Bloomington residents, IU students, and community activists gathered to protest the city’s treatment of people experiencing homelessness. Part of the protest took place outside an NCAA tournament game on March 20th.

The protest, called “March to End the Madness”, was organized by local activist groups such as the Bloomington Homeless Coalition in response to the city’s repeated clearing of homeless camps from city parks.

Trevor Richardson, one of the protest organizers who is currently homeless, says the city has failed to find a solution for the city’s unhoused community.

Homeless residents are currently not allowed to sleep in public parks after city parks close at 11 p.m. In a 4-4 vote, the Bloomington City Council recently struck down an ordinance that would have put several procedures in place that the city would have had to follow before displacing homeless residents.

Richardson says he felt compelled to protest due to the city’s failure to pass that ordinance and due to the deaths that he says were caused by the city’s evictions of homeless camps.

Richardson was a friend of JT Vanderberg, who died due to causes including hypothermia shortly after the city evicted homeless residents from Seminary Park in December. Bloomington Police Department body-cam footage shows an officer performing a welfare check on JT just hours before he was found dead.

“We have a right to be able to camp, to be able to make our home, as long as we’re not obstructing the business flow of traffic,” Richardson said. “The city’s disregarded that, it’s disregarded the humanity of us, and they’ve said that we’re not their responsibility.”

Protestors marched from Dunn Meadow, to the President’s House, and finally to the tailgate fields outside of Assembly Hall where the March 20th game between Louisiana Sate University and St. Bonaventure University was underway.

IU student Sam Waterman says the protest took place in front of the game because while IU spends millions on athletics, she feels the university has been complicit about the homelessness crisis in Bloomington.

The protestors set up tents outside of Assembly Hall as part of their demonstration. Despite being told by IUPD that they had to take the tents down or they would be confiscated, the protestors kept them up until the end of the game and IUPD never confiscated them.

“You have to realize it’s frivolous. It’s a privilege to be able to do something like this,” Waterman said about the game. “Your privilege can be used to help people that are literally being denied a place to sleep.”