Hoosier Renters to Get Legal Help While Exhibit Documents Past and Ongoing Discrimination
By Alex Slabosky
A $13.1 million grant will enable the Indiana Bar Foundation (IBF) to provide eligible low-income renters facing eviction in all ninety-two Indiana counties the opportunity to access legal services and counsel. In Indiana, eviction filings are a civil matter and tenants must provide their own counsel. The IBF has assembled a network of legal providers who will assist with navigation services, host legal clinics across the state and provide in-court representation at eviction hearings. In addition, later this year, legal kiosks will be installed in libraries and courthouses across the state. These kiosks will include computers and printers to assist renters in utilizing self-help legal services and connections with legal navigation services.
The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) awarded the Indiana Bar Foundation the grant.
IBF President and CEO Charles Dunlop said, “This historic investment will deliver crucial housing stability and legal services to Hoosiers who need help through dozens of new legal aid attorneys, non-attorney legal investigators, and the deployment of 120 housing information kiosks around the state.”
Beginning August 1 through the end of the month, the interactive exhibit, “Unwelcome: A Fair Housing History of Sales and Lending Discrimination,” will be on display at Second Presbyterian Church. This is an interactive exhibit that traces the history of systemic barriers that have impacted today’s Indianapolis neighborhoods through redlining, social and religious covenants, steering, neighborhood intimidation, and other forms of housing discrimination, some of which continue today. The exhibit was created by the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana and is based on the belief that eliminating discrimination starts with education. It includes a series of eleven oversized panels, text photos and QR codes that link to videos and reports.
Amy Nelson, executive director of the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana explained, “The panels review the history of, basically, how we got here, why our neighborhoods are segregated, (and) why we have such a great ownership gap based on race and ethnicity.”
