Homelessness in Richmond: How prevalent is it?

RICHMOND, Ind. — Over the past several months, the newly formed citywide Unsheltered/Homeless Task Force cleaned up several homeless encampments, both abandoned and occupied, in locations all over the city.

In what Richmond Mayor Ron Oler called in his "First 100 Days" video a "proactive and collaborative approach from a foundation of care for our fellow man," the cleanup was in part done to prevent future "transients" from occupying the area owned by private property owners, while also acting with compassion to help those still there find resources.

Oler said that there were upward of 50 city employees at each of the encampment sites that the city deemed to be illegal due to being set up on either private or public properties.

He said that before the cleanup of the mostly abandoned sites, the city worked with those still living there to "find them better housing options and partnering with non-government organizations" to find them options.

In the Whitewater Valley Gorge Park, Oler said there were eight to 10 camps with two people still living there and that the city helped them to find resources and proper living conditions to "get back on their feet."

"Transparency and fairness were maintained by giving a lengthy notice period to the unsheltered before the cleanup occurred," he said.

More than 30 tons of debris were removed after the city helped the remaining residents collect their belongings.

In the event that residents would not respond kindly to the city employees, law enforcement was also present on cleanup days, though Oler said there were never any problems.

"It's worked really well, surprisingly well," he said.

Homeless number 'in the hundreds'?

The Point in Time Count, better known as the PIT count, is a nationwide count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single date in January. The Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority conducts the state's count.

Although the data for the 2024 count, on Jan. 24, has not yet been published , the 2023 count for Wayne County counted 86 homeless people, 78 of them unsheltered, in the area.

Tim Pierson, executive director of Bridges for Life , a nonprofit organization that partnered with the Unsheltered/Homeless Task Force to find resources for individuals who needed them, said that the number is likely much higher.

"There are so many people being evicted on a daily or weekly basis that the number of people who are homeless are constantly changing," he said. "Today's Wednesday and our team have literally met about 11 or 12 homeless individuals that we have never heard their names before. It's hard to say how many for sure, but it is by far certainly in the hundreds, and it's constantly changing."

For the number of homeless people likely in the city, there are not enough housing options. The two main shelters here, Hope House for men and Refuge of Hope for women, are limited in capacity.

The Hope House for example, has the capacity for 15 beds in the homeless shelter half of the building, according to Ademola. The other half is used for its drug recovery program.

A musician tells his story

Those who attended the Wayne County 4-H Fair this year might have seen a familiar face from the year before on an electronic billboard.

That face was Mercedes McGraw's. He was supposed to attend the halftime for the finale of Wayne County Idol hosted by Kicks96 after winning it last year, along with $1,000, as the first Black person to win it.

But between then and now, and even before, McGraw's trauma from his personal experience led him to the drug recovery program that Hope House also offers.

"Everyone does drugs for a reason," McGraw said. "I spent years being the victim because of my grandmother's and mother's incident which kept me back there. I did it to block out the memories of seeing their bodies chopped up in pieces."

McGraw's mother and grandmother were both killed in a semi accident, a memory that McGraw still remembers.

"I can remember the smell of the room," he said. "I can see the whole table and everything about the situation ... It was so horrific that the coroner who did it, he was able to put them together, he drinks to this day because of it."

One night, McGraw was robbed at gunpoint, and a woman had swapped out the cocaine he was using with fentanyl and heroin. McGraw dumped the concoction, but it was too late.

"She killed me," McGraw said. "She knew what she was doing. They tried to bring me back with four cans of Narcan and it didn't bring me back, so they ended up shocking me back to life."

As far as the encampments, McGraw did not agree with the city saying it cleaned up 30 tons of debris.

"What I would call debris is somebody's livelihood," McGraw said. "What if they had kids at some time? It's somebody's childhood. That debris was somebody's home."

He wasn't able to perform at the fair this year because of his admittance in the program, but McGraw hopes to return to music once he's out.

Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email at eweaver@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Homelessness in Richmond: How prevalent is it?