COLUMBUS, Ind. — More than 120 people gathered at Yes Cinema on Wednesday night to share their thoughts about potential solutions in helping those experiencing homelessness, including the possibility of creating permanent supportive housing units in Columbus.
The public forum inside the Kalsi Conference Center was attended by community-members of all walks of life and organized by United Way of Bartholomew County.
It was the first public input session since the non-profit released a report detailing that homelessness “is becoming more visible” and “will likely worsen” if immediate action isn’t taken.
“As we all know, homelessness is a complex topic and there are no easy solutions,” Mark Stewart, president, United Way of Bartholomew County, said in remarks at the beginning of the forum. “There is no single idea that will fix it, there is no single organization that can tackle it on their own and it will not happen overnight— but together I believe that we can make the situation much better than it is.”
During the forum, attendees circulated around to five different stations with presentation boards describing different strategies for addressing homelessness. Examples of where they had been implemented with success were included as well, and attendees attached notes with their assessments of the ideas.
“You’ll be talking together and we’ll be voting on what solutions you think we should dig a little deeper on to learn more about and evaluate if they might be right for our community,” Stewart said.
For the complete story and more photos, see Saturday’s Republic.
