Indianapolis Officials Pass Ordinance To Help Homeless

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis officials have passed an ordinance meant to offer new protections and assistance to the city's homeless.

The City-County Council passed the ordinance 23-2 Monday that would require the city offer help to homeless people it displaces from camps. The city would have to offer to store a person's personal items for up to 60 days.

The city would have to also designate organizations to help each person find transitional housing and services such as mental health care. And unless there's an emergency, the city would have to give camp residents 15 days' notice before closing it, and nonprofit partners would have to find transitional housing before a homeless person could be removed from public property.

The Indianapolis Star reports the ordinance falls short of the "Homeless Bill of Rights" debated last year.