Housing affordability has been a hot topic in Northwest Indiana recently, including at the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.
NIRPC’s Economy and Place Committee looked at needs and efforts throughout Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties Wednesday.
In Cedar Lake, 96% of building permits between 2003 and 2023 have been for single-family homes, Planning Manager Eman Ibrahim said. In Hammond, 52% of building permits were for single-family homes.
“We provide a snapshot for each community, but we can provide a summary for the region,” Ibrahim said.
“We have a significant shortage for people making up to $25,000” in the region, but there’s plenty for people between $25,000 and $75,000, she added.
There are more shortages for middle-income households earning $75,000 to $150,000.
For households under $25,000, there should be 12,877 more housing units, her data shows. For $75,000 to $100,000, it’s 7,010 units and another 8,410 units for households between $100,000 and $150,000.
For middle-income households, another 22,500 housing units are needed by 2050, Ibrahim said.
Builders have been erecting homes for wealthier families because the profits are greater there. So the question becomes how to persuade builders to erect homes for people who earn less.
The “missing middle” is housing types that fall between single-family homes and large apartment buildings. That gap impacts livability as well as affordability. That’s where duplexes, fourplexes and other multifamily housing developments come into play. “All of this type of housing, we’re lacking here in the region,” Ibrahim said.
Best practices for middle- and high-density housing include designs that blend into residential neighborhoods, she said.
It also includes updating zoning codes to allow more housing types, including accessory dwelling units – a second home built on the same lot. Often, these ADUs are for family members who need their own home, like adult children whose parents live in the main house or grandparents who don’t need a large home anymore.
“There are no ADUs in Northwest Indiana,” at least not specifically encouraged under current zoning codes, Ibrahim said, but 11 communities in the Chicago region allow them.
“Some houses, they have plenty of backyard,” she said, with room for an accessory dwelling unit.
To make urban areas more attractive, older neighborhoods and downtowns should use overlay districts to encourage infill development, Ibrahim said. In Gary, for example, the zoning code formerly required all homes to be built on lots a minimum of 50 feet wide. But there are older sections of town where homes are on 25-foot lots. If a home on one of those smaller lots burned down, the zoning wouldn’t allow it to be rebuilt. That has since changed, said Joe Wszolek, chief operating officer of the Northwest Indiana Realtors Association.
Promoting transit-oriented development, along with expanding sidewalks, bike lanes and transit options, is encouraged, too. Michigan City is a shining example of this with its 11th Street Station for the South Shore Line. Surrounding the new station, a large mixed-use development is being built. The parking garage will be shared between train passengers, residents and shoppers.
Incentivizing rehab and adaptive reuse of older buildings is encouraged. The Banc, which once housed Banc Calumet at the corner of Fayette Street and Hohman Avenue in downtown Hammond, has 100 apartments.
Other infill all-stars in Hammond include:
· Jacob Square, where the city is targeting 19 parcels for new single-family homes and duplexes to revitalize central Hammond.
· The former Clark High School athletic fields, rezoned for about 37 single-family homes.
· The former St. Margaret Hospital and Rimbach Square, which is ideal for mixed-use residential, commercial and parking. It’s near the downtown train station.
· Memorial Park, where plans include 28 single-family homes, four duplexes and a senior living facility.
Zoning reforms, streamlined permit process, collaborating with developers to share risks and incentives, tax abatements, tax increment financing and other tools can encourage infill developments.
Land banking to acquire and assemble parcels for development is valuable, too. The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority is setting up one of these nonprofits as part of its new strategic plan.
As part of her analysis, Ibrahim looked at vacancy rates for housing in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
In Lake County, the 11% rate is greatly boosted by Gary’s 28% vacancy rate and East Chicago’s 21%, along with 15% in Whiting and Schneider.
In Porter County, the 7% rate includes 44% in Boone Grove, 40% in Beverly Shores, 29% in Dune Acres, 28% in Wheeler, 19% in The Pines and 15% in Burns Harbor.
In LaPorte County, the 9% vacancy rate reflects 48% in Union Mills, 47% in Long Beach, 43% in Michigan Shores, 41% in Fish Lake, 36% in Saugany Lake and 33% in Hudson Lake.
“All of these older communities are doing a really good job with infills,” Ibrahim said, naming Gary, Hammond, Whiting and Lake Station.
Porter County Council President Andy Vasquez asked how to convince builders to address that missing middle more effectively. “Let’s face it, they’re concerned about their bottom line,” he said.
In Porter County, he wants developers to build in or on the fringe of cities with municipal water and sewers available.
Elected officials from the region’s larger communities should have attended Wednesday’s meeting, he said.
South Bend offers a good example of how to encourage developers to address these needs, Ibrahim said. In 2020, the city targeted small developers and offered them to build on small lots. The city held a workshop with them and shared plans to speed the process. “They made it easy for them. They provided some funding,” she said, and brought new residents to the area.
Hammond, Michigan City and Whiting are encouraging multifamily homes. “They have to redevelop. They have to do infill,” Ibrahim said.
Vasquez grew up in Gary. “In my old neighborhood, there’s a lot of empty houses,” he said. Could single-family units be repurposed to multifamily, he asked. And what about amenities?
On Gary’s east side, zoning doesn’t allow for multifamily housing, Wszolek said.
“So basically, there’s a lot of land in Gary, but not proper use,” Vasquez said.
“It takes the wherewithal, the moxy if you will, of all the local officials” to work on this, Wszolek said. “Part of the problem is builders are not charities, so they have to pay their bills, too.”
CoAction President and CEO Jen Trowbridge’s agency does what’s called capital stacking, or assembling funding from various sources, to make it happen.
She’s part of a Valparaiso effort to address housing affordability.
“The people who are in it for the profit, the profit is not diminished,” she said. “The lender has to be savvy in how they’re setting all those components up.”
A nonprofit like CoAction or Habitat for Humanity helps fund the project. Then, if the homeowner sells within a set number of years, the nonprofit’s share of financing for the home has to be repaid.
“Where we’re seeing success in some of these projects is where the community is unified on some of these projects,” Trowbridge said. “It’s there, it’s starting, it’s igniting.”
“Every city has to have their own strategy,” Trowbridge said.
Buy-in from residents is important, too.
Wszolek cited a Post-Tribune article about a proposed subdivision. “The question was, should Valparaiso annex this parcel,” he said. Members of the public remonstrating against it had $1 million homes, hardly in the affordable housing range. The City Council approved it, 5-2.
A traffic study can be useful in communities where significant development is happening, Ibrahim said. “That convinces people and convinces town council members.”
“It takes people who are knowledgeable about what makes a healthy community,” Wszolek said, to make it happen.