Creation of homeless coordinator considered
n doing so, he is working to create a permanent position within the county government that would focus solely on the issue.
“I envision a point person within county government that the agencies can work with. Let’s say a police officer interacts with a homeless person and they’re trying to get them help,” he explained. “That police officer would know who to contact within the county. And then the person that they would contact would then help get that person the resources they need.”
According to Kearns this would be a paid position, however a job description has not been created yet.
He says this proposed position could also be a partnership between the commissioners and the Vigo County Health Department.
Roni Elder, Health Educator and Media Coordinator for the health department, says this could be beneficial for both entities.
“This position would be really great for us because it does fall under public health. And it would be, it’s a huge area to cover,” she said. “So it does need someone that’s over head of it and can put all their focus to it.”
As of now, Kearns is focused on the clean up of camps vacated by the homeless.
He provides those leaving their camps with gloves and trash bags to clean up any mess.
“They’ve all seemed appreciative of it because that’s stuff they don’t have,” he said. “So what they do is they pack the stuff up, I get a notification that it’s ready to go and county highway crews go and pick it up.”
Elder is concerned for not only the hygiene at the camps, but of the homeless themselves.
She says they need access to hygiene products, and the health department’s recent influx of state funded harm reduction supply kits could be the answer.
Elder says each kit has hygiene products to decrease the spread of disease in camps, “Wound care, tourniquets, all that kind of stuff.”
Anyone interested in serving the homeless are welcome to come to the health department to pick up the supply kits to be delivered to the camps.
“I would like to see them go into the homeless camps,” said Elder.
