Tag Archives: housing development

Citizens State Bank returns as top Trivia Night sponsor

HAND’s most popular event is scheduled for Dec. 1 with one big change: the location. This year’s team trivia competition will be held at the Delaware Township Community Center in Fishers.

But HAND Trivia Night will be the same big fun as past years.

Citizens State Bank is back as presenting sponsor (and defending champion), and Ryan from Indy’s Live Trivia will again put your wits to the test with five rounds of general-knowledge questions. There’s also a cash bar and a chance to win fabulous raffle prizes!

Registration opens Oct. 1 (don’t worry, we’ll remind you), so there’s still time to put together your eight-person team. The highest-scoring trivia team will be rewarded, of course, and we have some fun surprises in store for everyone.

Interested in a sponsorship opportunity? Email Andrea Davis today.

Many thanks to our early sponsors:

Construction set to begin in Fishers

HAND staff and board members

Almost two years after being awarded $2 million to build an 11-unit rental community in Fishers, HAND Inc. hosted a groundbreaking ceremony at the site June 15 to celebrate the start of construction.

The project had been on hold due rising construction costs, but HAND was able to proceed thanks to a $1.4 million low-interest loan from IMPACT Central Indiana, the impact-investing affiliate of Hamilton County Community Foundation and Central Indiana Community Foundation.

HCCF's Tom Kilian speaks at the Cumberland Cottages groundbreaking ceremony.

HCCF President Tom Kilian Jr. spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony, heralding the opportunity the project is creating for working families in Fishers. Inclusive economic growth is one of the foundation’s strategic priorities.

HAND Executive Director Andrea Davis also addressed the crowd, thanking construction and design team members Meyer Najem, David Rausch Studio, and Weihe Engineers for their commitment to the project despite the delays.

Fishers-based Meyer Najem is the general contractor on the $4.6 million project. Rausch, based in Zionsville, is the architect, and Carmel-based Weihe handled civil engineering.

In addition to IMPACT Central Indiana, funders include the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority, the Hamilton County Community Development Block Grant program, and the Crosser Family Foundation. Citizens State Bank provided initial project funding.

Six of the 11 units will be reserved for residents earning up to 60 percent of area median income, a population that is funding it increasingly difficult to afford to live in Hamilton County. The remainder will be available at market-rate rents.

Founded in 2003, HAND is based in Noblesville. It leases a total of 142 rental homes to low- and moderate-income residents in Hamilton, Boone, and Tipton counties. Cumberland Cottages will be HAND’s first property in Fishers.

Members of the Cumberland Cottages design and construction team are ready to get started.
From left, County Commissioner Steve Dillinger and State Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn joined HAND’s Andrea Davis, Fishers City Councilor Crystal Neumann, County Councilor Sue Maki, and Fishers City Councilor Jocelyn Vare at the groundbreaking ceremony on June 15.
Funding partners Peter Nelson from IHCDA, Tom Kilian from HCCF/Impact Central Indiana, and Aimee Jacobsen from the Noblesville Housing Authority joined the fun.
HAND staff and board members
HAND staffers Kelley Romweber and Rebekah Metzger joined board members Nick Surak, Brittany Heidenreich, ED Andrea Davis, and board members Lauren Guynn, ME Barwacz, and Kert Toler for a photo at the site.

Tipton senior rentals ready for residents

Tipton Mayor Tom Dolezal cut the ribbon at HAND’s newest rental property on May 24, signifying the end of construction at Southwood Villas. Work on the five two-bedroom, one-bath homes began last fall.

Sign: There's no place like home

The development, located on Southwood Drive just east of the Tipton High School football field, made use of five vacant residential lots on a cul-de-sac.

All residents must be 55 or older and earn less than 60 percent of the area median income for Tipton County. South Bend-based Bradley Co. is processing applications; residents should be able to move in this month.

Funding for the $1.6 million project was provided by the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority (IHCDA) and Lake City Bank.

The project has been in the works since 2019, when IHCDA awarded HAND $2 million to build nine units on the site. The scope of the project was later reduced after neighbors objected and a judge ruled that the planned duplexes could not straddle plat lines.

About 30 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house at Southwood Villas.

The development team included Meyer Najem Construction LLC, Weihe Engineers, and Brenner Design Inc.

Many thanks to Chrissy and Rick Ramsey of RC Fine Portraits for the photos below:

The five units at Southwood Villas each have two bedrooms and one bathroom.
The kitchen and living area have vaulted ceilings
Bedrooms have ceiling fans and lots of natural light.
All appliances are included, including a washer and dryer.
All units have a patio in addition to a front porch.

Conference highlights need for range of housing options

2022 HAND Suburban Housing Conference attendees

Attendance at HAND’s 2022 Suburban Housing Conference more than doubled from the previous year, as local leaders gathered to see the latest Hamilton County housing research and explore ways to address the need for more affordable options.

Over 175 people registered for the May 4 event presented by the Hamilton County Community Foundation, including more than a dozen elected officials. In welcoming guests to the conference, County Commissioner Christine Altman stressed the importance of having a full continuum of housing options to meet the needs of the county’s growing workforce. If businesses can’t find employees they need here, eventually, they will look elsewhere.

“If we’re not growing, we’re dying,” she said.

And Hamilton County is becoming less affordable to more people, according to the results of a new housing study released at the conference. Consultant Katie Wertz of Indianapolis-based Greenstreet Ltd. walked attendees through the research, which shows that stagnant incomes and growing home prices are creating affordability problems for most income groups – especially for those households earning less than $98,000 per year (120 percent of area median income).

Hamilton County Economic Development Corp.’s Mike Thibideau led a panel discussion about creating a housing continuum, soliciting insights from Noblesville’s Director of Community Development Sarah Reed, Fishers’ Director of Planning and Zoning Megan Vukusich, and local developers Tony Bagato of Lennar Homes and Justin Moffett of Old Town Companies.

Westfield Washington Township Trustee Danielle Carey Tolan delivered a lunchtime keynote, sharing her observations from the trenches. Township trustees provide financial assistance to residents in need, and the Hamilton County Trustees Association, which Tolan leads, has been administering the county’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program for those impacted by COVID.

“I’m not responsible for fixing every person’s problems when they walk through my door. They have to do that work,” Tolan said. “However, if my community can’t even provide a range of opportunities to improve their lives, then I cry for my community. … We are a resource-filled county in terms of smarts and wealth  – it is time to reexamine our priorities and then act on them.”

The conference’s afternoon sessions included three workshops that explored specific strategies that could help improve the housing outlook: Community Land Trusts and Housing Trust Funds, Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnerships, and Land-use Strategies to Increase & Diversify Housing.

Tom Kilian, president of the Hamilton County Community Foundation, closed out the day.

Other conference sponsors were the Noblesville Housing Authority, Hamilton County Trustees Association, Family Promise of Hamilton County, Woda Cooper Cos., David Rausch Studio, PNC Bank, and Breathe Easy Hamilton County.

Table sponsors were the City of Carmel’s Division of Planning & Zoning, Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity, Invest Hamilton County, Kittle Property Group, Multifamily Construction Services, RealAmerica, ULI Indiana, Weihe Engineers, and Brenner Design Architects.

Study: Hamilton County becoming less affordable for more people

Given current funding and construction trends, it will take about 286 years to meet the current demand for income-based housing in Hamilton County.

That’s one of the takeaways in a new report from Indianapolis-based consultant Greenstreet, Ltd. Released at HAND’s Suburban Housing Conference on May 4, the 2022 Housing Study showed that Hamilton County is becoming less affordable to more people.

Stagnant incomes and growing home prices create affordability problems for most income groups, but especially for those households earning less than $98,000 (120 percent of area median income).

To address the issue of decreasing attainability, the study recommended Hamilton County stakeholders work together to reduce the cost of development, remove the social stigma attached to attainable housing, stabilize and support at-risk individuals and families, and increase funding for affordable homes.

The study was commissioned by the Noblesville Housing Authority on behalf of the Hamilton County Housing Collaborative, a coalition of 50-plus individuals representing dozens of organizations working to address the community’s housing needs.

As a group, the Collaborative believes that housing should be attainable for those who want to call Hamilton County home – during every stage of their lives – to uphold the economic well-being of Hamilton County. For that to be possible, the county needs a full continuum of housing products and prices.

This year, the study also included information about four specific strategies that could help improve the outlook for accomplishing that.

Click the highlighted text to read the 2022 Hamilton County Housing Study (and its Data Supplement) and learn more about Community Land Trusts, Housing Trust Funds, Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnerships, and Strategies to Increase & Diversify Housing.