Work to empty troubled complex nears end

Liz Durden, known in her community as “Miss Liz,” lived in the now crime-riddled Towne & Terrace community for 35 years.

It wasn’t always so dangerous. She remembers it as a family-friendly community in the 1990s, complete with outdoor movie nights and picnics.

But the secluded neighborhood’s singular entrance and exit from East 42nd Street made it an ideal spot for drug dealing. And eventually, Durden said, dealers would “camp out” near that entrance and have foot races to cars entering to determine who would get the sale first.

After years of neighborhood strife, the administration of Mayor Joe Hogsett last year began demolishing portions of the cluster of 258 housing units and is in the process of relocating other Towne & Terrace residents. The goal is to complete the relocation by the end of the year.

Durden, president of the Towne & Terrace homeowners association, has moved to a home outside the neighborhood, just across Post Road. She’s happy with the move and with the funding provided by the city to compensate her for the unit she owned and for her relocation expenses.

She declined to say how much she received. But the city says it has paid as much as $157,000 for a resident’s unit, replacement housing costs and moving assistance.

The Marion County Assessor’s Office often estimates the value of Towne & Terrace housing units at $20,000 to $30,000.

“I’ve got a nice place [now],” Durden said. “… It’s a house, not a town house. It’s probably the same amount of space inside, but larger outside.”

Compared with what her former neighborhood had become, the new surroundings are peaceful, a place where neighbors watch out for one another.

Still, it’s bittersweet. She recalls good times in Towne & Terrace, with backyard birthday parties and her children capturing frogs from a creek that cuts through the neighborhood.

But she acknowledged that the city’s decision to take over the housing and apartment complex might be the best route to get families like her own out of an unsafe situation.

Beginning the move

When community outreach specialist Rockea Bell started knocking on doors at Towne & Terrace to tell residents they would have to move, they were—understandably, she said—disgruntled.

Beginning in October 2022, these efforts were met with fear and mistrust. But she said she’s noticed a shift in recent months.

Many fears have been eased by a federal law that requires displaced renters and homeowners to be given compensation to buy or rent a new place and to cover relocation costs.

Without that assistance, many couldn’t afford to move. Some were paying rent as low as $500 a month at Towne & Terrace. A comparable unit elsewhere often costs at least $1,000 month, and the city’s assistance program will pay the difference in rental costs ($500) for 42 months.

More than a year into the relocation process, remaining residents are still hearing gunshots and dealing with additional squatters associated with the abandoned structures. Most residents are now ready to move, Bell said.

Durden said many of her neighbors have found adequate housing using the city funds. Especially for renters, who were unsure where to go, the process helped, she said.

Every relocation package differs, Bell said, but the city occasionally pays the deposit for displaced Towne & Terrace residents to secure a rental and typically provides a stipend for moving costs.

Bell said the most rewarding interactions come when she’s able to work with not-for-profit homeownership organizations like Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership and First Merchants Bank to get families into homes they can own.

“Rent is so expensive, and you think about, ‘Is that sustainable even after four years [when the relocation payments end]?’” Bell said.

Durden said some residents “are never going to be satisfied” with city offers. Others never had a documented lease or can’t receive city assistance because they are living in the United States without legal permission.

Durden said she’s working with the administration to set up a resource fair that includes connections to homeless shelters, Indiana Family and Social Services and not-for-profits such as La Plaza that can assist in obtaining necessary documentation for immigrants.

The city has spent $3.2 million on property acquisition so far, an additional $1.5 million on relocation costs. Earlier this month, Durden estimated that about 40 households still need to be relocated.

The current estimate for demolition is $3.4 million. Costs for the entire project are being covered largely by the American Rescue Plan Act and some local funding.

Some objections

Not everyone is happy with the city’s approach.

Dee Ross, who grew up at Towne & Terrace, is concerned that demolition doesn’t address the poverty at the root of the neighborhood’s problems.

He said living in the area led him down a dangerous path until he watched a best friend murder another. That served as a wake-up call. So he founded the Ross Foundation to serve the neighborhood.

He’s also concerned that the city has not told neighbors of any plan for the property’s reuse.

“There was nothing communicated, and all we know is just that [the city is] displacing residents and knocking it down,” Ross told IBJ.

A grassy field visible from the complex through a chain-link fence is the former site of Oaktree Apartments, a property the city acquired through eminent domain and razed in a similar process to its approach for Towne & Terrace.

Ross said demolition at Oaktree began in 2019, and he fears the Towne & Terrace site will also remain vacant.

City officials, however, say they plan to consider redevelopment of the two properties together.

In late 2022, the Department of Metropolitan Development unveiled the “Oaktree revitalization plan,” a document created through months of community meetings and discussions.

That plan prioritizes market-rate and affordable housing, mixed-use projects, retail and entertainment, office space, civic projects, and public-park space along a creek that bisects the property.

Aryn Schounce, senior policy adviser for the Hogsett administration, told IBJ in a statement that the city would follow a similar process to determine what residents in the area want for the Towne & Terrace property.

If the desires are similar, the two properties will be combined into a 38-acre site for which the city will seek redevelopment proposals.

For La Keisha Jackson, who represented the district that contains Towne & Terrace for nearly a decade as a city-county councilor and now does the same as a state senator, the demolition/relocation project has been a positive for the area.

She said it feels good to finally see her constituents moved to safe homes.

“Now they feel they can see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Jackson said.•