Improving Kids' Environment is a partner in the Citizen's Healthy Homes Initiative with the Concerned Clergy and the Citizen's Multi-Service Center.  As a partner, IKE wrote a Needs Assessment for the Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood on Indianapolis' Near Northeast Side.  The Needs Assessment was published on August 23, 2003. Back to Main Report

Indianapolis Citizen’s Healthy Homes Initiative

Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood Needs Assessment

Finding #7

Gentrification Threatens to Drive Property Values Up and the Residents Out

According to Webster’s Dictionary of the American Language, gentrification is the conversion of an aging area in a city into a more affluent middle-class neighborhood, as by remodeling dwellings, resulting in increased property values and in displacement of the poor.  The Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood is experiencing severe gentrification pressures. 

Housing redevelopment by the private sector to the west and the south is beginning to drive-up housing prices in the Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood.  With Fall Creek Place nearing completion, this HUD-funded, City-supported redevelopment of 28 city blocks to the north of the neighborhood will further aggravate the gentrification pressures.  While HUD requirements ensure diverse income levels within Fall Creek Place, they do not provide protection to the residents of Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood.  To the east, the recent opening on the Monon Trail Greenway will bring many potential residents to the neighborhood.  

Gentrification looks attractive to newcomers and those visitors to the neighborhood.  It can provide stability and improve property values for all residents.  However, if not balanced and coordinated, it can tear apart the existing fabric of the neighborhood.  Long-time residents leave when confronted with spiraling property tax bills.  Improving a home becomes an “all-or-nothing” proposition as existing homes fall into decay until a resident is effectively forced out.