Stories | Fort Wayne Media Collaborative

Could We Create a Community Land Trust in Fort Wayne?

by Gabi Lorino | Apr 12, 2023

Jason Webb of Grounded Solutions Network is part of the team creating a new community land trust in Indianapolis. In a recent webinar, he reflected on how living in a Community Land Trust (CLT) helps families build wealth, just not in the traditional way. “The generational wealth that homeownership can bring to future generations is more than just the dollars and cents that somebody could get from that real estate transaction. The wealth really comes from the stability of having a home, of not needing to go through the rent increases year after year.” The goal is for lease owners to be in a better situation than they’d be in if they rented, so that they can invest a larger portion of their disposable income into their businesses, retirement accounts, and families. A Community Land Trust...

City of Fort Wayne Announces New Plan to Combat Homelessness

by Julie Creek | Mar 16, 2023

Even before the pandemic closed businesses, schools, and scattered millions of Americans to work from home in early 2020, lower income homeowners and renters everywhere were staring down a housing crisis that threatened their ability to put a roof over the heads of their loved ones. But as the country has started to return to normal, the crisis has remained, as many face rising rental costs and the increasing risk of homelessness. In an effort to address Fort Wayne’s homelessness problem, city officials in February released its Everyone Home comprehensive plan. The plan calls for an increase in affordable housing stock throughout the Summit city, and improvements and additions to services provided for homeless or near-homeless residents. It also emphasizes coordination between various...

Regional Shelter Offers Opportunity for Reclaimed Lives

by Angela Mapes Turner | Feb 13, 2023

Auburn has become a city on the rise. In its west-side commercial district, heavy construction equipment and cranes have been a common sight, as older buildings give way to new ones springing up all over. One project, though, has taken shape more quietly. Tucked behind the ongoing new construction of a chain deli, a relic of the 1960s has been given new life — and gives new hope — to families and individuals facing homelessness. Fortify Life, a fledgling nonprofit, has renovated 13 rooms in a modest former Days Inn motel, creating emergency and transitional housing in a community that has shown great need for it. Jeremiah Otis, Fortify Life’s energetic director of development, said the renaissance of the motel is part of a new approach to addressing poverty in northeast Indiana. The...

Fort Wayne Media Collaborative Healthy Neighborhoods Panel Discussion

by admin | Jan 30, 2023

Local leaders and housing advocates discuss the elements of a healthy neighborhood, the challenges communities face in designing, building, and maintaining healthy neighborhoods and possible solutions to those challenges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6RZ6rL-uV8 Panel discussion was recorded on 12/05/22.

How are American Rescue Plan Act Funds being spent in Fort Wayne? The City fills us in

by AJ Hughes | Dec 7, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc and disrupted most facets of life in Fort Wayne and across the nation. To address a wide array of needs felt across the country, Congress and President Joe Biden enacted a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package in March 2021 known as the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Its objective is to aid the United States in its recovery—both economic and otherwise—from the COVID-19 pandemic. The City of Fort Wayne received $50.8 million in ARPA funding, and on April 12, Fort Wayne City Council presented its official Recovery Plan for ARPA money. A total of $18.2 million is set aside for strengthening neighborhoods in the city; $13.3 million is available for making city operations more resilient; $13 million is allocated...

Chambers wants better affordable housing across Fort Wayne

by Dirk Rowley | Dec 7, 2022

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — By 2032, Fort Wayne City Councilwoman Michelle Chambers (D, at-large) would like to see affordable housing throughout Fort Wayne. That journey started with an ordinance she introduced last month to incentivize affordable housing development in any part of the city, not just in economic development targeted areas (EDTA). “This really helps us attract quality, affordable housing developers to the city of Fort Wayne,” she told WANE 15. She cited a report that Indiana has only 38 affordable units available per 100 extremely low income families. Chambers’ proposal moved forward Tuesday night by a 7-1 vote. It will likely receive final approval at the next meeting. Fort Wayne councilwoman to push bill to promote affordable housing Chambers said her idea is easy to...

Eviction Intervention Program Helps Allen County Tenants Stay in Their Homes

by Dave Gong | Nov 28, 2022

On any day that there are eviction cases on the docket at the Allen County Court’s Small Claims Division, there are people in the courtroom gallery actively looking for people they can help. They’re with the Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network’s Eviction Intervention Program, which opened in January and aims to help tenants avoid an eviction by providing financial assistance, or by offering referrals to legal representation and other social service agencies. Since most eviction cases filed in Allen County have to do with nonpayment of rent, much of the team’s time is spent processing rental assistance applications. If a tenant is approved under the Eviction Intervention Program, Just Neighbors will pay their past-due rent, as well as rent going forward for a set period of time, in...

Building a Future for Young Adults Aged out of Foster Care

by Gabi Lorino | Nov 28, 2022

“When we were in foster care, we weren’t allowed to get a license, we weren’t allowed to have a bank account or a phone. We weren’t allowed to have anything.” A young woman in Fort Wayne’s young adult housing described the steep learning curve she encountered at age eighteen. The path to adulthood is fraught for any young person, but it presents additional challenges to those who age out of foster care without a support system in place. These kids are given $600 and a backpack on their eighteenth birthdays, but if they don’t have a birth certificate or a Social Security card, the next steps seem insurmountable. At The Courtyard on Home Avenue in Fort Wayne, most residents used to be foster children. The Courtyard is an apartment complex that houses young adults, usually between ages 18...

Legislative Candidates Propose Solutions to Indiana’s Affordable Housing Crisis

by admin | Nov 5, 2022

This story was produced by journalism students at Purdue University Fort Wayne currently enrolled in COM317 - Digital Storytelling, under the supervision of professor Heloisa Sturm Wilkerson. They reached out to 36 Indiana candidates to learn more about their stances on housing issues affecting the state. Only a handful of candidates had proposals to address the housing crisis that has affected the nation. By Eli Jones and Gavin Greer With the 2022 Midterm Elections coming up in November, voters are looking into candidates to learn about their proposals to improve the quality of life in their communities. This story looks at the affordable housing policies of the candidates running for State Representative in Allen County. Democrat Kyle R. Miller, who is competing with Republican Davyd...

Indiana’s U.S. Senate and Congressional Candidates Propose Plans to Tackle Affordable Housing Crisis

by admin | Nov 5, 2022

This story was produced by journalism students at Purdue University Fort Wayne currently enrolled in COM317 - Digital Storytelling, under the supervision of professor Heloisa Sturm Wilkerson. They reached out to 36 Indiana candidates to learn more about their stances on housing issues affecting the state. Only a handful of candidates had proposals to address the housing crisis that has affected the nation. By Emily Coverstone, Sydney Hamblin and Megan Isenbarger The family poverty rate in the state of Indiana is at a ten-year low, but similar to the rest of the United States, Indiana is facing a severe shortage of affordable housing for Hoosiers. The state is facing a shortage of 135,033 affordable and available rental homes, according to a report produced by Prosperity Indiana and the...

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