Page last updated on March 3, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Each week, Mayor Hamilton, Deputy Mayor Carmichael, and other city employees provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives. Access all of the weekly video updates at bloomington.in.gov/videoupdates.
Join Mayor John Hamilton and Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) Director John Zody as they discuss three affordable housing focus areas–housing security, rental housing, and home ownership.
Since 2016, Bloomington has added, approved, or preserved nearly 5,609 housing units (11,000 bedrooms). Of these, 1,400 units are permanently affordable housing (2,200 bedrooms). That compares to fewer than 100 in the 10 years before 2016.
Learn more about the City’s affordable housing efforts at bloomington.in.gov/housing/affordable. Questions? Reach out to HAND Director Zody at john.zody@bloomington.in.gov
Transcript
Mayor John Hamilton:
Hi, it's Mayor John Hamilton of Bloomington again. Thanks for being with us. Today, we are with John Zody, the Director of our Housing and Neighborhood Development Department. John, thanks for being here.
John Zody:
Thank you.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Appreciate it. We are talking about affordable housing. That's a topic near and dear to my heart, your heart. I know we've been working hard. But why don't we start with what we mean when we say affordable housing?
John Zody:
Sure. Well, it's a good question, Mayor. A lot of that is based on income. There's an income determined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, those are sort of the numbers we go by—someone who makes about 80% of that number or below.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Of the median number for everybody in the area.
John Zody:
Right. Area median income is what that's called. Someone at 80% of that or below would be considered in the traditional range of affordable housing. Now, we also want to remember those folks who have jobs that are paying a certain amount that will allow them to be above that, but also have trouble finding housing that's affordable. We consider that maybe workforce housing, that would go all the way up to about 120% of that area median income.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Okay. Is the standard, we don't want people to have to spend more than 30% of their income on housing as a benchmark, right?
John Zody:
That's right.
Mayor John Hamilton:
If you're paying more than that, you're housing burdened, and we're trying to help. This has been a topic we've worked really hard on for many years here in this administration. We talk about three different buckets of the kinds of housing challenges. Can you tell us about those?
John Zody:
Sure. Number one is that of housing security, making sure that people who might be at risk of homelessness or who have been unhoused or housing secure. We work with groups like Heading Home of South Central Indiana. We've provided a lot of money through the American Rescue Plan Act from the City for that. We want to make sure that those who do have housing insecurity or who have been unhoused have opportunities to have housing, have supportive housing, and have access to those important services.
Mayor John Hamilton:
That bucket's the people who might be evicted, go through a family breakup, experience homelessness, or that kind of pressure, the neediest.
John Zody:
That's right.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Then, what's the next bucket?
John Zody:
Rental housing.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Rental housing.
John Zody:
Something we all know well in Bloomington, but we need access to affordable rental housing. Our vacancy rate is next to nothing here. We have a lot of people living in a lot of units. We need more units of affordable rental housing.
Mayor John Hamilton:
That's our whole world, most of the people who live in Bloomington rent, don't own, and is trying to make sure that full range is there. And then, the third, let me guess, home ownership.
John Zody:
That's correct. We want to have more home ownership. We want to preserve home ownership. Anytime we can help a potential home buyer have access to down payment assistance or more connections with the real estate community to get them into an affordable first home or an affordable next home, we want to make sure we can do that here in Bloomington.
Mayor John Hamilton:
We pay attention to a lot of numbers. We're kind of numbers people. I know there are probably 50 programs that do this, but they can kind of overwhelm people. But we've seen over the last seven years, what's the latest number in terms of how many affordable units as we just described, all three buckets that we've been able to help move forward?
John Zody:
Sure. We're almost at 1400 affordable units created or approved that might be in the pipeline for construction. We look at those on an annual basis to see where they are, but we're about 1400 right now.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Just to put that in context, that's 1400 affordable units. That compares to fewer than 100 in the 10 years plus before 2016. We've really accelerated that. We still need more.
John Zody:
That's right.
Mayor John Hamilton:
I mean, we know this is an expensive place. Can you tell us some examples of places where we've seen progress in this?
John Zody:
Sure. Well, going back to bucket number one with housing security. We look at projects like Kinser Flats up on North Kinser Pike that has provided permanent supportive housing. There are 50 units of housing there, and that's providing housing to people of very low income that need that permanent supportive housing. We also have project-
Mayor John Hamilton:
Formerly homeless, maybe, some of them.
John Zody:
Perhaps.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Substance use issues.
John Zody:
That's right.
Mayor John Hamilton:
That's the most intense, getting people off the street into housing. We've done several of those. That's a really important piece of what we've done.
John Zody:
Right. On bucket number two, we have projects like Hopewell. They're going to have more rental housing and home ownership. But, certainly, the former IU Health Bloomington Hospital site is a huge project everyone at the city's working on. Lots of housing there.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Hundreds of units of rental housing that we're going to make because we bought that land, and that's going to be a long process, but it's a huge opportunity for rental, new rental workforce rental.
John Zody:
100%.
Mayor John Hamilton:
A lot of it, or affordable.
John Zody:
That's right.
Mayor John Hamilton:
How about bucket number three?
John Zody:
Bucket number three, home ownership. Up at Arlington Park Drive, just off of Arlington Road, we have-
Mayor John Hamilton:
North of 17th Street, up there, right?
John Zody:
That's right. There's a new large rental development, but we have 45 lots that have been transferred over to the city and then to a land trust that we are working on in partnership with the Bloomington Housing Authority. That will allow for a land trust to be on many of those lots, which is where someone can own the house in an affordable way, where the land is managed by a nonprofit. We're really excited about that opportunity.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Look, this is a huge topic, John. I know you and your team work hard on this. You also, of course, keep everybody safe in the rental units. You do inspections and all that work.
John Zody:
That's right.
Mayor John Hamilton:
There's a lot to cover. But just that snapshot, thank you for sharing it. These buckets of housing insecurity and rentals and home ownership, we're starting to land trust. It's really exciting what's going on. A lot more to do. But congratulations on what you're doing and thanks for everybody working so hard on that.
John Zody:
Thank you.
Mayor John Hamilton:
Thanks. If you want more information, you can check it out on the screen there. Thanks so much.