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Most of us who advocate for policies to help housing-insecure residents do it because we know that healthy, stable housing is foundational to strong communities. That’s why the Indiana General Assembly’s override of Gov. Holcomb’s SEA 148 veto was like a gut punch.
This landlord-friendly bill will undoubtedly harm communities, and its sole beneficiaries will be landlords. Many landlords are out-of-state and international investors, meaning benefits they receive will not help local economies.
However, there is hope. To support the city’s renters, half of whom are housing cost-burdened and vulnerable to exploitation by bad landlords, Indianapolis leaders should convene their networks and pool their resources in the following ways:
◗ City government should use its policies and processes to ensure that foreclosed properties do not fall into the hands of market-rate investors and instead are sold to people who will actually live in the properties or who will create affordable housing opportunities. Renew Indianapolis should be a key partner in this effort.
◗ Not-for-profits, philanthropies and banks should bolster their offerings to help low- to moderate-income renters into homeownership or into housing that is owned by good-faith actors, not-for-profits and community organizations. Programs through Habitat for Humanity and Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership are two ideas. Englewood Community Development is also making affordable rental housing available through innovative models.
◗ Public, not-for-profit and philanthropic leaders should establish a fund and mechanism to help renters move out of substandard housing. This could be a public fund, possibly channeled through the township trustees’ offices, which already provide renters with some stop-gap funding, albeit at varying levels of effectiveness. Alternatively, it could be a not-for-profit that administers funding. For instance, Central Indiana Community Fund’s community ambassadors have successfully distributed more than $100,000 to residents in need.
◗ Public and not-for-profit leaders must preserve current affordable housing so it does not expire and become market-rate. They should also shift more funding toward creating new permanently affordable units to address Marion County’s 100,000 affordable-unit shortfall.
◗ The Marion County Public Health Department and Business and Neighborhood Services should track problem properties better, and there must be repercussions for landlords whose properties are cited with multiple, unaddressed and unpaid code violations.
◗ Philanthropies should dedicate funds to connecting renters with legal aid organizations so renters can hold their bad landlords accountable. Indiana Legal Services and Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic offer such services to renters, but their capacity is limited.
◗ Public, not-for-profit and philanthropic leaders should prioritize efforts to establish a community land trust.
Individuals can also support these efforts. People can donate to legal aid organizations that offer low- and no-fee services. They can donate to organizations that offer stop-gap funds for rent and utilities.
Finally, the effort to help and protect renters needs the support of good landlords. We know bad landlords represent a small percentage of housing providers, but it is the negligent, exploitative landlords who give the rest a bad reputation and harm communities. We need good landlords to play an active role in advocating for good landlord-tenant policies and practices.•
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Chambers is a consultant and researcher specializing in socioeconomic inequities and exclusions in economic development. Beck is a project manager at Westside Community Development Corp. and community land trust outreach coordinator at Homes For All Indy.
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