A Letter from Hoosier Faith Communities to the Indiana General Assembly on Housing Affordability and Stability in Indiana: A Call to Action
All religious traditions have something to say about taking care of the most vulnerable, the least among us, those who are struggling, and those who are adversely affected by forces beyond their control. We as Hoosiers are morally and ethically responsible to uplift our brothers and sisters who are facing hard times because by helping them we create a stronger community for all of us. And yet, Indiana is in the midst of a severe housing crisis that is destabilizing lives and entire communities.
While unaffordable and unstable housing are sometimes thought of as a ‘big city’ problem, in fact, Indiana’s housing crisis is a ‘policy-driven’ problem that affects Hoosiers and communities throughout the state. And while Indiana is often assumed to be a relatively affordable state to live in, our policy choices mean that the most vulnerable Hoosiers suffer most. A new study by Prosperity Indiana finds Indiana has a gap of over 120,000 rental units that are affordable and available to the Hoosiers who need them most (30% or less of Area Median Income), including low-income families with children, Black and brown families, older Hoosiers, disabled Hoosiers, and caretaker households. 70% of these extremely low-income households are severely housing cost burdened, meaning they spend more than half of their income on housing. These low rates of affordable and available housing, and the high rate of housing cost burden, are both worse than average for Midwest states. In all 92 counties, Indiana now has the single highest housing cost burden among all Midwest states for the lowest-income residents.
The combination of low supply and lack of enforcement of habitability standards contributes to Indiana having some of the highest eviction rates and poorest housing outcomes in the country. Another new study from the IU McKinney Law School found that Indiana is 1 of only 6 states without a law that allows renters in units that violate health and safety standards to use their rent as leverage to get landlords to make repairs. These repairs include mold, pest infestation, no heat, and other basic human dignity needs that are part of the landlord/tenant contract. Tenants need to be able to put rent into escrow until the problem is addressed, or to ‘repair and deduct’ themselves. Allowing bad actors to let units, or even entire developments, operate with unchecked health and safety violations artificially depletes Indiana’s housing supply and fuels the state’s housing instability crisis. Even before the pandemic, three Indiana cities were in the Top 20 for highest eviction rates among large cities, with a handful of small towns and rural areas having even higher eviction rates. Since March 2020, Indiana has had over 161,000 evictions filed, or more than 1 in every 5 renter households. These policy choices result in poor physical and mental health, education, and workforce outcomes for Hoosier children, their families, and communities. Yet another new report from the Notre Dame Law School concludes “Renters may be evicted for nearly any violation of their lease obligations, while landlords often violate their obligation to provide habitable homes with impunity.”
We, the religious leaders of Indiana, must lift up the voices of our people who are disenfranchised and unstably housed or even homeless. If we profess that, as in the Abrahamic traditions, all people are created in the image of God, to treat others with anything but dignity and respect is a profanation of God’s name. We see our people unrepresented in eviction court where judges tell them they have only a few days to vacate their homes. We hear the stories of our people trying to buy their first home only to be outbid by an out-of-state investor paying in cash who has no intention of being a part of the community or maintaining the property. We see our people living in their cars, in tents, and on the streets. We see our people living in putrid, dangerous, inhuman conditions because there are no consequences for landlords who do not remedy health and safety violations unless the tenant can afford the long, slow, and expensive process of a lawsuit. We must make a change.
The religious leaders of Indiana call on our elected officials to do something to right these egregious wrongs. Our traditions hold us to a level of accountability and tell us treat our neighbors with respect and dignity every day, not just for a few hours on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. We call on you, our public stewards, to do the right thing. Let us start with allowing tenants the ability to take accessible action to maintain their health and human dignity. Let us send a message to those who believe they can take advantage of Indiana’s people, that they can no longer treat Hoosiers with anything but compassion and respect. Let us listen to the needs of those with the lowest incomes and the biggest needs. Let’s show the people of Indiana that they come first, that human dignity is a Hoosier value, and that housing is critical to human well-being.
We the undersigned urge Indiana's policymakers to focus intently on solutions to increase the supply of safe, healthy, and affordable housing for Indiana's most vulnerable families and residents.
The statewide Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition (HHNC) coordinated the creation of this letter with the help of the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance (GIMA) as a part of the Indiana - Opportunity Starts At Home (OSAH) campaign. The goal of this campaign is to bring multi-sector partners into the fight for safe and affordable housing for all Hoosiers. Faith groups in Indiana are becoming increasingly concerned about Indiana's housing crisis, and we want to make sure our legislators know it.
This completed public letter will be shared with state and federal legislators representing Indiana, as well as public media. Let's make our voices heard!
