All Posts By

Abri Hochstetler

Jul 19
0

Volunteers Making an Impact: Q2

By | Volunteer | No Comments

Our volunteers ultimately allow us to build quality homes for local families in need of affordable homeownership. At halfway through the year, our outstanding volunteers have helped complete 8 homes for first-time homeowners! And we hope the new 2,172 volunteers who created a new account will help us build another 19 homes yet in 2018. Check out the Quarter Two volunteer stats below to see what an incredible impact each volunteer helps make on our community.


(View the image here as well.)

To join us in this important work of building strength, stability, and independence through homeownership, check out our volunteer page for ways to get involved. With questions, contact volunteer@indyhabitat.org.

Jun 29
2

Kroger Strengths Local Families through Food and Homeownership

By | News | No Comments

Written by: Eric Halvorson, Manager of Corporate Affairs & Media Spokesman, Kroger Co.

For some people, Hoosier Hospitality is a slogan. At Habitat for Humanity, it is a calling. The Greater Indy affiliate of Habitat has been building homes and building dreams for thirty years. Hundreds of families have enjoyed the quality of life and stability that comes from homeownership made possible by Habitat.

The Kroger Co. has been part of the Habitat team for nearly half of its Indy existence. We have supported the home builds physically, with volunteers, and financially. So, we have seen the impact Habitat can have – one home, one street, and one neighborhood at a time.

Someone said a warm kitchen and good food are what make a house a home. That’s where Kroger provides one more element of the Habitat for Humanity success story. Kroger feeds the new homeowners. For years, we have stocked the pantries of each new Indianapolis Habitat home. That will continue in 2018. It is a natural extension of our life in the grocery business.

Our food donations are the modern equivalent of a commitment made by our founder, Barney Kroger, in the early 20th Century. During one particularly harsh winter, he donated 300 loaves of bread a week to help the poor. Kroger’s determination to fight food insecurity is even stronger today. Stocking the Habitat pantries is part of our Zero Hunger | Zero Waste campaign. We want to give 3 billion meals by 2025 and end hunger in Kroger communities.

After 135 years in the grocery business, we have learned a few things about food and people. We know that meals matter. Families who enjoy meals together have children who do better in every aspect of their lives. That’s the power of our partnership with Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity. But this is not just a story of the buildings.

We appreciate the homeownership education and the financial literacy programs provided by Habitat. The new owners are given all the preparation possible to make sure, once they have the keys to their homes, they are able to establish a personal foundation that prepares them for a future that might not have been possible otherwise. We are proud to be part of strengthening families and restoring neighborhoods with Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity.

Over our 15-year partnership, Kroger has built homes, communities, and hope through their sponsorship investment, employee engagement, and donated product to each of our first-time homeowners. You can see their next build project in action at the 2018 Indiana State Fair as part of our annual Ag Build! 

Jun 27
3

Building a Brighter Future with Goodwill

By | Volunteer | No Comments

Written by: Meredith Canfield & Ted Mosey, GIHFH staff

Over the years, Habitat has enjoyed a great relationship with Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana. Several Habitat homeowners originally found out about our program while working at Goodwill, participating in Nurse-Family Partnership (including Mansa!), or at the Excel Center. One of our longtime board members is Zaida Monell, who spends her days as a Goodwill executive. Our relationship is tied together by our combined passion to offer a life-changing hand-up that empowers people to reach their potential.

Recently, we built on our relationship by getting out of the office and doing a volunteer-swap of sorts! Together with Goodwill employees, Habitat employees spent the day at a Goodwill Outlet reaching into bins or containers to sort through items like donated clothes, books or shoes looking for gently used pieces that would be sold at a nearby Goodwill store, Vintage Vogue or Outlet store. We learned that the revenue generated by the sale of these items help create opportunities to improve the health, education or employment of individuals, just like the very employees standing next to us in the back of the warehouse. Many of us have shopped at Goodwill stores ourselves but didn’t really know the impact behind our purchases! It was fun working right alongside the employees of Goodwill, learning from them and hearing how Goodwill has impacted their lives. You know the saying, “someone’s trash can be someone else’s treasure”? Well, our team truly learned how the purchase of someone’s once unwanted belongings are bringing a life of new treasures to someone else’s!

The following week, Goodwill employees spent a day with paint brushes in their hands on a Habitat build on the Southside of Indy. Kent Kramer, Goodwill CEO, as well as Zaida Monell and other teammates worked alongside Sharna to help her achieve her dream of homeownership.

Collaboration is key and we are thankful for partners like Goodwill that are working alongside of our team to make Indy a stronger and more equitable place to live and work!

Jun 01
0

Spring 2018 Graduation

By | Homeowner | No Comments

Congratulations to our Spring 2018 Homebuyer Class!

May 29
0

Letter to the Editor: Time for city to tackle poverty

By | From the CEO, News | No Comments

From the Desk of Jim Morris, President & CEO and published as a Letter to the Editor in the Indianapolis Business Journal on May 25

I applaud the IBJ for highlighting the growing inequality in Indianapolis (1 in 5 Indianapolis residents lives in poverty. And many areas are getting worse, May 11, 2018).  In the article, reporter Hayleigh Colombo observes that “people are living increasingly different lives – and experiencing increasingly different realities – in the same city.”  While concentrated poverty isn’t a new reality in Indianapolis, the Indy Chamber bringing awareness to the business community that “exclusion is costly” as Joe Parilla, fellow at Brookings Institute stated in the article is an admirable and positive step.

Former Indianapolis Mayor Hudnut once declared that “you can’t be a suburb of nothing” when asked why downtown Indianapolis was important.  Indianapolis now receives frequent recognition of our improved downtown and city offerings.  Our suburbs and downtown are thriving.

As the largest provider of affordable homeownership in Greater Indianapolis, we believe that no one lives in dignity until everyone can live in dignity.  Concentrated poverty in Indianapolis is holding back hundreds of thousands of families from accessing opportunities for upward mobility and will hold us back from continued growth for all.

On a typical Habitat build site, you see the possibilities of what we can do together when we work together.  Faith leaders, business leaders, people of all ages volunteer alongside a family to help build or rehabilitate a home.  Just as we stepped up our game and created a nationally recognized downtown and suburbs, it is now time for us all to step in and help the most vulnerable.

Thanks to the Indianapolis Business Journal for publishing Jim Morris’ Letter to the Editor on May 25th! 

May 25
8

Home Improvement Program

By | Homeowner | 4 Comments

Kara Abstone moved into her Habitat home in 2000 when her daughter, Karrington, was just a baby. “I started (Habitat) classes when she was just one week old! They called her the Habitat baby,” remembers Kara. Now, as Karrington finishes up her high school degree, her mom finishes up the final details of a bathroom remodel made possible through our new Habitat Home Improvement Program.

In an effort to provide additional resources to Habitat homeowners to improve their quality of life, a gift from the Randall C. and Janet D. Belden Family Fund, a fund of The Indianapolis Foundation, helped fund the creation of our Home Improvement Program. Through this initiative, Habitat homeowners like Kara can fund home improvements such as HVAC replacement, accessibility or security additions, porch or patio repairs, and more, with a 0% interest loan up to $5,000.

“The goal of this program is to create affordable avenues for our homeowners to modify and improve their homes so they can live there as long as they would like,” said Jim Morris, Greater Indy Habitat president & CEO. “As reported in our recent 30-Year-Impact Study, more than 88% of homeowners shared that they plan on remaining in their current Habitat home for a long time or permanently. This program helps homeowners adapt their space so they can continue to grow into and enjoy it.”

Kara’s more spacious, orchid painted bathroom is an example of this opportunity to change and customize her home. The loan enabled a contractor to open up walls in the bathroom, replace the linoleum with tile, upgrade the shower and vanity, and replace the textured paint. With plum shower curtains on their way, Kara says her Pinterest board came to life. Karrington approves of the changes and even shared project progress with friends via FaceTime.

After 18 years of enjoying her home, Kara made her dream bathroom a reality, thanks to the Habitat Home Improvement Program.

Habitat homeowners interested in this program, please contact Janet at 317.777.6090.

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May 24
3

Watch our Repair Program Video

By | Homeowner, News | No Comments

As we continue to adapt our services to meet the needs of our homeowners and the community, we were honored to have our owner-occupied repair program nominated for LISC’s Love Thy Neighborhood Awards this spring. In 2017 we provided 63 repairs to enable homeowners to remain in their home, and thus neighborhood, despite health, aging, or financial challenges.

The focus of the homeowner repair program is on exterior, health and safety, and energy efficiency repairs. Learn more about this program by watching the video below!

May 07
2

Meet Lindsey, Visual Communications Coordinator

By | News | One Comment

In February we welcomed Lindsey Rominger to our Habitat family into the new role of Visual Communications Coordinator. Lindsey’s background is in graphic design and marketing, including international communications work with Ataway. Learn more about Lindsey below!

What are your primary roles at Habitat?

As the Visual Communications Coordinator, I work on the design and production of marketing collateral and publications for Greater Indy Habitat and the three ReStores located within greater Indianapolis. I work on designing event signage, print publications, online graphics, etc. I also take photos at events and help manage the photography and videography collection. If you see the girl with the camera at our Habitat events, come say hello and introduce yourself! I would absolutely love to meet you!

What makes your space “home”?

Family is a very large part of how I define home. I love hanging out with family, including my lovable dog named Judd. My husband Ryan and I are almost always taking on a creative project as well, so you can usually find art supplies, wood working projects, and power tools scattered throughout our home. I’m all about fostering a space at home to be creative!

What’s your favorite tool to use?

As a graphic designer, my favorite tool of choice is the Adobe Creative Suite. This suite of applications helps bring creative ideas to life and offers users a significantly large amount of tools to create designs for both web and print. Out of all of the Adobe applications, my favorite platform to work with is Adobe InDesign. This software allows you to create layout publications and was the first graphic design platform I learned on in school.

Why do you build homes, communities and hope?

Working at Greater Indy Habitat is truly a dream job of mine. I love the people and city of Indianapolis deeply, and I want to spread God’s love to the reaches of this city and beyond. I believe that a home is not just limited to the physical walls and a roof over somebody’s head. It’s all the birthday parties hosted, the lost teeth stuffed under pillows, the first day of school pictures taken on the front porch, the Thanksgiving turkeys cooked in the oven, and so much more life that happens within the walls of a home. I truly believe that homeownership is empowering. It is life changing… and I am so incredibly blessed to be able to see the life-changing mission of Habitat carried out each day.

Please join us in welcoming Lindsey to our Habitat family! 

Apr 13
1

Volunteers Making an Impact: Q1

By | Volunteer | No Comments

Though we are only one quarter of the way into our year, Greater Indy Habitat volunteers are making a serious impact on our mission. Indiana weather hasn’t been kind, but our dedicated volunteers have pushed through cold, snow and wind to build and rehab homes for local families. Catch a glimpse of what our volunteers have already accomplished in 2018 below!

(View the image larger here.)

To join us in this important work of building strength, stability, and independence through homeownership, check out our volunteer page for ways to get involved. With questions, contact volunteer@indyhabitat.org.

Mar 27
1

Barriers

By | From the CEO | No Comments

From the Desk of Jim Morris, President & CEO

I grew up in Michigan City, so I grew up going to the beach on Lake Michigan every summer. As a kid I loved building sand castles, but I think I was more fond of stomping on them afterward. In a unique way, our mission here at Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity allows me to carry forward some of my youthful passion.

We bring people together to build homes, communities, and hope. To fulfill that mission we also break things. Results from a recent study that the Sagamore Institute conducted for us to better understand the impact of Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity’s affordable homeownership work on families reveals that we help families break through three main barriers to ownership:

  • Lack of credit or poor credit history
  • Lack of down payment monies
  • Lack of understanding of the homeownership process

The study reveals that by breaking through these barriers and achieving affordable homeownership, families obtain the stability, strength, and independence needed to create a pathway to opportunities in their lives. Those opportunities can be in education, financial, and well-being.

For example, because we provide a 0% interest mortgage for the home, each household receives a financial benefit of $111,205 on average in interest saved over the life of the loan, allowing the family to reinvest in other aspirations that build their quality of life. Areas where families are reinvesting include completing higher education or training. Seventy-one percent (71%) of owners have completed, started or are planning to start some form of higher education or professional training.

This year we have a goal of providing 27 new families with the opportunity to break down barriers while building a new life for themselves. While I may not have the same satisfaction of the sand pouring through my toes after stomping it down, my fulfillment is so much greater when we see families who have fulfilled their dream of creating a better life for themselves through affordable homeownership.