to it,” he said. “Does it look bad sometimes for the homeless to be lying on the street? Yeah, it does, but there are other options than just putting them in jail.”
Indiana is following the lead of other states, including Texas and Kentucky, that have moved to crack down on homelessness. Some of those legislative initiatives have been pushed by the Cicerco Institute, a conservative think tank. Similar legislation last year ultimately failed.
Scott Centorino spoke on behalf of Cicero. He noted that passing the bill would put Indiana on a path to continue receiving support from the Federal Government, which is in the process of changing the types of homeless initiatives it supports.
“This bill makes it more in line with where HUD [Housing and Urban Development] is going on this issue, and makes it more likely that these continuums of care will get increased funding and these services will get increased support,” he said.
Federal initiatives will no longer prioritize placing people into housing first, but instead focus on programs that show people achieve “self-sufficiency,” according to a release from HUD Secretary Scott Turner.
That strategy change is currently being challenged in court, but experts expect that, regardless of the outcome, there will be a reduced focus on housing.
Chelsea Haring-Cozzi is the CEO of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention in Indianapolis. She said the legislation will hamper current efforts to end homelessness.
“This administration is moving more towards punitive measures to address homelessness away from housing,” she said. “A portion of this bill is trying to line that up.”
The measure moves to the full House.
Contact Government Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org
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