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Indianapolis Public Schools will give seven unused properties to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Indianapolis to build up to 16 homes as part of a broader push to make affordable homeownership possible for IPS employees.

The parcels near existing IPS schools are mostly vacant — although one parcel by William McKinley School 39 has a playground and another has an old athletic field. The locations of the properties range from the west side of the district to the Martindale-Brightwood and Fountain Square neighborhoods.

The transfer is a rare contribution of unused land by IPS that comes at an increasingly challenging time for affordable homeownership in Indianapolis. The school board’s approval of the initiative last month accompanies another partnership that the district will launch with the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, which will provide finance and homeownership education for IPS employees seeking to buy homes. The group will also offer affordable lending opportunities.

IPS employees often cite housing costs as a reason for making early withdrawals from their retirement accounts, according to district officials.

“We’re really grateful when people present opportunities like this for collaboration,” said Abri Hochstetler, Habitat for Humanity’s vice president of development and communications. “It really is an all-ships-rise scenario, to bring in both INHP and Habitat to this conversation and to try to utilize community resources.”

Although the Habitat houses won’t be reserved exclusively for IPS employees, some could be eligible for homeownership through Habitat’s criteria.

IPS to partner with Habitat

Habitat preliminarily plans to build up to 16 houses across all the properties at a rate of roughly five homes per year for the next three years.

Habitat homes are available to families making no more than 80% of area median income, or roughly $88,560 for a family of four in the group’s 2025-26 cycle. Habitat homeowners must complete financial and home ownership courses and provide 200 volunteer hours, which could be spent building their home or the homes of others. Habitat then sells the home to the homebuyer, and currently offers mortgages with a 0% interest rate.

“The goal of this would be to really proactively seek out qualifying IPS staff and teachers, particularly if they’re located near those school communities, and connect them to the Habitat process, ” Zach Mulholland, the district’s executive director of operations strategy, told the school board last month.

The parcels sit near George Washington High School, Matchbook Learning at Wendell Phillips School 63, School 39, and the now closed Francis W. Parker Montessori School 56.

IPS previously acquired the land to either support a previous building project or plan for future buildings, Mulholland said. Now, they are no longer needed for current or future projects.

The district’s transfer of mostly undeveloped land is a rare one for Habitat. Before 2018, 74% of Habitat’s land was donated, according to Hochstetler. But in the past two years, only 4% of the group’s lots have been donated — and since 2018 Habitat has seen a 324% increase in land costs.

“This land donation from IPS is really wonderful, because it’s allowing us to partner with a local organization and then also eliminate one of the earliest barriers to our work, which is land acquisition,” Hochstetler said.

IPS will also partner with the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, a nonprofit that helps people with low or moderate incomes achieve affordable homeownership.

The nonprofit will offer homeownership and financing education classes to groups of at least 10 employees at designated sites throughout the district. These classes cover successful renting, budgeting, and how to understand credit.

The group can also offer one-on-one advising on how to reduce debt or save for a down payment.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.