GIVE AWAY YOUR SPARE CHANGE

University administrators, public officials and even some nonprofit leaders may try to convince you that by giving folks on the street your pocket change, you are enabling their behaviors, and hurting more than helping. By giving spare change to folks in need, the only thing you are hurting are the attempts of local leaders to gentrify downtown Bloomington by cleansing it of the poor. If you are a student here, chances are you are privileged. Your change might help feed an addiction or a hungry stomach. Who knows? If you are really that concerned with managing the lives of your poor neighbors, then please, just keep walking. Otherwise, recognize your privilege, and fuck yes- give away your change.

Homelessness & Indiana University

OFFER UP YOUR PRINT QUOTA

The voices of folks who are poor and homeless are invaluable. However, they are seldom heard due to a lack of resources. We have all kinds of tools at our disposal that allow us to disseminate ideas and information. Share them with homeless neighbors. Offer up your print quota. Offer to type or transcribe something for someone who does not know how to use a computer.

FIGHT YOUR LANDLORDS

If your landlord only approves student tenants, confront them. Do some research. Ask yourself, if you had a family and were working a minimum wage job, could you afford to live in your current residence? Has the rent at your residence soared over the years? Did they once offer affordable, family units? Ask the tough questions and publicly expose landlords who discriminate.

RESIST GENTRIFICATION
Dont let things go unnoticed. Every high-rise hotel, every arm-rest built into the center of benches, every bulldozed campsite, every new security guard are decisions made to keep poor people out. If you are a student, this is not YOUR town unless you fight alongside the people whose blood and sweat drive your campus buses, clean your campus desks and serve your over-priced food. Fight gentrification.

HOW THE UNIVERSITY CREATES & PERPETUATES HOMELESSNESS & WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

IN A COLLEGE TOWN, HOW DOES IU CREATE HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY? NOWHERE TO LIVE
The university buys property off-campus and rents it exclusively to staff and students. Landlords take advantage of students who are willing or capable of paying absurdly high rent, resulting in outrageous rent prices. High-rise, expensive apartments are built specifically for students. Student housing is concentrated downtown and low-income housing is pushed farther and farther away from the city-center.. This requires transportation to and from work, school, and social spaces. Speaking of transit

WHAT CAN YOU DO? (BEYOND RESEARCH AND INTERNSHIPS) COP WATCH
Look out for homeless neighbors. There is obviously no way to identify if someone is experiencing homelessness without talking to them, but the next time you see an IUPD or BPD officer fucking with a person who is sleeping or resting, walk over to them. Record the interaction. If you suspect they may be experiencing homelessness (i.e. their bag is filled with clothing and not textbooks), defend their right to public and university space. Study beside them while they rest so that they cannot be so easily targeted. Police discrimination based on housing status has not been addressed in this town. Call it out loudly when you see it.

NO TRANSPORTATION

All IU students pay transportation fees and are provided free public transit. However, most city buses remain at least half empty, passing neighbors who are poor and homeless walking miles. The city profits off this built-in fee that is underutilized by students. Community members experiencing homelessness wait in line for a handful of bus tickets every week or so. These tickets are not enough to cover the average transportation needs of someone in poverty (i.e. transit to medical offices, work, shelters, welfare offices, etc.). They dont have money for bus tickets for many reasons, including

RECLAIM PUBLIC SPACE

Eat lunch in Peoples Park. Read a book in Seminary Square. Play your guitar on the lawn of Soma. Rest your head in the public library. Work to reduce the isolation that our homeless neighbors are subjected to.

COPY STUDENT IDs

Student IDs give a person unlimited public transit. Rather than getting from Ballantine to the School of Ed in a pinch, can you imagine needing to go to the west side of town for medication, the south side of town for financial assistance, the east side of town for daycare and the north side of town for work in one day? Copy and distribute!

NOT ENOUGH JOBS OR LIVABLE WAGES

IU is the number one employer in Bloomington, yet many of its employees are not paid enough to live in Bloomington or raise a family. IU has recently cut hours and laid off workers to avoid paying for health care. Many individuals experiencing homelessness in Bloomington become employed at IU and are still not lifted out of homelessness.

RENT OUT CAMPING GEAR

Many IU students rent out camping gear to take fun, weekend trips with friends. At the same time, many of our homeless neighbors do not even have sleeping bags with which to camp outside when there is a lack of shelter beds. Help a neighbor out!

OVER-POLICING

The IU Police Department (IUPD) and the Bloomington Police Department (BPD) work to ensure that community members experiencing homelessness do not enjoy the same basic accommodations that students do in our town. Resting heads in public parks, libraries (public and private), and campus buildings (such as the IMU) are heavily policed in order to keep out our homeless neighbors. Students are discouraged from panhandling or interacting with homeless neighbors on the street. Student volunteers are instructed by the university to distance themselves from those they serve in the name of liability.

GIVE AWAY MEAL POINTS

At the end of a semester, some students stock up on food from C-stores with their meal points. Others simply let their meal points expire. Why not use these spare points to donate food to folks on the streets or to local soup kitchens? You can do this throughout the year or at the end of semesters with your excess points.

GENTRIFICATION

IU cannot afford for the poverty it creates to be visible; specifically to wealthy parents and donors. This means that the campus coordinates with the city to ensure that downtown serves its heaviest consumers students. Homeless neighbors are policed randomly in parks and on sidewalks. Hateful slurs and intimidation towards homeless neighbors by drunk and sober college students go un-policed. Social service agencies are increasingly pushed away from the city center so as not to attract homeless and poor neighbors to gentrified, student-oriented areas. Benches are reduced, removed and remodeled to discourage homeless neighbors from resting or sleeping in public view.