(Michigan City, IN) - Some business owners in Michigan City are appealing for a crackdown on problems stemming from homeless people hanging out and sleeping in the downtown. The problems cited range from customers and business owners feeling unsafe to human waste outside storefronts. “Downtown safety, cleanliness and vitality affect everyone who lives here, works here or visits here,” said Monica O’Donnell, the owner of North Star Properties, a real estate firm at 5th and Franklin streets. She and several other downtown business owners pleaded for action during the October 21 meeting of the city council.
“I don’t know what we need to do but we need to work together and we need to work together fast,” said Amy Bowman, owner and operator of Good News Vintage, an antique store at 613 Franklin St. Bowman said she regularly has to clean up feces, watch drinking from open containers of alcoholic beverages and, most recently, was sexually harassed.
“I’m done. I’m done,” she said. O’Donnell asked that a downtown safety ordinance be drafted and reviewed within 30 days then submitted to the city council for its consideration. She said the ordinance should set a standard and allow for enforcement without violating people’s rights.
Specifically, O’Donnell suggested the ordinance prohibit things like people blocking entrances to businesses, creating unsafe and unsanitary conditions and refusing to leave private property after receiving written notice to do so. “It’s consistent with Indiana law and gives law enforcement a balanced, constitutional framework for a response,” she said.
Allison Dent, a mortgage lender with an office at 613 Franklin St., said she keeps her door locked and opens it only when a client shows up because of homeless people coming inside asking to use the bathroom or warm up. “It’s pretty uncomfortable for me to have to ask them to leave especially if I’m the only person in that office,” she said.
Dent also said there were homeless people sleeping on the outdoor furniture of a restaurant behind her business during the summer. Jessie Cundiff said he’s been dealing with the same issues related to homeless for 12 years since opening his higher end consignment shop, Hoity Toity at 731 Franklin St. He said the problem has lingered long enough for him to start losing customers. “This has been the slowest year for my business ever. If it continues this way I might not be there anymore,” he said.
The only response from the council was from Don Przybylinski, who expressed support for the business owners. Przybylinski said he personally spotted people sleeping behind the old Rodeo Bar next to some concrete barricades at 11th and Franklin streets. “There was clothing there. There was garbage there. There was feces there. To me, it’s getting out of control,” he said.
