Affordable housing targeted with $300K investment in Clark and Floyd counties
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The Community Foundation of Southern Indiana is investing $300,000 to fuel collaboration, research and development efforts targeting what it says is a critical gap in housing availability and affordability in Clark and Floyd counties.
The foundation, in partnership with the Indiana University Southeast Applied Research and Education Center and New Albany-based advisory firm The Wheatley Group, aims to increase housing inventory for low-to-moderate-income families.
The three-year strategy follows last month’s release of a housing study that foundation CEO Linda Speed said makes it clear that the region faces significant challenges in providing affordable housing for working families.
“We have just a little over 50% [of families] in Clark County and a little under 50% in Floyd County who live in housing that is not affordable for their incomes,” Speed told Inside INdiana Business. “What that means is their monthly housing costs exceed the recommended 30% of monthly income. Now with inflation, these households are just finding it harder and harder to keep above water.”
Speed said the study was about more than just housing; it’s also about economic growth, workforce stability, and the long-term success of the region.
“If we want our region to continue to grow and to thrive, we have got to ensure that working families, young professionals, older adults, all have access to safe and affordable places to call home,” she said.
The community foundation is leading what it calls a Collective Impact Model, which aims to bring together key stakeholders, including government agencies, developers, financial institutions, and nonprofits, to pool together resources for long-term affordable housing development.
The initiative will take place over two phases: plan development and implementation.
The plan development phase will see a group known as the Community Action Board, or CAB, which is comprised of cross-sector partners who will focus on community engagement, asset identification, and analyzing the gaps between housing development and homeownership.
One of the CAB’s goals is to develop a 10-year Affordable Housing Strategic Plan that will include benchmarks and funding strategies to support more affordable housing units.
The implementation phase will be led by The Wheatley Group, which will focus on feasibility studies, securing development incentives, and overcoming and barriers to development.
“Our collective goal…is to see sites identified and funding secured and dirt moving within that three-year period,” Speed said. “That’s what our hope is with this investment—that we are going to be allowing the time and space for this type of an effort to continue over a three-year period to get us to the point where we’ve actually got houses being constructed.”
Speed said the foundation aims to have 100 affordable housing units either complete or under construction by the third year of the initiative. Those units would be available to families making 80% of the area median income, which is $69,000 for Clark County and $75,000 for Floyd County.
But Speed noted that the effort won’t just stop at the end of those three years.
“We’re going to have a plan that’s going to carry it out over time and allow the momentum to continue,” she said. “It will allow these affordable housing units to continue to be created, even as prices change, the economy fluctuates, even with inflation going up and down over time, still keeping that affordable price point in mind and being able to create housing units that will meet that goal.”
Speed said the collaboration among regional partners will be key to the effort, which she believes could be replicated in other areas.