A study begins on housing, affordability in Greater Lafayette

A Q&A on the stakes in a study of a tight housing market. Plus, doing the BiL Holiday Playlist shuffle.

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STUDY BEGINS ON HOUSING, AFFORDABILITY IN GREATER LAFAYETTE

This week, West Lafayette’s board of works signed off on a housing study for Greater Lafayette, as part of work by the Tippecanoe Housing Solutions Coalition. A study, led by consultant Prosperity Indiana, will cost Lafayette and West Lafayette $10,000 each, with $25,000 coming from Indiana United Ways.

Here’s more about Tippecanoe Housing Solutions Coalition, its goals and the study, via a conversation with Jennifer Million, chief operating officer at the United Way of Greater Lafayette.

(Photo: Unsplash)

Question: What prompted the creation of the coalition? And who was called to be at the table?

Jennifer Million: In 2023, United Way was asked by several funded partners to convene the community to help develop solutions to the housing challenges we are facing. We have facilitated similar work around other key issue areas such as homelessness (Solutions Beyond Shelter), education (Read to Succeed), mental health (Mental Healthcare Forum) and substance use (Tippecanoe Resilience & Recovery Network). We began meeting in August of 2023 and have recently begun engaging with Prosperity Indiana as a project consultant. Our steering committee currently consists of representatives from: United Way, City of Lafayette, City of West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Lafayette Urban Ministry, LTHC Homeless Services, Homestead Resources, Legal Aid and Bauer Family Resources. We are going through the process of identifying stakeholders and how we should engage them in the process. We want the entire community to contribute to the process in some way but are figuring out what that looks like. We are working with Prosperity Indiana to help make this action plan come to fruition.

Question: What are you hoping to get out of a study of the housing situation in Greater Lafayette? How will it used going forward?