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From the CEO

Jan 17
0

Jim’s Desk: The Hidden Housing Crisis

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For this month’s edition of “From the Desk of Jim,” hear from Chris Purnell, executive director at the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, about our upcoming event “The Hidden Housing Crisis” with author Matthew Desmond on Feb. 28. Why is eviction an important issue for our city and our state?

Please join us Thursday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m. at The Toby at Newfields for a discussion about eviction and the fundamental role housing plays in deepening inequality in America. Author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond will share insights on his research and affirm the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. Reserve your seat today!

Nov 19
3

Jim’s Desk: Dinner with Danielle

By | From the CEO, Homeowner | One Comment

Habitat homeowner Danielle graciously opened her home for an evening with Jim to cook dinner and share a meal together. Watch the video below for a glimpse into the fun and to hear how Danielle and her family have made their house a home.

Become a monthly donor today! If you sign up for a reoccurring gift before Dec. 31, 2018, we will send you a Habitat homeowner recipe once a month in 2019. Look forward to 12 home-cooked recipes to enjoy and remember the impact of your support of Habitat for Humanity families.

Check out Jim’s previous “From the Desk” videos with Steven Meyer of King Park Development Corporation and Andy Duncan with our ReStores!

May 29
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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! 

Mar 27
1

Barriers

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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.

Jan 18
0

The Power of Going Off-Script

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From the Desk of Jim Morris, President & CEO

Martin Luther King Jr. is annually honored in the month of January for his peaceful leadership toward civil rights in the 1950’s and 60’s. His “I have a Dream” speech has been hailed as a defining moment of the civil rights movement back in 1963. What I particularly love about this influential speech is that the end of the speech that we know so well was partly improvised. According to historical accounts, Mahalia Jackson, the popular gospel singer, yelled from the crowd listening to Reverend King, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”

I love that while he had a prepared speech, this impromptu request enticed Reverend King to go off-script and share his passion and dream from his heart. It is now the most famous portion of that influential speech.

Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity is a part of Habitat’s worldwide vision to end poverty housing with our efforts concentrated on Hancock, Hendricks, and Marion counties and our international relationship primarily with El Salvador. We have plans for our work this year to provide more housing solutions than ever in our 31st year.

Reverend King likely tirelessly poured over planning and writing his speech for the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” on August 28, 1963. Yet, the passion from his improvisation is what has been most remembered. 

We are vigorously working to prepare for 2018. I am confident that our core team will maximize use of our resources to provide the most individuals the joy and stability of homeownership. I wonder, though, which one of you will yell from the crowd like Mahalia Jackson? Who will be that volunteer who will spark us to share our deeper passions? How will we go off-script to love our neighbors this year? What will you do to help someone accomplish their dream?

Sep 13
0

Another Way to Help Our Neighbors

By | From the CEO, Homeowner | No Comments

From the Desk of Jim Morris, President & CEO

You often here the phrase, “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” In Habitat for Humanity parlance, we often talk about providing a hand up and not a hand-out. Our sense of fulfilling Jesus’s second greatest command of loving our neighbor with the understanding that our neighbor is also participating in some way, whatever means available. As we commemorate 30 years of fulfilling our mission to build homes, communities and hope, Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity has secured the ability to offer future home buyers another hand up that isn’t a free lunch, but is definitely a multiplier toward their efforts to successful homeownership.

In August, the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority granted Greater Indy Habitat the ability to administer Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Having an IDA program will allow future Habitat homebuyers to create a savings account for down payment assistance, matched 4:1 through state and federal monies toward savings goals. It is an opportunity to help build a savings mindset toward long-term homeownership success, while also providing a way for the homebuyer to obtain the up-front monies necessary for being a homeowner.

As part of our pre-buying, homeowner education process, we already walk homebuyers through financial education classes that emphasize credit, debt, or other issues that could prevent them from reaching their homeowner goals and long-term financial aspirations. Having the IDAs as a tool will only continue to benefit the homeowners in their journey to a better quality of life.

According to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the personal saving rate in the United States is 5.7%. Recently, GoBankingRates posed the question to more than 7,000 Americans of how much they had in their savings account. Nearly seven in 10 Americans (69%) had less than $1,000 in their savings account. Most low-income families would fall into this category as they can barely cover expenses let alone save money, so having another tool to provide them the opportunity to save and to invest in their long-term future feels to us like we are adhering to Jesus’s command.

Jul 19
2

Celebrating 30 Years with Family

By | Events, From the CEO | No Comments

From the Desk of Jim Morris, President & CEO

How do you recognize 30 years of fulfilling our mission of bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope? Our board, staff and Tiger Team (the men and women in orange that volunteer weekly) understand that our role in the mission is to “bring people together.” The families we are privileged to walk with in their journey to a better, healthier and more financially stable life in Greater Indianapolis are the reason we exist.

The families’ success is ultimately what matters most to us. While we have achieved a lot with them, we wanted to make our 30th anniversary about them, so what better way than to amp up our annual homeowner gathering aptly named “HabiFest.” Since we were founded in 1987, we decided to return to the 80’s with a throw-back party at Skateland. Watch the video below for a recap or view photos from the event!

More than 200 family members joined us as the older adults channeled their inner 12 year-old and the kids outshone us on the skating rink. There was some fantastic 80’s attire and our families said it was the best HabiFest we have hosted.

While the event was a huge success with our largest turnout, we also paused to reflect on the 85 families that have now fully paid off their 0% mortgage. Our generous sponsors, donors and volunteers have made a difference in nearly 600 total families and now 85 of those families fully own their home – a feat many Americans don’t realize.

In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  I don’t know if Jesus had Skateland in mind as a venue to do this, but it definitely served as a great setting to highlight 30 years of seeing the results of this commandment realized in the success of our families.

May 31
3

Remembering Al Clark

By | From the CEO, Tiger Team | No Comments

From the Desk of Jim Morris, President & CEO

“Habitat has provided me more in the last 23 years than I provided as a Tiger volunteer.” Al Clark, long-time Tiger Team volunteer. Pictured below with his first volunteer T-shirt, which is also the first Tiger Team T-shirt from 1995.

Al Clark volunteered with Habitat for 23+ years and in late April at the age of 85, he passed away. Many people cross your path in your professional and personal life. Tall and lean with a white beard and handlebar mustache, Al was one of those individuals that no matter how busy my day may be, I simply loved to stop and listen to his stories of his involvement with our mission.

He was more reflective than usual on the day he shared his statement with me about his time volunteering after retirement. He said his weekly Habitat volunteering gave him purpose and created in him a quality of life that he saw disappear in many of his peers who did not have that after retirement. It was a simple, seemingly paradoxical but profound statement. Al had personally affected hundreds of families during his volunteer time. He was a pillar in our work for 23 of the 30 years in existence. Yet, he felt that Habitat gave more to him than he did to it.

I often comment that when you strip away the complexity of our work, our role of facilitating neighbor helping neighbor is a simple privilege to witness. Every week, I see firsthand the display of Jesus’s second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself in the work of thousands of individuals. Our Tiger Team of 60+ mostly retired men and women that Al was a part of volunteering weekly routinely inspire me, but Al’s words had a particular impact on me during that lunch.

Jesus also said in Mathew 10:39 (MSG translation) that “if your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.” This is what struck me the most. I won’t judge those that pursue a life of retirement where rest and relaxation and material possession are the predominant aspirations, but Al and the rest of the Tiger Team are the model I want to pursue both now and in retirement.

If you want to act on Al’s wisdom and Jesus’s teaching, we welcome you to become a part of our Tiger volunteer family or engage in a myriad of other missional work out there that inspires you. Contact our volunteer team to learn more.