Indianapolis has a housing crisis.

A stable home is about more than having a roof over your head. It is about dignity, security, and the ability to build a future.

But for too many people in Indianapolis, that stability is slipping further out of reach.

This is personal for me.

The last time I saw my grandfather, on the day he passed, he was outside our family home in Haughville sweeping the sidewalk. No one had asked him to do it. No one was watching. He did it because he had pride in his home and pride in his neighborhood. He believed, quietly and consistently, that you leave a place better than you found it.

That image has stayed with me throughout my life. Our homes, our streets and our neighborhoods say something about what we value. And people deserve the opportunity to put down roots, take pride in where they live and help build up the community around them.

Too many people are struggling to find housing they can actually afford. Some need help getting back on their feet. Others are working every day, earning a paycheck, and still watching rent or housing costs eat up too much of what they bring home.

That is why I am proposing my HOME Plan.

My plan will make better use of Housing Choice Vouchers and create new support for working residents who earn too much to qualify for traditional assistance, but still cannot comfortably afford a place to live. This plan also improves housing access for those under 30% AMI (area median income) by increasing access to these vouchers.

But assistance alone will not solve this crisis.

When there are not enough homes available, families have to compete for too few options, and prices keep climbing. We have to grow the supply and push hard to get more housing built.

That is why a major part of our plan focuses on creating and preserving more affordable homes across Indianapolis. We will provide gap funding to move projects forward, and work with community development corporations, nonprofits, private partners, and philanthropy to create or renovate 2,000 affordable housing units.

We must open more doors for people who need help paying for housing. And we have to make sure more doors exist in the first place.

I believe Indianapolis can be a city where someone who falls on hard times has a path back to stability, and where someone who works hard can afford a safe home, support their family, and still have enough left to build a future. 

We must find a path forward for our residents and for our city, and as Mayor, I will push hard and use every possible tool to get it done.

-Vop

Read my full plan here.