Homeless man living with cancer at Fountain Square camp finds housing, hospice

Homeless man living with cancer at Fountain Square camp finds housing, hospice

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Over a dozen tents were still standing Friday at an Indianapolis homeless camp that was set to be cleared Monday. I-Team 8 spoke to about 11 people living at the Fountain Square camp. Over half said they were over 55 years old.

One man, Travis Dalton, is spending his senior years sleeping on the streets, all while battling stomach cancer.

“Me taking a guess … probably about three months or so,” Dalton said.

Inside his tent, Dalton was resting on something heartbreaking.

“On a hospital bed that they had somehow jerry-rigged inside of the tent,” Lindsay Huff, social services manager at Morning Light, Inc., said.

Morning Light, Inc. is a hospice home for the low income and oftentimes homeless.

When the city said it was going to clear the camp, they also said they would help find housing.

But, people like Dalton and his sister, Angela, struggled. That’s where Huff came in.

“I stepped inside the tent. I said, ‘What’s up Travis? I’m Lindsay. What can I do to help you?” Huff said.

She knew Dalton and Angela needed help.

“Travis was frail,” Huff said. “He had a lot of stomach pain. He could sit up, he could definitely talk to us. He could walk, but not far, and they were just needing some additional support. They didn’t know who to reach out to to get it.”

Dalton and Angela visited Morning Light and soon after found out they were accepted for an apartment on Meridian Street with CHIP, the Coalition for Homeless Intervention and Prevention.

Dalton and Angela will move this weekend.

I-Team 8 asked Dalton what it will be like to have a real bed to rest on.

“Good! Better than being out here in the hot sun and especially sleeping in the tent,” Dalton said.

“All of a sudden, that feeling of desperation, being in the summer heat, being in pain for Travis and for Angela, having peace of mind that her brother will be well cared for,” Huff said. “It’s nothing but happiness.”

Huff says Dalton will have hospice care as their new place. She says his experience highlights the sad reality that nearly 20% of the homeless population is over 55 years old.

That rate is growing rapidly as housing efforts target younger adults.

“For some reason, we get really caught up in somebody that we can give back life to, because we have a view that somebody who is younger has more life to live, I think that we take away from the aging population,” Huff said.

Huff hopes that changes. Helping Dalton is a start.

“When you change the world for one person, it ripples out to the rest of us,” Dalton said.

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