Hello, Monroe County. Hello, yes, I love that you're talking back to me already. That is wonderful.
I am glad that you are here. My name is Raph Kornford. I am a community organizer. And not too long
ago, I was not a community organizer. I was an ABA provider. That meant I was working with kids with
disabilities, and I loved that work. And I was able to do that work for like six years.
I was out of my Bloomington bubble. I was in Lawrence County. I was in Morgan County. I was with people,
with people I wouldn't have met under other circumstances. And I loved the work that I was doing. I
loved being with those people. And as Medicaid came under attack from our state, it became more and
more difficult
to get an authorization, which is like the six-month kind of contract that you have with Medicaid to
work with a family, it became more and more difficult to get that in place and to work with the kids
that I was working with that I felt called to work with. And in response to that, I gave of myself
more and more and more and I would work without pay and I would work extra hours and I ended up towards
the very end of my business working for three months without pay just to get kids situated if I possibly
could and in all of that work I did not change the circumstances around me and it was hard for me it was hard
for my marriage. It was a very, very difficult time. And in that, I learned... Sorry. It's back.
In that, I learned I had to do something else. I had to turn towards community. I had to start looking
to do more than just serve, to do more than just give and give and give of myself, because each one
of us is finite by ourselves. And that's what brought me here. Hi. My name is Lindsay O'Neill, and if
four years ago you told me that I would be here,
doing this on purpose, I would not believe you. That's when I first came to Bloomington, a city I had
never heard of in a state that I seldom visited. Despite how new I was, within a few months I found
myself frantically loading up my car in the middle of the night to escape domestic violence. Sorry,
can we hear? Should I repeat? Yes. I wouldn't have believed you.
That was when I first came to Bloomington, a city I never knew existed and a state I seldom visited.
Despite how new I was, within a few months, I found myself frantically loading up my car in the middle
of the night to escape domestic violence. My kids and I were alone. We had no family, no friends, no
community.
I was adrift and noticed a pattern of feeling as if I am an observer to my own tragedy. Experiences
of repeated uncontrollable stress or failure results in the brain responding on a chemical level, leading
someone to believe and physically operate as if they are unable to influence, escape, and overcome.
This process I've come to understand is also referred to as learned helplessness.
Dependency prevails as escape and agency dissolve. And abuse. Isolation is no accident. It is a requirement.
But I was not ready to give up yet. I love my children. I love the joy of life. I love to laugh and
to feel. I love to connect. I love. So with love as my intention, I began to build community. For brevity's
sake, I'll spare the details of years gone by. But I will say my efforts have paid off.
It began by joining Thriving Connections, a program through SCAP. This action led me into my policy
fellowship, an accomplishment I'm very proud of. Then, earlier this year, in the middle of my fellowship,
I was introduced to Hoosier Action at the State House. Now, I'm here. With the housing team, I've planned
meetings with county-level power people, excuse me, helped design events for tenants and more. I've
knocked doors.
and talk to so many people, collecting stories about what's troubling renters in Monroe County. Through
this work, I've noticed suffering, leading to isolation and resignation as a collective. This is where
I feel my perspective becomes valuable to the solution. We have a duty to question those who encourage
division and we must reject it completely. We can influence systems.
escape neglect and cruelty, and overcome resignation. This scale of suffering is not normal. It is a
predictable outcome to a society shaped by dollars, not hands. It's time to bring form to a civilization
shaped for us by us. Let's use our time tonight to start that and let us not be daunted by the enormity
of the task, but instead embrace the spirit of adventure. Thank you.
Lindsay had mentioned talking to people. I want to put some numbers on that. I've knocked about 1,000
doors in our county. I've spoken to probably about 300, 350 people. And our team has knocked altogether
like 6,500 doors and had well over 1,000 conversations, filled out 750 surveys
heard from hundreds of renters about what it's like to rent here in our community. We have been out
there talking to people and hearing about what's going on. So now I want to ask you and I want you to
be loud. What issue brought you in the door? Are you here because health care has become too difficult
to access and is too expensive?
Yeah, yeah, some of you are. Was that everyone? Do we want to do like one more? Who's here for health
care? All right. I want to know if you are here because housing isn't safe, it's not affordable, and
it's difficult to live where you live. Are you here for housing? All right.
And finally, this overarching problem, everything is way too expensive. Are you here because it is just
too expensive to live any way you want to slice it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. These are serious problems, and
we are facing them. And we are, who's your action? We are a community organizing group
based in New Albany with chapters in the Ohio River Valley, in Bartholomew County and Columbus, here
in Monroe County with members in Owen County, in Morgan County, in Lawrence County. And we are trying
to make a difference in our own lives. That's what this is about. That is who we are. And when we do
that, we are building an independent
politics that is nonpartisan. It's not about a party. It's about what we need and working together to
get what we need. And we are defining that. That's what this is. I will keep this short. Tonight I will
ask you to listen with an open mind.
Lead with curiosity and model respect. No booing, hissing, or other disturbing or distracting behaviors
will be tolerated. This is a non-partisan space. Working together may take effort or may even feel strange
at first, but it is essential for our survival. Yeah. There's been a lot of talk about
mattering and I want to hear you declare loudly. I want to hear you say I matter. I want to hear you
say we matter. I want you to turn to somebody that you know or don't know and tell them you matter.
There's going to be a lot happening at tables. I'm going to run over to the table that I'm going to
be at, and I'm going to spend about four or five minutes getting to know the people who are at my table.
And I want everyone to do the same thing. I want you to introduce yourself to the people that are at
that table. Say where you're from, how long you've been here, if you can mention what brought you in,
what you're dealing with, what's happening right now. We'll keep coming back to this, but this is a
great time to do that.
So go ahead and spend four or five minutes doing that right now. I'm going to call you back into the
room. Yeah. Hi. I hope you had a nice time getting introduced to one another. It feels nice to see so
many faces, so many tables that are filled. I'm going to do something I don't normally do, which is
I'm going to work off my phone. We had printer problems, and I'm working on having to make use of this.
So please bear with me.
I'm really happy to be standing here though. So I am, that's why I hate phones, right there. I should
do interference all the time. So I'm George Ann, and I'm a founding member of Who's Your Action, and
I come into this work having spent most of my adult working life supporting and being with families
as they had babies. I'm a retired birth doula, childbirth educator,
I used to run an organization in town called Bloomington Area Birth Services so people knew as Babs.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And I felt like it was a really special thing to be able
to walk that path with people. But can I tell you, it was so painful so often that we worked so hard
to give people good experiences, we really built a community, and then life is life.
and it got hard and kids grew up and things got difficult and people struggled and much happened. My
own life changed a lot. I am a caregiver for a sister who lives far away who has dementia. I've gone
through other people with dementia in my life. Life is too stinking hard and it feels to me all the
time like every single bit of my life is monetized for somebody else. It's not monetized for me.
I know that. And so that's why I'm standing in front of you to do this.
Amazing thing with you, Dan. My name is Dan Caldwell. I'm a pastor of a small church in town called
Sacred Heart. And I'm also the volunteer coordinator and a leadership team member for the Bloomington
Severe Winter Emergency Shelter, which provides shelter to up to 35 unhoused guests on the coldest nights
of the year.
And I have close family members, which I'm going to share about here in a bit, who have experienced
housing insecurity. And I've seen firsthand the trauma that it causes. I've been a Who's Your Action
member now and a member of the Monroe County Safe Housing Committee since this past spring. And this
work that we've been doing brings to mind, for me, the words of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who
was an anti-apartheid
leader in South Africa. He said, there comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of
the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in. And for me, that's what this
work is about. We have to build a world where no one is being pushed in the river and left to drown.
So thank you all for showing up and being a part of that work.
of building the world that we need, a world where everyone has access to safe and affordable, comfortable
housing, where everyone has access to good quality, affordable care, where everyone has the opportunity
to live a life of dignity and purpose. So now George Ann is going to walk us through the next portion
of the evening and how this part's going to work. So yes, absolutely. Yeah.
So part of why we're in the room together is to be able to share at our tables, and we will also have
some storytellers who will share with the room, what our, how to say this, our private pain,
how to tell, we're gonna tell public stories of our private pain. You'll tell it with each other.
Like I said, we have storytellers that are going to be in front of the room. We're naming injustice
and the realities of our lives.
In organizing, we often talk about standing at the corner of the world as it is and the world as it
should be. So part of what we're doing is holding the tension between those two things, naming the world
as it is, and then we have invited a set of elected officials and candidates who want to take on some
leadership and responsibilities together with us, we hope, who are a part of making the world as it
should be.
That's the request we're going to be putting in front of them. Sorry, I move around a lot. My apologies.
We're going to call ourselves into leadership. Leadership means taking responsibility. It means showing up.
It means calling other people in with you. And then we're also calling those people who have said publicly
that they want to be our leaders, our collective leaders, also to take responsibility with us and be
accountable, help steward our world into a better place, and really help us build community on the ground.
Not everyone gets to speak. I am so sorry I wish we could open mic and let like just be here all night
and have a slumber party and it'd be awesome But I'm afraid that's not practical and I the floor looks
really hard. So We do have the possibility for you at the tables with the table leads for them to have
hand you paper and places to share written or
versions of your story or if you just want to take notes for yourself, that is going to be made available
to you if it hasn't been already. And yeah, let me see. Next I need to say something. We ask that those
that are in office or running for office, that you respect the nonpartisan nature of our space, that
you be here to listen and to learn, not to campaign, not to wonky out
Though, I mean, I'm happy to do that somewhere else with you. Nothing's better than some good policy
talk, right? But really, that's not kind of the space right now. Let's see. OK, I think that's maybe
it. I'm just going to remind you, you're an expert on your own life. And that's the expertise we're
asking you to bring in. And please, electeds and candidates,
Be your human selves as well. Feel free to share stories as needed. And I'm actually going to hand it
over to Dan for the first story. All right. Yeah. So I've never personally experienced housing insecurity.
But all right.
Somebody here had a shirt on about crying. Who was that? I need that shirt. So anyways, I'm sorry. So
about 10 years ago, my family's life changed radically. We got involved in a program called Safe Families
for Children, which is, I always describe it as being short-term, parent-initiated foster care. So the
idea being
to try and keep kids out of the foster care system if at all possible. And so yeah, 10 years ago we
had a little four-year-old come and stay with us for eight weeks. He's now my 14-year-old son. And yeah,
so he and his at the time six-year-old sister, who's now my 16-year-old daughter, and their mom,
were living at the old, it's not even there anymore, the old Motel 6, I guess it is, it was on the north
side of town, because they had been evicted. And so we did our best to try and help them stay together
and got them into housing. But the
The hand, and this is kind of the theme, I think, of my story here that I want to share is that the
hand that was dealt to their biological mom was a really awful hand that she was dealt. And in the end,
DCS got involved. She texted us to say, hey, could you take my children? And we said, sure, of course.
And then two years later, we ended up adopting them. But even after 10 years of living in a
in a place where they had stable housing and with a stable family and with plenty of food in the fridge,
were still every day working through the trauma of that housing insecurity from the beginning of their
life. And I've seen this over and over again in my work with our guests at the shelter as well, that
it's not that they made bad choices, that they became homeless.
over and over and over again, I hear their stories and I go, if I had that, if I was dealt that same
hand, I wouldn't be doing any better. And so what we're seeing, I think even cuts across like class
and race and kind of every dividing line is that the choices that are available to us are getting worse,
not better.
And for people on the very bottom, it's often awful. But even, like, I think middle class folks are
looking at things and saying, I don't have the choices available to me that I should have. And so, yeah,
kind of like I was saying earlier, that we are here so that we can build a better world so that everyone
has choices that allow them to live lives of dignity and purpose.
That's my story. Thanks for listening. So when I listen to Dan, part of what I think about is all of
the barriers there are to buying a home, the ways that housing prices have changed,
The way that I now spend a lot of time, I bet you do too, trying to figure out phone menus. And if I
could slap AI out of my phone, I would do it, right? Because I can't, just stop. Just stop, right? And
all of that is eating time. We're all paying a time tax. Do these things resonate with you? Yeah.
Okay, so I'm gonna, we're gonna turn you loose to have some discussion at your table so you can dig
into this a little bit more. You'll have about five minutes and we'll give you a one minute warning,
okay? Okay, we're gonna, if we could wrap up our conversations, we're gonna bring up our next storyteller.
Lindsay, are you ready to tell your story?
if I could have everybody's attention up front again. We're going to hear from Lindsay. Give it up for
Lindsay. Hi, everyone. Me again. I'm going to take us back to when I was 12 years old, and I was diagnosed
with an autoimmune disease that I will have forever. So I have to take medication. Hello? Can we hear?
Yes, sorry. Hello. Hi. Back when I was 12, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. And this means
that I will take medication every single day for the rest of my life. This medication allows me to function.
It makes me as comfortable as possible. And also, it actually keeps me alive. It would be kind of a
bummer if all of those things failed, especially the last one.
I'm a Medicaid enrollee, and I am feeling really afraid. Knowing how many people are being kicked off
of Medicaid, knowing how the FSSA does not do documentation well, they will send you random papers that
were supposed to be sent three weeks ago telling you that you have lost your SNAP, you've lost your
Medicaid, you've lost whatever.
I'm afraid to put my life in their hands, and that's exactly what's happening. And it's becoming more
and more hostile. And this is not my fault. I have had this disease for almost 20 years, and hopefully,
hopefully I'll have this disease for many more, because that means I'm alive. My question to everyone,
if you know anybody who is a Medicaid enrollee, or even anyone at all, because we all have bodies that
need to be taken care of,
What would happen if you cannot access your health care? What would happen if you could not
access medication? What would happen if you could not buy your child an EpiPen because it is $500? That's
not their problem. What would happen? I know what would happen to me.
I just want to ask a cup for a show of hands. Does anyone in here feel vulnerable in their health care
situation, either because of access, cost? Yeah, for real. I don't know about you, but I have a body.
You have a body. And anyone with a body?
That's how it rolls, right? And it's wrong. It is wrong. So please, at your tables now, five minutes
for discussion, continuing what you were talking about before, diving into health care issues, whatever
sounds right to you in this moment at your little village of a table. So yeah, go for it. So I had
I think I first met Mitch and Raff, who was up here earlier last spring at the Heading Home Housing
Summit at the Convention Center in Bloomington. I was there representing the shelter, where I am a leadership
team member. And while I was there, it really was impressed upon me that issues of habitability,
eviction law, tenants' rights,
homelessness, that these are not separate individual issues, but they're all interconnected. And so
to use that analogy from Desmond Tutu that I used earlier, I felt like in my shelter work that I was
pulling, drowning people out of the river. And then when I met Mitch and Raf, I felt like, okay, these
are people that are doing some of that important upstream work.
that justice work of trying to improve the conditions so people stop getting pushed into the river.
And they invited me into this work, and I'm so grateful they did. And so I know you're going to get
a lot out of Mitch's story. So I'm going to turn it over to him now. This is Mitch. Thank you. My name
is Mitch Carpenter. I'm a co-founding member of Monroe County Safe Housing.
A year ago, I didn't know I'd be doing that. But back in February, a tree fell on my roof. And the way
I found out about that was I went to a movie with my dad up in Indy. And when I got out, I turned on
my phone. And all of a sudden, my phone just started blowing up. People were like, are you OK? You were
right there near what was a tornado that went through the west side of town over there near the Otis
plant, where the Otis plant was.
I walked out and said goodbye to my dad, who I watched the movie with. And I was like, what's going
on? Because there wasn't really a big storm up there. There was just a little rain on the ground and
stuff. And I looked on there, and my mom, who's right there, had sent me a photo of a tree that was
on our roof. And I was like, oh my god, how bad is it? And I had the whole drive home to kind of think
about it and talk with her and hear that it could have been worse, but nothing was crazy. There was
no damage coming straight through the house or anything.
But it turns out that meant that my property manager could just sort of sit there and not do anything
about it. He worked within the law and just didn't do anything for six weeks. It stayed up on my roof.
And so in that time, water came in, but it didn't come in in the exact right way to mean that the building
department could do anything about it. It just came in my daughter's ceiling.
broke in there and dripped down on her Barbie dream house. And yeah, which Santa got for her. Anyway,
I saw him the next day, and he did what he normally did. My property manager, that is Tim, he ducked
out. I pulled in the driveway, or I pulled in the parking lot, and I thought, good, there he is. I'll
go talk to him. And as soon as I got out of my car, I looked over. He ran to his car and got out of there.
The people that love me, the people I know that are my friends and everything, they reached out to me
right away. As soon as I was in the movie, I was hearing from them and he couldn't even talk to me.
And he continued that way for six weeks and just waited and waited for someone to do maybe the lowest
bid possible, which is what he is supposed to do, I guess, right? He's supposed to make more money for
the people that pay him and
He's not really supposed to look out for us. But you see my daughter with the wavy hair running around
here a little bit. I'm supposed to look out for her. And so there were points where I was like,
screw it. I'll go get a tarp. I'll go up there. I'll pin the tarp down. I'll put it on there myself.
This has to stop. And he told me, if you do that, you'll be evicted. You can't do anything.
So your agency, when you have a landlord,
is completely taken away from you. They lord over you. And so we have to come together and stop them
from doing that. There has to be regulations. There has to be people that we put in power that stop
that for us. And I'm glad that you guys are here to hear my story. You know, I've heard hundreds and
hundreds of stories as I've gone around knocking on people's doors.
Some stories the same as mine with trees that fall on people's roofs and cars and stuff like that. And
I want to hear more of these stories. And I want us to get together and fix this and stop this and make
sure that landlords and property managers are held accountable. Thank you.
Thank you, Mitch. So now we're going to take another five minutes, I think, at tables. And again, if
candidates and electeds can move to the next spot on their list. And your table leads will help get
that next conversation started. So we'll go ahead and take a few minutes to do that now. Yeah.
On the cusp of shifting to a different section right here, so I'm gonna ask you to finish the sentences
and get ready to shift gears. We've been turning internally, sharing at the tables, and we're gonna
invite Ian and Tracy to come up and to get us started in the next section here. Very excited for this.
Thank you so much, Georgianne and Dan and all of our storytellers who came up here. My name is Tracy
Hutchings-Getz. I'm Hoosier Action's health justice organizer. And I'm really proud and excited to be
standing up here because I know what it's like to have to deal with not being able to fill a prescription
because I'm afraid of how much it's going to cost.
putting off seeing a doctor, and I'm pretty sick and tired of it. Yeah. I know what it is like to think
that everything is my fault and to sit in the shame of that when things are hard. And what I know is
the only way
to get out of that shame and to move into actually fixing stuff is by coming together with other people.
Because what y'all heard at the tables and what we heard in front of the room and what I have heard
on hundreds of doors is things are harder than they should be right now. Yeah. How was that hearing
from other folks at the tables? Good, great. That's interesting. OK, anyone want to throw anything else out?
No. Yeah. Bad. Yeah. We don't do this enough. Yeah. Joe said not feeling like you're alone. Yeah. How
many of y'all have felt alone recently in what you're going through? Yeah. I think it's a pretty common feeling.
So as we kind of shift gears tonight a little bit into relating to some of the elected officials and
candidates who are in the room, the thing that I want to communicate to all of y'all is you can keep
doing this. Whether it's with Hoosier Action or on your own, like we are too divided right now. We are
too isolated and we don't talk enough about what is going on in our lives, what is hard and what we need.
And that silence and that isolation and that sitting in shame, that is what keeps us stuck and keeps
us thinking that it is all on us alone. When in fact, I actually know when I live here, because we are
a community and it is on us together. And when I know that people are struggling in my community, when
I know that they're delaying health care and they're going to end up in the emergency room because they
don't have a primary care doctor,
And then I'm going to have to wait longer in the emergency room if I get into a car accident. We are
all connected here. And our only way out of this is together. Yeah.
In a moment, I'm going to have Ian introduce himself, who's co-leading this section with me. And what
I would like to do is invite our elected officials and candidates to make their way up front so that
we can have some rapid-fire introductions together. And I'll invite you all up on the stage while Ian
introduces himself and explains a little bit about what we're going to be doing together. Hi, guys.
Glad to be here and slightly nervous to be here as well. My name is Ian and I am on the door knocking
team with Hoosier Action. Thanks. Thank you, thank you. I remember, so Mitch's story, that's not actually
that unusual. So I just thought of something that happened like last year where my property manager sent in
Okay, I was getting home, actually, and I was gonna use the bathroom, and I discover that there's been
people in my house, and they sent maintenance to my house, and they tore out the entire bathroom, and
they just left. This actually happened, and we didn't have a bathroom for a week. So, you can imagine
all... Anyway, this is not... So, I looked into what we could be
we could get back in return and basically nothing. We could have sued them for like 150 bucks or something.
And so this stuff happens more than just, in Mitch's case, I mean, is far worse than mine, but I do
think this stuff is actually pretty widespread. And you know, like knocking on doors, like before I
started doing this, I would have told you, like to be honest, that I'm not a political person, that
politics really isn't for me. I thought it was something that people talk about, have a bunch of opinions about,
and all that stuff was really abstract, and I don't know enough, and so on. But I've learned, talking
to hundreds of people, knocking on doors, that actually, you know, there's a way of thinking about politics,
and to be honest, a lot of people on the doors that have a lot better ideas about what's wrong than
the people often that they see on media and so on. So I've learned that politics is actually something
that can be about practical stuff.
And we share more of that stuff than you guys or that I thought we would. I'm here right now with you
all to get us all the things we need. So I wanna, as you all just heard from each other, and that I've
heard knocking on doors of people that things are pretty dire right now. It's getting harder just to
live. We talked about housing costs going up, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
making sure it's go up for everyone. Hospitals are closing. I just heard from my table someone talking
about elderly care. A lot of those facilities are closing these days, too. And it's going to affect
all of us. It's getting clearer and clearer to me that we are in a crisis and we've got to do something
about this. How many of you, show of hands, have either experienced or heard someone at your table who's
experienced
the system letting you down, show of hands. Yeah, yeah, no, everyone. We're facing a lot of problems.
And it's easy right now to be cynical about politics because everything is focused at the national level
when you look at the news. And that's so far out of our reach, even when that stuff affects us.
And meanwhile, for us, for regular people, things just keep getting worse. Neither party seems to be
fighting for regular people. But politics,
Another way of thinking about it that I've been thinking through these days is it's about figuring out
how to use our shared resources. And recently, none of those shared resources are going to us.
What's more, though, you'd be surprised, like I was saying earlier, how many people, if you just ask
them what they care about, cares about all the stuff that we do. I mean, just the amount of people here
today I think shows that we all care about basically housing costs, health care costs. They're too high.
And that's why we're here. That's what we're putting into action right now. We're trying to make that
stuff. This is an attempt to make that stuff better for all of us. Now is our chance to demand that
our needs are met. We need to build power if we want to get our democracy working again in our interests.
Thank you all.
Thank you, Ian. And the first way that we do that is by getting in relationship with each other and
with the people who are running to represent us or who already represent us, because we have a mix.
And first of all, I want to thank all of you all for making it out tonight. I know there were some other
folks who wanted to be here and couldn't, but very grateful for this whole slate of elected officials
and candidates who we have here. So here's the game plan.
A lot of us don't know what different people in local government do.
So on your sheets, and I'm going to read out loud, some descriptions of some of the elected officials'
roles that we have here. And then all of y'all are going to have one minute. We will keep you to time
to introduce yourself and share anything about what this experience has been like for you so far, what
you heard at the tables. Because this is first and foremost a people's forum. It is about what's going
on in our lives. And we so appreciate all of you being here to listen
in to that first and foremost. And we'll have some time afterwards at the very end to mingle. And this
is just a beginning. So we're going to start with township trustees. And I'm going to have to trust
you all to be passing the mic to one another. And we'll just go down the line. So what is a township trustee?
Township trustees are the elected officials closest to the ground. They're maybe my personal favorite.
They're kind of special to Indiana. They provide emergency assistance such as food, housing, utilities
and medical assistance. Township trustees are also responsible for ensuring reliable fire protection
and emergency ambulance services, as well as overseeing township records, properties and cemeteries.
So I'd now like to invite the Township Trustee candidates and currently sitting Township Trustees to
respond to what they heard tonight and introduce themselves in one minute. Hello, I'm Ron Hudson. I'm
the Trustee of Beam Boston Township, which is the northern section of Monroe County. I heard a lot at my table.
But it's mostly health care. Most of those girls are having trouble with their health care, finding
health care for their kids. And I can understand. I'm on Medicare. And my premiums are horrible. But
I don't make that much money as a township trustee either.
Actually, my wife makes more money than I do in two jobs. But that's what I heard from them. But I just
came from uptown at the Planning Commission meeting. And they were hearing the same stuff there from
some of the people speaking to them. Housing costs are exorbitant right now.
My costs for assistance on housing have gone up threefold in the last two years. At one time, it was
easy for me to help somebody with their rent. Rent was $300 maybe. But now it's closer to $1,000, closer
to $1,500.
Hello, my name is Susan Luther. I'm a candidate for Clear Creek Township Trustee, which is in far south
Monroe County. So, it's a very rural area. It has two community centers, one in Smithville and one in
Harrodsburg, but both very small communities. What I heard today at the tables was resonating with me
because it's happening out there, it's happening
I would be surprised
food stamps, I'm not sure exactly what it's called today, TANF maybe, and they get kicked off on a regular
basis, and then you try to submit your documentation to the state. They conveniently never receive it,
or they received it one day, and then two hours later they've lost it again, and then you have to resubmit
it, and then you have, it just goes, and then they keep you off.
when you resubmit it. If it's their fault, you know, it's okay, you're not gonna get it. If it's your
fault, it's still, you're not gonna get it. So you just don't get it. It's ridiculous. So anyway, I
see a stop out here, so I'll stop and move it on.
Hello my name is Susan or Gus Hingle the other Susan not Susan Luther I'm running as a first-time candidate
for the Indian Creek Township trustee which is in the southwest corner of Monroe County and if you've
never been out there I highly recommend it. We have actually no towns in I mean we have Kirksville and
but nothing incorporated. We have Bloomington addresses. Anyway, we have our lovely fire station and
we have our community park, which I highly recommend. And one of the things that I'm working on in my
township is a walking trail at our park. We have the property to do so because there's nowhere safe
to walk out there and we have the property. So build a trail so we can be safe and build community and
enjoy ourselves. I also hope to, uh,
have transparent office hours and be accessible to the people in my community because it's, I wanna
be the place that people come for help. Hi, everyone. Efrat Rosser. I'm the Bloomington Township Trustee in my
end of my first term and running for my second term. And I think, you know, I've heard the things that
unfortunately I see every day in the office. Usually people are there on their worst day and dealing
with landlords that just put a lot of barriers
on them. Some landlords are better than others. But, you know, the roof example, I think, was a good
one because we've seen that when there have been fires or tornadoes and renters are disproportionately
impacted and left out of programs that help homeowners often.
The Medicaid changes and the changes to SNAP that are impacting everyone, both in terms of just putting
up barriers, I think that's been the theme. I see my stop sign.
OK, thank you all. I'm now going to speak a little bit about the two parts of our county government
and then give those folks an opportunity to speak. So county government is made up of a county council
and a county commission. The county council approves budgets for all county departments and authorizes
or denies the spending of public funds. The council sets property tax rates, levies, and approves bonds
for money borrowing.
The council establishes salaries and benefits for county employees and also authorizes land sales leases
and purchases. We have our.
you know, lucky here to have multiple county council members as well as a candidate for county commission.
The county commissioners oversee property and infrastructure such as jails and county roads. They review
and approve payments, receive bids for projects and award contracts. They also have legislative powers
to adopt ordinances and oversee county employees.
I will now pass the mic over to the folks who are here who serve in our county government to introduce
themselves. Hi, my name is Kate Welts and I'm on county council and the things that really resonated
with me this evening are how much we in government
need to work together across not just political differences, but across offices. Because there are a
lot of problems that we're all dealing with that I don't feel empowered just myself to be able to solve.
And that's daunting.
That's daunting, because I ran for office to solve problems. And I want to work on those things. We
don't have the same kind of services and programs from our government that we used to. And that's something
else I heard. And so I'd like to look at how we can fix that.
Hi, everybody. My name is Trent Deckard. I'm on county council running for county commissioner. First,
thank you all for letting me sit and listen and take lots of notes and observe. This is the healthiest
thing that we do in these jobs. I often say the best things we can do are not be at the NatU Hill Room
in the courthouse and be somewhere where we're actually where folks are and keeping our mouth shut,
because that's how we learn.
As I think about what I've heard tonight, I've heard frustration, I've heard a myriad of issues that
cascade through every level of government, doesn't matter where the jurisdiction is. And as I think
about the county, our county has a lot of times adopted a mindset, and I say this even as we said at
the fairgrounds, that we've got to keep 1982 approaches for 2026 problems.
I believe the future for our county until somebody invents a better way or goes to work at other levels
is that we've got to step forward for those problems. And that may mean getting beyond the conventional
routes or engaging lots of folks, but doing our jobs. I see my time's up and I got the tab. Sorry.
It is hard. I'm not going to get through my introduction.
David Henry, I'm one of the Monroe County counselors at large, and I'm not running for anything in November,
so I'm happy to be here right now. I want to thank you all for bringing this in, and this group has
done amazing work over the years. I met Michelle Higgs, whose reaction so many others over the past
decade of your hard work. You know, I want to say, and building on what I've heard from my colleagues,
that I don't think county government does things out of malice. I do think we do things out of ignorance,
and I do think that
The more we can get our elected officials in rooms to hear these stories, it removes that ignorance
of how people are really living in our community. I was late because I was at Plan Commission. It's
one of the hats I wear on county council. It was in the Natahue Hill room where we got to get out of
it and be with you all. And, you know, I'm just going to share a fun fact with you. The only kind of
home you can build outside city limits in Monroe County without getting extra permission is a single-family
home, usually on a 2.5 to 5-acre lot.
We're debating that on County, literally on Plan Commission an hour ago, about how to fix that in the
community. And there's an attitude that it doesn't need to be fixed. And that's what's causing the cost
problems to go up. We are the architects of these problems. What has been done can also be undone. And
I appreciate your stories to help us really understand it better. Thank you. Hello.
My name is Liz Fiddle. I'm the youngest member of the county council. I'm at large also. And I mean
youngest in service, not in age. Because I'm really close to the top in age. But I come from a different
background. I have organizing roots in labor, organizing. I have activist roots in this community for
a very long time. Proud to have done all of that, and so I don't
have trouble sticking up for much of anything that I think is a good thing to do. So I'm really happy
that I got to hear from the tables and the speakers that spoke tonight. And I'm long interested in this
problem with getting apartment owners or people who own property to get their housing up to snuff where
people can live in it safely. I'm really up for that challenge. That's a big thing. And so I'm ready.
to do whatever I can do with my name behind it to tackle almost any of this. Thank you all so much.
I am now going to read a brief statement from County Commissioner Jody Madeira, who very much wanted
to be here tonight, but is at the planning meeting you all have heard so much about. She said, quote,
I'm truly sorry I can't be with you tonight.
I have to be at the planning commission meeting where we are hearing public comment on housing in our
community, an issue that touches so many in this room. Hearing your stories directly is one of the most
important parts of holding elected office. It's how I learn what's really happening and how I learn
how I can actually help. I will watch the video of tonight's meeting and would love to meet with any
person or group that would like to share stories with me in person. Thanks so much to everyone for showing up.
for speaking out and for caring so much about our community because that's how we make it better. You
can clap for that.
And I'll just add, if you would like to have any of your stories delivered to elected officials, you
can mark that down on your sheets. And then additionally, this is just a starting point, and Jody is
not the only person who wanted to be here but could not be here tonight. And so we are going to continue
to build out those relationships and follow up and report out on this meeting.
Finally, I would like to pass the mic over to the candidates here who are running for state representative.
Okay. So, what are state representatives? Indiana state representatives work with members of our state
senate, that's our legislative body as a state, the General Assembly, to pass state laws and decide
the state budget, which funds our schools, roads, healthcare system, and more.
The members of Indiana's House of Representatives draft the state budget, which amounts to more than
$50 billion annually of your money and our money together. We invited State Representative Dave Hall
to join us this evening, and he was unable to attend, so he sent this notice. Quote, I'm sorry I can't
be with you tonight. I wanted to thank Hoosier Action and everyone here for the work you do meeting
people where they are.
I've done a lot of door-to-door myself, and I've actually run into some Hoosier Action volunteers on
the streets, so I know firsthand how much that work matters. After thousands of front porch conversations,
I'm convinced it's one of the most important things any of us can do. It's made me a better legislator
and a better person. Thank you for showing up for people where they are. And if anyone here needs help
with anything, Hoosier Action has my contact info, please don't hesitate to reach out.
I'm now going to pass the mic over to our candidates for state representative who were able to join
us this evening. Hi.
My name's Amy Huffman Oliver. I'm running for Indiana State Representative and District 62, which you
are sitting in right now. And it includes all of Brown County, a lot of rural Monroe County, and a little
bit of Jackson County. And what I'm struck by this evening is just thank you for being here and for
sharing your stories. It is the number one job of a representative to be there, to listen, and
you need to be sending these stories to your representatives, they need to hear it. And I think that
that's the only job of a representative is to do that. I'm seeing a lot of these issues at the policy
level, and that's where we need to solve some of these problems about healthcare, about housing, about
childcare, and all of the issues we're talking about because we have to,
find solutions that are going to be right for us, and it's everything that we need, and that should
be our priority. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Jimmy Pittsburgh. I'm running for the House of
Representatives for the District 46, which is Bean Blossom and Richland Townships, all of Owen County,
five townships in Clay County,
free townships in Vigo County. I want to thank you for this opportunity to be here to hear the stories
so that I can do a better job if I'm elected, so that I can find a way to make these people that own
these buildings feel that they have a responsibility. Just as you have a responsibility to have car
insurance, they should also be prepared to deal with problems with their facilities.
that they're providing you with. And I thank you for this opportunity. Good evening. I am Carrie Cicello.
I am your House District 60 candidate for Morgan Johnson and Monroe counties. What I heard tonight is
a lot of discussion over housing and
One thing I want to leave you with today, and I hope I can stay quicker than a minute, but I live in
a rural space. I live in rural Morgan County. And what I hear from rural people regarding housing, and
I think that we can all learn something from this. I constantly hear, well, I'd rather have this kind
of entity moving in than housing.
Like, I'd rather see manufacturing or I'd rather see a data center than housing. I hear that often all
over. And I wonder myself, I think that there is so much goodness in people that I would rather take
a chance on a new neighbor than I would something like a data center that is going to take our water,
take our clean air, all these things.
I do believe we'll be better if we can promote housing just with our tone, that we can stop saying,
I'd rather have that and not housing. We can all have a good neighbor. Thank you all so much. So we
now have a couple of super quick yes or no questions for y'all based on
what we have heard this evening as well as what we've heard on the doors. So we have surveyed more than
1,000 Monroe County residents so far, and you'll find on some of the materials on your table a link
to that survey if you haven't taken it yet and you wanna have your voice heard. And what has come up
over and over again are these concerns about cost of living, these concerns about safe, quality, affordable
housing, and these concerns about healthcare.
And we're not going to ask any specific policy questions here because we're not there yet. But we want
to work with y'all on that to advance specific housing. And when I say y'all, I mean you in this room with us.
I really think that the best policy is the policy that comes from everyday people and that the people
most impacted by problems are the ones closest to the solutions. So what we're really asking are like,
did you listen to us? Did you hear us? So I'm gonna kick it over to Ian to ask a few questions to our
Monroe County elected officials.
Okay, first question is for all of you guys. Monroe County residents, do we need rental property oversight
outside city limits? Yeah, yeah, good. Now, Monroe County electeds, will you fight for the county rental
oversight we need? Yes, good. That was super fast, good job.
Okay. I'll now be asking two questions to our state representative candidates. So the first question
I have is, will you work to prevent further preemption encroachment on our local community's ability
to protect renters? So if your friends in county governments get us some more oversight, are you going
to have their back at the state house?
Heck yes! Okay, and then for our state reps as well, will you commit to fighting back against the dangerous
Medicaid cuts, which we heard about earlier, and increase access to health care if you are elected to
the state house? Okay. Excellent.
We will also be forwarding these questions to the individuals who are not here this evening and now
I'm gonna kick it to Ian to flip the big board over there because we have one more request for our elected
officials and candidates before we close out the meeting.
At Hoosier Action, we recently ratified a set of values to be accountable, to be a steward of our resources,
and to work in community together. These are the values which we hold one another accountable to in
our organization.
And we wanted to invite elected officials, should you agree to it, to sign our big old values pledge
with a big old marker as you leave the dais. And that pledge reads, I pledge to work together with my
colleagues and my fellow elected officials across position, party, and county to address the interconnected
challenges to my constituents discussed here tonight.
I pledge to listen those I seek to represent. I pledge to be accountable to this community. I pledge
to responsibly steward our shared resources. And I pledge to put the people who live in our community
ahead of party and private profit. Yeah, is that you guys into that? Okay. So Ian, if you want to grab
some markers, I'm going to invite our elected officials to
leave the dais, and I'm here to help you down, because I know it's a big step, and give you the opportunity
to sign this. And then Ian is going to speak to this room about how we are going to keep working together
with y'all, because you can't do this alone, and neither can we. Right. And that we actually have to
be accountable altogether. So please,
exit the chaos.
All right. Let's have a round of applause for our local elected officials. This stuff that is on this
board is actually something that at this point we shouldn't take for granted. This is something that
we need to do. And it's also something, I mean, you just heard your elected officials pledge to walk
with us to make this place the place we need. But if we don't,
walk with them, all of us here. We've made already a step in that direction by being here tonight in
person. They're going to leave us behind. Democracy only works if we walk toward it together with our
elected officials. We're all in the same room together. This has to happen more. We need to build those
relationships with each other, with our electeds, and we do that by working together, by planning together.
I mean, this event,
that we're all taking part in right now. This was a result of a lot of planning, but it happens because
people like you all work to make it happen. And this is what Hoosier Action is here for. We want to
continue to build these relationships closer over time. So if you're interested in walking with us,
and you just saw your elected officials do the same thing, there's on your tables, there's a Hoosier
Action commitment card.
And it has a set of things on it that is basically exactly that. Helps you guys, helps all of us fulfill
our part of the bargain of democracy. First off is voting. This is the most obvious one. This is the
most direct participation in electing officials. We live in a democracy. Voting is part of what that
means. But next, we got a couple of events coming up.
that are all an opportunity to be in the same place that we're in now, to build policy together. And
like Tracy just said, policy is built from us all together collaboratively. That's how you make it better,
by having it being planned by people who are closest to the problems. First, we got our monthly chapter
meeting. Our next one's gonna be on November 1st, and that's like not this Sunday, but the one after.
It's the best way to plug in locally. We have a care and housing team, and we'll talk about this event
together. We'll debrief, come up with ideas of what to do next. The next is the organization-wide meeting
in Columbus, and this is the one, is on the 14th, so two weeks later. All Hoosier Action members from
across southern Indiana, so if you want to meet our friends and colleagues from all over the place.
And then last, but
in some ways the most important. On January 13th, we're going to have a health care day of action. We're
going to demand justice at the state house. That's going to be in Indianapolis. So hopefully we can
see at least some of us there. And that's going to be a huge event. We're going to have people from
all over the state coming for that one. So it's a big mobilization, demand cuts for our health care
to stop, like we heard today. And this is something that I think all of us should be able to get behind,
health care and housing.
And finally, the last thing on there is dues. You know, we can't just have organized people. We can't
just all show up together in the same place because we also need to back this up with organized money.
That's what power is. This is just half of what power looks like. And you can pay what you can. Usually
members pay $15 a month online. Sometimes people pay less, sometimes more. So whatever you can would be
would be meaningful to take ownership of Hoosier Action. This is an organization that's here for you
guys. Okay, now I'm gonna hand it off to, do you wanna say something more? No, no. I wanna welcome up
our last speaker. Where did she go? Yes, come on up as you're filling out our commitment cards.
We are going to move towards the conclusion of the meeting. So take a minute, write down what you want
to commit to, and when you're done, give it to your table captain. And you can hold it up to show that
you're done when you are done.
I've got to clarify, is there another speaker somewhere? Friends, it has been a gift to be with you
tonight. I'm Reverend Jessica Peterson Mutai. I have the privilege, the honor, and the responsibility
as serving as the senior minister of First United Church in Bloomington, Indiana. And in some ways,
I feel like I have gone to church tonight. And it could just be me, because I'm a pastor,
Right? But what we've been doing here, telling the truth, working for justice, building community, taking
collective action, this is what my faith calls me to. And I have felt inspired to continue engaging
in this work. Has anybody else felt inspired? Yeah, yeah, right? This has been amazing. This is us building
power together.
but it's not just a moment. This is a movement. This is the kind of inspiration that continues with
us, that sticks with us beyond 730, obviously, because we're way past that time, but beyond the end
of this meeting and beyond us leaving this auditorium. This inspiration is one that sticks with us because stories
stick with us because experiences stick with us. And there's one other thing that we tend to do in church
and we haven't done it here tonight that sticks with you in that song. All right. So I'm going to invite
you to get a little more uncomfortable before you leave. And that might be good. Work you out of your
chair. And I'm going to invite you to sing.
And this is a call and response, but really, it's a repeat after me, okay? That will take us out into
the world and keep moving us forward in this work together, right? Together, because we can't do this
alone. We can only do it together. So I'm gonna teach y'all a song. It's called Rise Up, and if you
wanna rise up physically, you're welcome to do that, but we all know you're rising up
spiritually in this space. And this was written by Sharon Fribar and Jose Vasquez of the Poor People's
Campaign and National Call for Moral Revival. So I can't take credit for that. But I'm going to sing
it, and then y'all are invited to sing. I talked to some people earlier, and they said they were going
to sing. OK? So all right. Rise up. Come on and rise up. Rise up.
Come on and rise up. Rise up. We're gonna rise up. Rise up. We're gonna rise up. We ain't gonna let
nobody turn us around. We ain't gonna let nobody turn us around. Because the people united will stand
our ground. Because the people united will stand our ground.
So rise up, we're gonna rise up. Rise up, we're gonna rise up. Rise up, we're gonna rise up. Rise up,
we're gonna rise up. The powers that be can't keep us down. The powers that be can't keep us down. We're
gonna rise up.
And turn the world around. We're going to rise up. And turn the world around. You know this. Rise up.
Come on and rise up. Rise up. Come on and rise up. Rise up. We're going to rise up. Rise up. We're going
to rise up. The people are ready so follow their lead.
The people are ready so follow their lead. We'll put an end to the violence, the hatred, and greed.
We'll put an end to the violence, the hatred, and greed. So rise up. We're going to rise up. Rise up.
We're going to rise up. Rise up. We're going to rise up. Rise up.
We're gonna rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up. May it be so.