A new report by Enterprise Community Partners and NeighborWorks America outlines the results of an innovative pilot program - the Health Outcomes Demonstration Project. The Project was aimed at addressing the gap in standard measurement practices to evaluate shared outcomes between community development and health care providers/payers. Read the full report to see how the Project equipped twenty affordable housing and community development organizations to evaluate health outcomes across a range of programs, including neighborhood improvement and community safety initiatives, youth education and services, housing improvement, service coordination for residents in crisis, as well as housing based-services that focus on nutrition, physical activity, financial literacy, social activities, mental health and employment. 

On June 25, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its 2019 report entitled "The State of the Nation's Housing."

Although the economy has rebounded from the 2008 recession and household growth has returned to a normal rate, the number of newly constructed homes has not kept pace with the demand for housing for the past eight years. The lack of new housing is exacerbating the affordable housing prices by driving housing prices and rent higher and higher, leaving low-to-moderate income families in increasingly difficult housing situations. 

To read the full report, click here. 

Director of Lending - IFF

IFF improves the world by strengthening nonprofits and the communities they serve. As a mission-driven lender, real estate consultant, and developer, IFF helps communities thrive by creating opportunities for low-income communities and persons with disabilities. 

The Director of Lending provides leadership and management of all regional lending activities. The Director will provide input for and execute regional business development and sales activities derived from IFF's regional marketing strategy. S/he is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and closing loans to target market borrowers and maintaining relationships with key borrowers. The Director assists the Managing Director of Lending to develop and maintain visibility and relationships with nonprofits and relevant government, association networks, and others to promote IFF.

Click here for the full job description.

Fair Housing Test Coordinator - Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana (FHCCI) 

The Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana (FHCCI) is a small civil rights nonprofit working to address housing based discrimination. We are currently seeking a full-time Fair Housing Test Coordinator to manage our testing program. The FHCCI testing program employs the use of “secret shoppers” to assist the FHCCI in determining if unlawful housing discrimination is occurring.

Responsibilities include recruitment, training, and coordination of the FHCCI’s part-time testers; investigation of discrimination in housing in violation of fair housing laws; assisting in client intake; assisting in outreach and public education; and preparation of reports.  

Click here for full job description.

Although Indianapolis has experienced dramatic growth in the past few years, many low-income families are being left behind or forgotten by traditional financial institutions, worsening an already difficult situation.

“It is so expensive to be poor,” said Kathleen Lara, Prosperity Indiana Policy Director. “The barriers are multitudes. If we’re trying to address equity and building wealth for low-income individuals, we’ve got to reduce some of the barriers that drain wealth.”

Read this fantastic piece from the Indianapolis Business Journal outlining the financial burdens facing the lowest income families in our community, featuring comments from Policy Director Kathleen Lara and A&O Network Manager Logan Charlesworth.

CONFRONTING A HOOSIER HOUSING CRISIS ADDITIONAL SPEAKER CONFIRMATION - NEXT WEDNESDAY @ 1PM Prosperity Indiana and CHIP are excited to announce that Dan Emmanuel, Senior Research Analyst with the National Low Income Housing Coalition, has been confirmed as a featured speaker at next Wednesday's press conference. New analysis released from the Indiana University Public Policy Institute shows 40 percent of evictions in Indiana occurred in Marion County in 2016, although the county only accounts for 14 percent of the state's population. Indianapolis and two other cities in Indiana are in the top 20 nationwide for eviction rankings. The time is now to analyze new findings and hear from providers and advocates about urgently needed policy solutions. Join us! Click here to register! What: Press conference and community conversation When: Wednesday, June 5, 1-2 p.m. Speakers:  Dan Emmanuel, Senior Research Analyst, National Low Income Housing Coalition (newly confirmed) Jessica Love, Executive Director, Prosperity Indiana Dr. Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, Executive Director, Coalition for Homelessness   Intervention & Prevention (CHIP) Dr. Breanca Merritt, Director, Center for Research on Inclusion and Social Policy at the Indiana University Public Policy Institute Where: Horizon House, 1033 E. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46202 Why: According to available data from Princeton’s Eviction Lab, Indianapolis is second only to New York City in terms of number of evictions. The press conference will feature new eviction research findings from the Indiana University Public Policy Institute and a conversation with advocates about needed reform to federal and state policies that are leaving Hoosiers behind.  Prosperity Indiana and CHIP will discuss policy proposals to reduce housing instability and homelessness for Hoosier households. These include revisions to state landlord-tenant laws and the need for the enactment of a national Affordable Housing Task Force and a National Housing Stabilization Fund. This event represents an important opportunity for local affordable housing and shelter providers to discuss the scope of local challenges related to evictions impacting those they serve.

Get to know Angela Byers, Community Development Outreach Manager at First Financial Bank!

Tell us how you first got involved with your organization? Or how did you get started in this work?

Like a lot of people, I fell into the banking industry many years ago. At the time, I hadn’t planned to have a career in banking but I really enjoyed learning how the banking system worked and how it impacts everything. I fell in love with lending and helping people become financially empowered through credit building & repair, reviewing the entire financial picture and offering suggestions to help save or make more money. That morphed into specifically working with struggling families through volunteering with community organizations to provide budget & credit classes, debt management, identifying and preventing scams and so much more. As Community Development Outreach Manager with First Financial Bank, I am afforded unique opportunities to fuel my passion for individual and family financial empowerment.

What are the three words you would use to describe your organization?

Client-Advocate, Giving, Different

Which of Prosperity Indiana’s five values: empowerment, integrity, impact, social justice or collaboration, speak the most to you and why?

It’s hard to choose only one which speaks to me the most so I won’t do that, Collaboration & Social Justice. It is important to affect positive change we must know what the issues are and work together to resolve and make an social justice impact. Everyone should be afforded the same opportunities to be successful and how much money we have or do not have should not be indicative of one’s success. Everyone should have the opportunity to be educated, have a good job, own a home, and retire comfortably.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a teacher and in some ways though it’s not my trade I became a one.

What do you do when you aren’t working?

I enjoy volunteering for many organizations, spending time with family & friends, and working in my yard.

Prosperity Indiana is coming to YOU! We're bringing our annual Regional Member Meetings to SEVEN different locations around the state. Both Prosperity Indiana members and non-members are invited to join us for an Opportunity Zones Workshop - presented by attorneys from Ice Miller - about pairing opportunity zones with other funding opportunities to maximize impact, followed by lunch and our regional meeting.  Northeast - Fort Wayne, May 23 West - Terre Haute, May 29 Central - Indianapolis, May 30 East - Muncie, June 13 Southwest - Evansville, June 18 Southeast - Jeffersonville, June 20 Northwest - Hammond, June 26

A new report - American Neighborhood Change in the 21st Century: Gentrification and Decline - from the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School captures growth, low-income displacement, low-income concentration, and abandonment from 2000-2016 at the census tract level and depicts aggregated population and housing change in two categories of neighborhoods:

The report finds that:

Click here to access the interactive map. 

The report also includes details about metro-level neighborhood change about the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. Indianapolis ranks 45th of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas in terms of the spread of concentrated poverty and abandonment.

The report’s summary for Indianapolis says:

“Gentrification is effectively nonexistent in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, while the region – and especially the city of Indianapolis itself – suffers from widespread and ongoing poverty concentration and neighborhood abandonment.

“About 57 percent of Indianapolis city residents live in strongly declining neighborhoods, as do about 72 percent of low-income residents (defined in this report as those below 200 percent of the federal poverty line). While the overall population of these areas has fallen modestly since 2000 – about 4 percent – the low-income population has grown over 50 percent. These changes have been accompanied by racial change, as the black and Hispanic population of those neighborhoods has grown by 49,000, and the white population has dropped by nearly 80,000, indicating significant white flight.”

Click here to read the full summary for Indianapolis.

The Central Indiana Community Foundation is seeking applicants for a Director of Major Gifts and a Not-For-Profit Sustainability Officer. Click the links below for the full position descriptions and to learn how to apply. 

Director of Major Gifts

This full-time position represents the Foundation with assigned constituencies and directs efforts to cultivate and solicit major gifts and philanthropic engagement for the dynamic new initiatives of the Foundation. This position requires outstanding communication, organization and customer service skills.

Not-For-Profit Sustainability Officer

This full-time position, will provide premier financial, relationship and endowment fund management for CICF’s not-for-profit fundholders and work closely with development staff to grow assets, respond to requests for proposals and make sales presentations to organizations. This position requires strong knowledge of the not-for-profit community, excellent organizational, analytical and evaluation skills as well as outstanding customer service skills. 

Registration Is Now Open!

Underwriting a multi-family affordable housing development is complex. Add an Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant from FHLBank Indianapolis, and its member bank partner to the funding sources, and the alignment of underwriting standards for key stakeholders may create a more complicated financing structure.

In the Underwriting Affordable Housing Workshops, we will walk through the changes in a proposed housing development finance structure as affordable restrictions are layered into the funding source stack. Whether you are a financial institution submitting an AHP grant for a housing partner or you are an affordable housing developer/consultant, you should be confident in preparing for the underwriting portion of the funding process.

That’s why FHLBank Indianapolis is offering an Underwriting Affordable Housing Workshop.

2019 Underwriting Affordable Housing Workshop - Indianapolis, IN

LOCATION

FHLBank Indianapolis - Indianapolis, IN

6/4/19 - 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET

This workshop will walk through the unique attributes of affordable housing from a lender and funder’s perspective

Click Here to Register

Benefits

Understand how bankers, investors, and soft funding source providers analyze an affordable housing real estate transaction.

Who should attend

Bankers, developers (non-profit and for profit), community foundations, housing development consultants, attorney, architects, and typical development team partners.