City plans to use vacant west-side warehouse for winter homeless shelter

2406 North Tibbs Ave. (Google Street View)

Indianapolis officials have picked out a new location to house homeless individuals when frigid temperatures or inclement weather create demand for shelter that exceeds the capacity of existing providers.

The city plans to lease a west-side warehouse just east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway owned by nonprofit disability organization Noble of Indiana. The city’s Metropolitan Development Commission approved the additional use of the space unanimously Wednesday, but many of the details still need to be ironed out.

The plan requires final approval from the City-County Council, which is expected to vote on the proposal Nov. 3.

The 68,000-square-foot structure has been vacated by Noble, which plans to eventually redevelop the space. For now, the city will lease the warehouse at 2406 North Tibbs Ave. for two years as a flexible, circumstantial space, according to Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety Director Andrew Merkley. The space has a maximum capacity for about 160 individuals.

Aspire Indiana Health—the same organization selected to staff the city’s planned low-barrier shelter—will oversee the facility. The $32 million low-barrier shelter is expected to open in 2027.

Merkley said the lease agreement with Noble has not yet been finalized, nor has the funding for winter contingency as a whole. But the effort could be costly. For the 2024-25 year, the cost of winter contingency was $1.2 million, which came mostly from charitable funds and $578,000 from the city budget.

The space will be used for the first time this upcoming winter as an overflow shelter during winter contingency.

Winter contingency is a period, generally from December until March, in which Indianapolis’ homelessness services aim to provide temporary shelter to hundreds of individuals who might otherwise live outdoors. Local advocates have sounded the alarm that the current number of people who live unsheltered, around 330, is triple the number documented in 2019.

City officials are in just their second year of playing a major role in this process. Historically, private shelter Wheeler Mission opened its doors to hundreds more people. It announced in May 2024 that it would no longer do so.

Although city leaders called last year’s winter contingency plan a success and noted that no families returned to homelessness, families and activists called the effort an “abject failure” and said the location, former Indianapolis Public School 68, was not suitable.

The warehouse is currently being vacated by Noble.

Merkley said the city will rely on furniture it used in School 68, which utilized pods for privacy.

At the new roomier facility, shower trailers will brought inside so that people won’t have to walk outside to access them. Merkley said a kitchen will be added to the space.

Eventually, Merkley said, the city also intends to move from the current model—in which additional shelter is made available in winter months—to a weather-contingent model. He said the need for extra housing during non-winter months was made clear after flooding this spring destroyed tents of those living along the White River.