Just three months after moving their South Bend office to the city’s outskirts, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced it’s also closing its Mishawaka office. The moves will make it harder for people, especially those lacking transportation.
In August the state agency moved its South Bend office from the Commerce Center building downtown to an office building in the Blackthorn area, on the city’s far northwest edge. Transpo added a bus line out there but it only runs six times a day.
This week the FSSA said, effective Dec. 5, it will close its Mishawaka office near the 100 Center and move its operations to the new South Bend location. Jason Critchlow, the Portage Township Trustee in South Bend, says the moves defy logic.
“We’ve been sending people to that Mishawaka location because it’s easier for people to get to than that one out by Blackthorn because it’s somewhat closer and there’s more bus routes that service it, so it’s a huge blow," he says. "The first move was a blow and this is just putting salt in the wound.”
FSSA officials declined our interview request. In a statement, they said, “the consolidation is intended to streamline operations and provide more centralized service for clients in St. Joseph County.”
Critchlow says the agency said the Blackthorn site has parking they need for call center staff. He says he gets that but he’s offered to provide free space for a small satellite office in the trustee’s building downtown to serve clients. But he says the FSSA has ignored his offer.
"It would be budget-neutral for them because they would just be moving staff from one location to another but I would be providing the space for free, and that's apparently not something they're interested in."
