A sold, under-construction home is pictured on June 3 at the Bluffs at Young Creek subdivision in Franklin. A new coalition is hoping to educate the public and effect change to diversify the county’s housing inventory and support attainable options. Daily Journal File Photo
A new coalition hopes to spur change by supporting attainable housing and increasing housing diversity for Johnson County.
The Johnson County Housing Coalition, also known by its shorthand as JoCoHoCo, has been established to support attainable housing — housing affordable for households in the moderate-income ranges — in Johnson County through education, policy change and increased diversity of inventory. The coalition was formed under HeavenEarth Spaces, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliated with HeavenEarth Church in Whiteland and headed by Ross Stackhouse, the pastor of the church.
JoCoHoCo’s board is made up of five people who, through their work in the community, have learned about and taken interest in housing issues. While not officially members of the coalition, organizations who regularly attend meetings include Aspire Johnson County, United Way of Johnson County, Bridges Alliance of Johnson County and Upstream Prevention. Representatives of real estate firms, property management companies, home construction and churches also sometimes attend, as has Johnson County Health Department Director Betsy Swearingen. The board also keeps in touch with local officials or met with them to discuss how they can be involved.
Coalition origins
The coalition’s origins date back to an Aspire community workshop on housing in Johnson County held in August 2023.
At the Aspire workshop, it was discussed how housing was an issue for many clients of local nonprofits, sometimes becoming a barrier. Upstream Prevention Director Kathleen Radcliffe questioned why nothing was being done about the issue, said Amanda Ott, chair of the JoCoHoCo board and a member of Bridges Alliance.
“Everyone was kind of walking around the issue that maybe we have a housing problem in Johnson County,” Ott said. “And so (Radcliffe) said, ‘Let’s meet and get something started.’”
In comes HeavenEarth Church and Spaces. Stackhouse had worked with Ott and Bridges Alliance on housing issues before, which became connected with the Whiteland tornado. The church became part of the long-term recovery group created in its aftermath.
“Everything came back to housing,” Stackhouse said.
Radcliffe met with Stackhouse about the need for a housing coalition, telling him it made sense to go under a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. They began meeting to put it under HeavenEarth Spaces and to form a coalition, inviting people to a call-out meeting to brainstorm, Stackhouse said. It only grew from there, creating an executive committee and inviting organizations to take part.
Housing issues
All of the organizations involved in the coalition have been looking at housing for several years. Aspire for example had been looking at housing as far back as when it was an all-volunteer organization under the Greenwood Community Development Corporation, said Jody Veldkamp, vice chair of JoCoHoCo, a member of Bridges Alliance and marketing and community relations manager for the Johnson County Public Library.
At first, the focus was on infrastructure because of Interstate 69, but then it shifted to housing. Then Aspire discovered Bridges Alliance was looking at it too. When Radcliffe, of Upstream Prevention, told Veldkamp of the coalition plan last year, he decided to take part, he said.
JoCoHoCo members hope to bring community awareness of the housing issues in the county and to become a trusted source of data and perspectives, they said.
“My goal is to bring the business community’s perspective along and into it, represent the workforce and to show it’s not only from the nonprofit angle, but also from all of the quality of life aspects and different things like that, that housing does affect that,” said Amanda Rubadue, secretary of JoCoHoCo and vice president of economic development for Aspire.
Community awareness is big for JoCoHoCo. Veldkamp has been to a lot of planning and zoning meetings, has studied comprehensive plans, and has noticed the average person’s lack of knowledge on how the system works and what terms mean. There’s an opportunity to change that with the coalition, he said.
“There’s an opportunity for education and opportunity for us to go to some meetings and say, ‘Let’s look at this and consider what it is,’” he said. “It’s just a side gig for all of us. We’re not making money on this.”
One of the housing issues the coalition hopes to inform the public on and work with communities to address has to do with public servants — local government employees, police, fire, EMTs and teachers — and if they can afford to live in the community.
A recent regional housing study by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization shows there is a mismatch of housing opportunities for people who want a smaller, one or two-bedroom home, Veldkamp said. At the same time, there was an excess of three and four-bedroom homes, while there was a shortage of one and two-bedroom homes for people making $100,000 a year.
“That’s just the mismatch that takes the system, and people will recognize that, ‘Oh, wait a minute, we may need to adjust what we want built to match the market,” he said.
The coalition would love to see everyone matched to live with “whatever their affordability is,” Ott said.
Another issue is with zoning and architectural design standards, which can put a cost burden on Habitat for Humanity, for example. If the requirements are to build a 1,500 square foot home, and Habitat usually builds a home of 1,200 square feet, they’d have to spend another $30,000 to build a home larger than the family really needs, Veldkamp said.
Coalition members also want to encourage officials to have more diversity in housing. Building high-end apartments could allow people in lower-end apartments to move up, opening up the lower-end apartments for someone else who needs it, Veldkamp said.
A similar logic applies to homes. If people can’t get into the entry-level home and build their wealth, they’re not going to be able to move into a bigger home, he said.
Future plans
Now, JoCoHoCo is preparing for their public debut at another Aspire community workshop on the state of housing set for next week — nearly a year after that first workshop set everything in motion. The first workshop was designed to share information, provide information and give the community a chance to see what the next steps look like to address the issue, Rubadue said.
“So fact that it’s actually worked is pretty cool,” she said.
The upcoming workshop is the coalition’s chance to introduce themselves, give everyone an update on what’s happened in the last year and see if others want to get involved, Rubadue said.
Looking farther down the line, JoCoHoCo has other goals. One goal would be to start some sort of landlord registry, where renters and nonprofits would have a trusted place to see information about landlords. This would help renters avoid scams, Ott said.
“Some private nonprofits have seen some scams, or some of their clients have, given money away to people that weren’t really the landlord of the building,” she said.
Another goal is to create a database of the county’s housing inventory. This could be a partnership with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, which already has a similar database, Ott said.
They also hope to eventually hire an employee to be able to work through some of these goals as well, she said. Right now, there are no employees and everyone is volunteering their time.
Members of the coalition have reached out to a few local governments about what they’re trying to do. They’re not at the table yet, but Ott is hopeful they will be able to get them to take part in the future, she said.
Steve Burkhardt, treasurer of JoCoHoCo and a local realtor, has already met with Greenwood’s planning department which has shown some interest in the coalition. City planners had discussed creating a housing coalition within Greenwood, so officials are “at least having conversations” about it, he said.
“The rest comes with action,” Burkhardt said. “Will they adjust policies? Are there opportunities to do things jointly with maybe a developer in the city? That’s what it’s all about.”
Ultimately, JoCoHoCo members hope to improve quality of place for everyone around the county by building awareness of the issues, creating a central community resource and trying to solve them, they said.
Those interested in learning more about the coalition, or taking part, can email [email protected]. They can also visit spacesforall.org.
IF YOU GO
State of Housing in Johnson County Community Workshop
What: Attendees will hear presentations and have group discussions on housing in Johnson County. This includes an update from the MIBOR Realtor Association, a panel discussion on current housing data, trends and myths. They will also learn about the newly-formed Johnson County Housing Coalition, according to Aspire Johnson County, which is holding the workshop.
When: 8:30 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6
Where: Education and Conference Center at Indiana Wesleyan University, 1500 Windhorst Way, Greenwood.
Cost: General public tickets are $20. Aspire members can attend for a discounted rate of $15.
How to register: Online at shorturl.at/Qp7ks. Registration closes at 5 p.m. Aug. 1 and includes light refreshments and workshop materials.
