Muncie volunteers have been helping nearly two-dozen families find housing after the city condemned the motel they were calling home.  As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, Muncie has also approved unused federal pandemic funds for the cause.

The Muncie mayor’s office says the Muncie Inn on Madison Street was “tagged as an unsafe building” last week for “multiple code violations, safety risks, and fire hazards.”  In an interview on the city’s Facebook page, Muncie Mission’s Frank Baldwin talks with Mayor Dan Ridenour and says the inspection came from a resident complaint.

“Your office called and said that there had been a very serious complaint that there were residents at the Muncie Inn without heat.”

With a 10-day notice to vacate the Muncie Inn, the Muncie Folk Collective has been working with the 44 families it says live there, some for many years.  Volunteers say some residents can’t afford current rents and down payment requirements in Muncie or have recent evictions that would prohibit them being approved for some housing.

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Interviewed by a volunteer on TikTok over the weekend, a Muncie Inn resident says the city’s help focuses on shelters, but many don’t want to enter the shelter system.

“Your wife and maybe your children have to go to this place, which, they’re full.  And you have to go to this place, which they’re full.”

Baldwin says the response was put together “in a crisis.”

“It’s not always an ideal solution, but it’s just a temporary solution.”

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On Wednesday, the Muncie Board of Works approved a request to use $125,000 in federal American Rescue Plan money to help those at the motel and others with an “immediate risk of homelessness.”

Community development planner Allen Wiseley says it will be used to find “permanent shelter.”

“And those costs can include rental application fees, security deposits, utility deposits, utility payments, moving costs, and first and last month’s rent.”

A Better Way Services will manage the money.

An extra $10,000 was approved for the Muncie Mission to buy equipment to treat belongings with bed bugs.  Wiseley says the Muncie Inn has an infestation and local landlords are worried about the bugs being transferred to their properties.

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For community members still wanting to help, the Collective is collecting money to help Muncie Inn families.  It will also collect physical item donations on Thursday and Saturday at the Patterson Building in downtown Muncie.  The organization says this can be anything from furniture to diapers to shelf-stable food.

Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host.  Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.