HAND enters new year building on 2018 successes

Home Place Gardens ribbon cutting

Anticipation is building along with HAND’s momentum as we work to continue growing the organization’s impact in 2019. Here are just some of the highlights from last year, which wouldn’t be possible without our many supporters:

— HAND extended its reach outside of Hamilton County, purchasing 17 duplexes in nearby Boone County. Now called Hickory Commons, the rental community includes 33 leasable units on two cul-de-sacs just north of downtown Lebanon. HAND is investing more than $2 million to acquire and renovate the apartments, which were build in the 1950s.

— HAND opened Home Place Gardens, its first rental community in Carmel. Located on 2.4 acres south of 106th Street between College Avenue and the Monon Greenway, the development includes eight one- and two-bedroom duplex apartments for seniors ages 55 and older and two three-bedroom detached homes for families. About 100 people attended a June ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house. (See photo, above.)

— Ohio-based developer Woda Cooper Companies Inc. purchased the former Adams Elementary School in Sheridan, which it will transform into 32 affordable 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments. The historic gym also will be preserved, becoming community recreation space. HAND is a consultant on the project.

— HAND helped to establish the Hamilton County Home Repair Partnership, a collaboration that includes Habitat for Humanity of Hamilton County, Shepherd’s Center of Hamilton County, SERVE Noblesville and Christmas in Action. In its first year, about 50 low- and moderate-income homeowners—many of them seniors—received critical repairs or modifications that improve their home’s accessibility, efficiency and affordability.

— HAND engaged a consultant and solicited public feedback to complete a comprehensive housing needs assessment for Hamilton County. Conducted every five years, the data-based analysis is used to determine local housing needs and to identify a strategy for meeting them. While final report is still being fine-tuned, preliminary results released at HAND’s September housing conference found that Hamilton County has a significantly larger percentage of cost-burdened households than the Indianapolis metropolitan area as a whole.

— HAND also received several significant grants throughout the year, including $10,000 from the Rotary Club of Carmel for the playground at Home Place Gardens and $7,500 from Duke Energy Foundation for the Housing Needs Assessment.

(See our full list of 2018 sponsors and supporters here, and contact Andrea Davis if you’d like to join the list for 2019.)