Brandon Taylor: City’s housing crisis is an economic risk we can’t ignore

Indianapolis has long benefited from a reputation as a city where people could build a good life at a reasonable cost. That affordability has helped attract workers, grow businesses, stabilize neighborhoods, and make our city competitive.

But that advantage is weakening.

For too many families, the question is no longer whether they can get ahead. It is whether they can stay housed. It is the parent working full-time and still falling behind on rent. The senior living in a home they love but struggling to afford critical repairs. The family one rent increase, medical bill, or missed paycheck away from being displaced.

These are not isolated stories. They are signs of a housing system under increasing strain.

Housing is often framed as a social issue, and it is. But it is also an economic infrastructure. It shapes whether workers can live near jobs, whether employers can attract and retain talent, whether children can remain rooted in school, and whether neighborhoods have the stability needed for long-term investment.

Right now, Indianapolis is facing those pressures in real time.

Housing production has lagged for more than a decade. Home prices have more than doubled since 2015, far outpacing income growth. Nearly half of renters are cost-burdened, leaving little room to save, build wealth, or absorb a financial shock. At the same time, much of our housing stock is aging and increasingly expensive to maintain, while thousands of affordable homes are at risk of being lost by the end of the decade.

This is not a future problem. It is happening now. And the longer we wait, the more expensive and difficult it will become to respond.

The root causes are structural: years of underproduction, rising construction and financing costs, regulatory delays, limited subsidies, and gaps in the capital needed to move projects from idea to completion. No single program or organization can solve challenges of this scale. This moment requires coordinated action across the full housing ecosystem.

That is why we are launching The Recommitment, LISC Indianapolis’ new four-year housing strategy.

The name is intentional. At LISC Indianapolis, we believe this moment requires a renewed commitment to the families, neighborhoods, developers, public partners, community organizations, and employers that will determine whether Indianapolis can meet this moment.

First, we must preserve the affordable homes we already have. Across Indianapolis, both subsidized and naturally occurring affordable housing are at risk. For the families who live in these homes, preservation is not an abstract policy goal. It is the difference between stability and displacement. Once these homes are lost, they are far more expensive to replace.

Second, we must expand the capacity of the people and organizations delivering housing. Indianapolis has strong developers and community partners, but there are clear gaps, particularly for small and mid-sized projects and emerging developers. These are often the projects that can stabilize neighborhoods block by block, but they need access to flexible capital, technical assistance and more predictable pathways to execution.

Third, we must bring more capital and more flexible capital to the table. Traditional financing tools alone are not enough in today’s environment. We need resources that can support early-stage development, move at the speed of acquisition, help preserve at-risk properties and share risk in ways that unlock additional private investment.

Over the next four years, LISC Indianapolis aims to raise $100 million in capital, leverage $300 million in total investment, support the production of 1,000 new housing units, and preserve 600 more.

Those goals are ambitious, but they are also necessary. And we know this is not LISC’s work alone.

Employers depend on a stable workforce. Financial institutions help bring capital to scale. Philanthropy can take early risks that make projects viable. Public sector partners can improve the “time to yes” by reducing delays and uncertainty that add cost to development.

This is not about any one sector stepping in to solve the housing crisis. It is about recognizing a shared reality: When people cannot afford to stay housed, the entire city feels the impact.

Indianapolis has what’s needed to respond. We have strong institutions, experienced community partners, committed neighborhoods and a long history of collaboration. But we find ourselves at an important point in our city’s growth.

We can allow housing instability to become a drag on our economy and a barrier to opportunity. Or we can act with urgency to preserve what we have, build what we need, and strengthen the systems that make both possible.

The question before us is whether Indianapolis will remain a place where working families, seniors, young people, and longtime residents can build stable lives.

That will not happen by accident. It will require all of us to recommit.•

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Taylor is executive director of LISC Indianapolis.