The city of Indianapolis has started tearing down eight vacant buildings at Towne and Terrace, a blighted housing complex on the far east side, and has paid to relocate a total of 120 households to allow for demolition of the entire site by early 2026.

Built in the 1960s, the townhome complex near 42nd Street and Post Road devolved into a hotbed for drug dealing and crime in recent years, in part because of mismanagement by prior homeowners association leaders, the city says. City officials began buying up the complex’s 32 buildings following a 2022 settlement that ended a nine-year legal battle with the HOA, Towne and Terrace Corp.

The city has set aside $14.4 million to buy and demolish 32 buildings and relocate about 120 households at Towne and Terrace. Demolition started Monday on eight buildings, and 23 remaining properties will come down throughout 2025, according to Aryn Schounce, senior policy adviser to Mayor Joe Hogsett. The first building was demolished in 2023.

“This demolition is more than just removing buildings,” State Sen. La Keisha Jackson, whose district includes the Towne and Terrace site, said at a press conference Monday in nearby Mt. Carmel Church. “It’s about restoring hope and assuring safety for the families who lived here.”

Once the complex is razed, Schounce told IndyStar, officials will plan the future of the site in tandem with the neighboring Oaktree Apartments, another property the city acquired and demolished. Schounce said the two sites work better together as one 38-acre mixed-use redevelopment project, rather than two separate smaller ones.

Hogsett said police have received fewer calls for service to the housing complex since the city demolished one building last year. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department also installed four surveillance cameras at the site and increased patrols of the area.

“We look forward to continued improvements in public safety as more buildings come down over the coming months,” Hogsett said.

How the city is relocating Towne and Terrace residents

Officials expect the 20 households remaining on the site to find new homes by this spring, with the help of employees in the Department of Metropolitan Development.

Under the federal Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Act, the city offered subsidies to tenants so they could pay the same monthly rent as they did at Towne and Terrace for the next three and a half years. For owner-occupants, the city had to pay the difference between the cost of any new comparable home and their home at Towne and Terrace. The city also reimbursed moving expenses.

Liz Durden, a Towne and Terrace resident since 1989 and the current HOA president, said she was reluctant to leave when the city first shared plans to raze all 32 buildings last April.

In the following months, however, Durden found a more expensive single-family home on the far east side, and the city paid for the difference. Now, the 62-year-old grandmother said she owns a better home without any monthly mortgage payments.

Although the process was stressful and she’s sad to see the place where she made so many memories destroyed, Durden has embraced the change.

“I’m real emotional about it, but it gets better and better and better,” Durden said, “because when I walk through the door of my new home, I love it.”

Email IndyStar Housing, Growth and Development Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09