By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
February 18, 2025
Despite continued opposition from organizations that serve the homeless and concerns from two Republican legislators about some of the requirements being imposed, the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee on Monday passed House Bill 1662, which prohibits the homeless from living or sleeping in public spaces.
HB 1662 was initially introduced and heard by the House Committee on Feb. 10, but the committee chair, Rep. Doug Miller, R-Elkhart, did not hold a vote at that time. Instead, he kept the bill for a week and then allowed more time for additional testimony and discussion, before taking action on a motion to pass.
Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, who authored HB 1662, was more adamant in advocating for the legislation to the committee this week, than she had been last week. Citing statistics that indicated the homeless population is growing across the country and the state, she pointed to homeless encampments in Indianapolis that have drawn the ire of neighbors. The homeless, she said, are creating an environmental issue by “urinating, defecating and bathing in public” and by leaving needles and trash on the ground.
“It is time for the General Assembly to step up and ensure a baseline level of safety and dignity on our streets for both the homeless Hoosiers and the law-abiding, hard-working Hoosiers that live in these communities,” Davis told the committee members. “Enforcing a camping ban is a compassionate way to redirect unsheltered homeless to existing shelters that are safer and provide resources, such as substance-abuse treatment or job placement, in addition to hygiene facilities, food and shelter. This contributes to better outcomes for homeless individuals and safer communities for all.”
However, homeless advocates opposed HB 1662, saying it criminalized homelessness by making street camping a crime with a possible arrest and misdemeanor charge. Also, they said, the bill does not address the shortage of affordable housing, which is fueling homelessness, and takes away the ability of local communities to formulate interventions and solutions that best fit their needs.
“I think that we agree that people staying outside is an issue and we desperately want to work with you to come up with effective solutions to address that issue,” Kelsey Stringham-Marquis, senior director of strategic initiatives for Outreach Indiana, which serves homeless youths in Central Indiana. “But, unfortunately, this bill will, in fact, make that problem even worse.”
HB 1662 passed 9-to-4 along party lines. Even so, Rep. Michael Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, said he had concerns about some of the mandates in the bill. The “language is somewhat, maybe ambiguous,” he said, but he is confident Davis will help work on adjustments. Rep. Alaina Shonkwiler, R-Noblesville, said she shared Karickhoff’s concerns.
The bill now advances to the full House where it must pass a third reading by Thursday.
HB 1662 is modeled after legislation from the Cicero Institute, a nonpartisan conservative nonprofit based in Texas. At the Feb. 10 committee hearing, Davis amended the bill by removing all of the provisions, except for the prohibition against street camping.
The measure would ban a person from sleeping, camping or using for long-term shelter land owned by the state or municipal government. Individuals who violate the law could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to 60 days and a $500 fine. Also, local governments would not only be prohibited from adopting or enforcing any policy that would discourage the enforcement of HB 1662, but private citizens, business owners, or the attorney general could sue local governments for not enforcing the ban.
Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention in Indianapolis, said jailing people who are living on the streets would only exacerbate the problem by “creating a perpetual homelessness, arrest, incarceration cycle.” Solutions to homelessness are best crafted by local experts and leaders to address the needs in their own communities, rather than relying on law enforcement and county jails, which cost more money and will not reduce the number of people sleeping on the streets, she said.
“These are human lives and despite what the folks from Cicero say, jails don’t save lives,” Haring-Cozzi said, referring to the Cicero Institute. “Jails complicate lives and create additional barriers to housing, employment and services.”
Marco Simmel, a resident of Indianapolis, testified as a private citizen in support of the bill. In addition to getting homeless people the help they need, he said, HB 1662 would also protect public spaces to ensure everyone can enjoy them. He pointed to his neighborhood, which includes a pocket park near the Monon Trail, but, he said, neighbors are hesitant to go there because one homeless man keeps returning to sleep on the benches and throw his trash around.
“We need this bill to help clean up this stuff, so that they get the help they need and the community gets to enjoy the spaces that are meant for all of us,” Simmel said.
Although Dawn Baldwin, a private resident in Lafayette, shared Simmel’s frustration about keeping spaces clean, she was opposed to HB 1662. She said she lives within 50 yards of a night shelter and has homeless people loitering on her porch and damaging her property. While the police can address those problems, she said, getting people off the street requires taking the time to learn each homeless person’s story.
She told the committee she is a college graduate with a degree in aeronautical engineering technology, but, “in the blink of an eye,” became homeless for 10 years after she suffered a psychotic break and eventually turned to self-medicating to control her visual and auditory hallucinations. She credited programs and services, including a housing first initiative, with helping her get housed and sober for the past six years.
“Being homeless is not a crime, it’s a circumstance,” Baldwin said.
In 2024, the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 5, dubbed the Safer Kentucky Act.
The bill contained several provisions meant to address crime, but the ACLU of Kentucky described it as “an extremely bloated collection of regressive policies and regurgitated ideas that have proven ineffective in the past.” Included in HB 5 was a prohibition against street camping on a public or private street, under a bridge or underpass, path, park, cemetery or entryways to businesses and public buildings. Homeless individuals there can be charged with a Class B misdemeanor – which is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and up to a $500 fine – for a second and subsequent violation of the law.
Davis pointed to the Safer Kentucky Act and cited to a report which she did not further identify, that, she said, shows that out of hundreds of interactions between police and homeless people since the law took effect in July of last year, only five individuals were charged with a misdemeanor.
However, Louisville Public Media reported in December 2024 that more than 40 people had been charged with street camping. Also, highlighting a concern among homeless advocates as a harmful consequence of the law, more than half of the homeless individuals charged in Kentucky had failed to appear for court and now had a bench warrant issued against them.
Public outcry was ignited when a Louisville Metro Police officer issued a criminal citation in September for street camping to a homeless woman who was pregnant and in active labor as reported by WHAS 11.
Brandi Pirtle, program director for the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana, said individuals who live on the streets have been migrating across the Ohio River to the Hoosier State since the Kentucky law was enacted. The homeless coalition’s shelter, which serves eight counties, routinely provides a bed to 30 to 40 individuals, she said, but with the migration, that number has climbed above 70.
Rep. John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, offered an amendment which would have stripped the language from HB 1662 and replaced it with a provision establishing a study committee. The Homelessness Task Force would be comprised of 13 members assigned to study homelessness in Indiana and issue a report with recommendations by Nov. 1, 2026.
“I think that we need to be more sensitive to what’s going on and learn what’s going on before we start making laws,” Bartlett said.
Shonkwiler was doubtful that such a task force could provide new insight, saying while Indiana has never examined homelessness, “countless organizations” have studied the issue. Also, she disputed the contention that HB 1662 would result in people being arrested because they did not have a place to live. Instead, she said, the bill would let local law enforcement give a warning for the first violation of street camping law.
Rev. Forrest Gilmore, executive director at Beacon Inc., an anti-poverty organization based in Monroe County and focused on housing, was supportive of convening a task force to take a comprehensive look at homelessness in Indiana, but, he echoed Shonkwiler in pointing out a lot of research has already been done. The focus, he said, should be on using the available knowledge and, if a task force is established, keeping the momentum to implement any recommendations the task force would make.
“What we really need to do is (focus on) what’s the next step,” Gilmore said. “If we form a task force without the will to create what’s in (the report from) the task force, we have a problem.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
