{"id":539,"date":"2023-05-03T10:11:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T10:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/?p=539"},"modified":"2023-05-11T14:45:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T14:45:12","slug":"going-home-how-shepherd-helps-neighbors-find-a-place-to-call-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/2023\/05\/03\/going-home-how-shepherd-helps-neighbors-find-a-place-to-call-their-own\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Going home: How Shepherd helps neighbors find a place to call their own<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The national median cost to rent a home fell for the first time in three years in March. And while that was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2023\/04\/17\/asking-rents-first-annual-decline-since-march-2020?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslocal_indianapolis&amp;stream=top\">good news for renters in Chicago and Cincinnati<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t the case for people who rent a home in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Indy, median rent shot up 10.5% in March, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/redfin-rental-report-march-2023\/\">fourth-highest increase of any major metro area<\/a> in the U.S., according to Redfin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Higher rent \u2013 along with higher upfront costs to get into a house or apartment \u2013 is further straining families\u2019 budgets even as they must cope with surging food, energy and transportation costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur neighbors are feeling the pressure,\u201d Jay Height, Shepherd\u2019s executive director, said. \u201cHigher rent is just one of the factors making it harder to find and stay in a home. Higher interest rates, including on variable rate home loans, also have hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adding further pressure on housing prices is the rapid gentrification that is spreading through much of the near Eastside. A recent search of the 46201 zip code (an area that Shepherd serves) on Realtor.com turned up new houses listed for sale from $650,000 to $715,000 and new condos selling for more than $300,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To assist neighbors with housing, Shepherd in 2022:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Helped 80 neighbors with utilities, safety, rent assistance and finding new, stable housing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Repaired 11 homes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Helped two neighbors to become homeowners through a rent-to-own model.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Helped three neighbors become first-time homeowners through Habitat for Humanity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Formed partnerships with new landlords who offer good quality, affordable housing properties.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Advocated with neighbors in court and worked to remove or reduce late<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>fees, keep utilities on and prevent evictions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Connected with landlords to find affordable housing within neighbors\u2019 financial means.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Partnered with the University of Indianapolis to provide apartments to neighbors in<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>dire need.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Moving forward, Shepherd\u2019s goals include working with partners to build homes on empty lots on the near Eastside, helping 50 neighbors become first-time homeowners, and adding 50 new, good quality rental homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The national median cost to rent a home fell for the first time in three years in March. And while that was good news for renters in Chicago and Cincinnati. It wasn\u2019t the case for people who rent a home in Indianapolis. In Indy, median rent shot up 10.5% in March, the fourth-highest increase of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}