After a 12-year appeal process, the Indiana Board of Tax Review (IBTR) ruled in favor of the nonprofit Housing Partnerships, Inc. (HPI), determining the organization’s ownership of scattered-site housing does qualify for property tax exemption. The county assessor’s office decided to repeal the decision, potentially forcing HPI to sell 11 affordable homes to pay off debt taken out to pay the taxes. Read more about the appeal in this article from The Republic and see Thrive Alliance’s response in their press release.

Prosperity Indiana’s Executive Director, Jessica Love, responded to the decision in this letter, pointing out the assessor’s faulty logic that low-cost private landlords will be impaired by the exemptions, citing the Out of Reach data which shows that a minimum wage worker in Indiana must work 86 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rate.

“Prosperity Indiana hopes the IBTR’s decision in HPI’s case will stand and serve as a powerful precedent,” Love said. “We urge the incoming assessor to look at the whole equation when weighing how to proceed, so HPI can continue serving the community’s unmet needs.”