Last month, the Fort Wayne City Council voted to hold on deciding whether to grant funding to the Anchor Resource Center until September.
A visibly frustrated Mayor Sharon Tucker took a moment to offer a final comment to council following the vote.
“I again ask you to grow the courage because while we hold this in an opportunity to look for more locations, you, too, will see that the problem will not go away," she said.
The public struggle between City Hall and council over homelessness began a year ago, when Republican council members Russ Jehl and Dr. Scott Myers wrote a letter to the city attorney accusing the city of doing “the minimum” to address homeless encampments downtown.
After a brief written back-and-forth, homeless services manager Amanda Fall attended a council meeting in September to give a presentation on the city’s ongoing strategy.
"So, one of the first things I did when starting was I developed the encampment taskforce," Fall said.
She said something she quickly realized was several city departments touched encampments but weren’t coordinating. There were also several service providers conducting outreach and not sharing information or strategies.
"This is bringing together enforcement and services for the first time so that they can talk together, figure out how we can collaborate and how they can learn from each other," Fall said.
Less than a year after that presentation, Fall returned to City Council alongside Tucker to request financing for the Anchor Resource Center, the next step in the city’s plan to address the crisis.
Despite much of the proposal receiving praise from council members, one particular issue brought the presentations to a halt. Here’s councilman Thomas Freistroffer.
“I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said," he said. "The only thing I have a problem with is the location.”
Notably, it’s across the street from the Rescue Mission, on the other side of the block from a soup kitchen and the current Matthew 25 health care building. It’s an area where many homeless people already seek shelter, come to get food and access resources.
Tucker responded to Freistroffer, saying homeless individuals are already in those spaces.
“It’s not a new challenge, it is currently in the area now," she said. "Thus, the reason the location was chosen.”
Ultimately, councilman Nathan Hartman suggested the hold, with a list of items he’d like to see the city provide before they can approve funding. They include an open forum community meeting; the administration engage a real estate professional; and public operation, security and good neighbor plans.
Councilwoman Michelle Chambers pushed back against this request at the meeting.
“You’re asking for things that have been already spoken to," she said. "You’re asking for things that are in motion already.”
Chambers said two mayoral administrations have been working on finding a solution to the homelessness crisis in Fort Wayne.
“I feel like we’re probably 10 years behind the marker on getting this done," she said.
Jehl and Myers seemed to agree with that sentiment in their letter last year, suggesting the city was “way behind” in addressing the issue. But, Hartman felt the city was rushing this proposal.
“One thing that we’ve heard over and over tonight is the need to do something and I personally would like to give more time," he said.
Chambers disagrees. She cited record heatwaves in recent weeks as more reason to be getting a plan in place.
“We should be in motion," she said. "Designing the building, getting all the things in place, so we, as early as possible, can have this low-barrier resource center open to be able to provide services.”
The vote to hold on the proposal ultimately fell down party lines, 5-3, with the democrats voting against the hold and republicans voting for. The council plans to revisit it in September, though Tucker has requested they move it up to Aug. 11.
This week, the mayor’s office released a full breakdown of the other properties it looked at before choosing the East Washington location.
