Housing Remains High Priority for Holcomb in 2022
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Ample housing for a growing Indiana workforce will continue to be a legislative priority for the Holcomb Administration when the Indiana General Assembly convenes in January. Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch tells Inside INside Indiana Business the governor’s office will be looking for lawmakers to approve a housing tax credit in the new year to help bolster housing construction.
“We’ve had that that tax credit in past sessions. And, we really haven’t had any movement on it,” said Crouch.
While a housing tax credit has failed to gain traction in the past, Crouch hopes work conducted by the Housing Working Group, which launched in March 2020, will provide tangible data to lawmakers. It was developed a create a comprehensive overview of the state’s housing supply.
“We’re hoping that with this study, and as legislators themselves can actually look at their particular districts and the counties that are in their districts, it’ll drive home the real need for housing in Indiana,” said Crouch. “And in turn, we are hopeful that we’ll be able to see some movement to be able to encourage and support more housing here in Indiana.”
Crouch says the state created a record, 31,700 new jobs in 2021, further illustrating the need for additional housing. She says an overarching theme of the Regional Economic Acceleration and Acceleration and Development Initiative, a program that awarded $500 million in grants two week ago, was the need for housing.
“When you look at the 17 regional READI grants that were submitted, and you added up all the projects, the overwhelming priority among regions was housing,” said Crouch.
Last week, the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority and the Housing Working Group released an online dashboard that includes a statewide inventory of housing. The IHCDA says the dashboard is part of a comprehensive plan to analyze housing needs as the Hoosier state tries to attract and retain workers.
“The dashboard is a first of its kind to be able to centralize our housing data in one location,” explained Jacob Sipe, executive director of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. “So, it really provides us with a lot of information that’s easy to use, and really easy to understand, in one central location.”
The dashboard offers information that can be compared county by county, including housing stock in Indiana by age, price, number of bedrooms in a unit, and more.
The digital tool also includes economic trends such as top employers, top industries, workforce and unemployment statistics, median income and costs of material inputs for construction.
“As you can see in the dashboard, you can use to see the different graphs and charts. And you can pull from population to jobs to housing, housing affordability,” said Sipe. And you can drill down into counties and compare your county versus to other counties or compare your county versus the state.”
As 2022 approaches, Sipe says a priority for the IHCDA and the Housing Working Group in the new year will be making sure the data is being used to properly plan our communities for their housing needs. Click here to view the housing dashboard.