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.

Citizens Healthy Homes Initiative:  A Project of

Citizen’s Multi-Service Center

Concerned Clergy of Greater Indianapolis

                                    Improving Kids’ Environment

601 E. 17th St.

Indianapolis, IN  46202

(317) 926-2351

chhi@ikecoalition.org

August 28, 2003

Forty years ago today, I stood with 250,000 people on National Mall in Washington, D.C. to hear Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech. I still have that dream! While we have made progress, his vision is still not a reality.

Five years later, on April 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was in Indianapolis. He was to give a campaign speech in his run for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in an inner city African-American neighborhood. That day, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Neighborhoods across the United States would burn as a result. Indianapolis stayed out of the maelstrom.

Safe, healthy and affordable housing for all remains one of the unfulfilled dreams of both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.. In Indianapolis, the lack of safe, healthy and affordable housing has become a crisis. The Bush Administration continues to exacerbate the crisis by reneging on his promises and cutting funding for housing.

In July 2002, the Concerned Clergy partnered with the Citizen’s Multi-Service Center and Improving Kids’ Environment to form the Citizen’s Healthy Homes Initiative. Under the guidance of an Advisory Committee that included representatives from the neighborhood, Congresswoman Julia Carson’s office, and Marion County Health Department, I directed them to identify the root causes of the housing crises in the neighborhood and how best to provide safe, healthy and affordable housing for ALL residents on Indianapolis.

On August 23, 2003, they released the first phase of that effort. For a copy of the Kennedy King Park Neighborhood Needs Assessment.  They made the following findings:

1. Vacant lots outnumber homes.
2. 9.2% of the homes are boarded and vacant.
3. Vacant buildings provide promise and blight.
4. 191 of 446 homes had at least one obvious code violations likely to cause health hazards.
5. 54% of homes had more than one obvious code violations likely to cause homes to be abandoned.
6. Two-thirds of apartment buildings need help.
7. Gentrification threatens to drive property values up and residents out.
8. Health department makes a difference but needs to be more proactive.
9. Contractors aggravate conditions.
10. Funding cuts undermine neighborhood support network.
11. Other neighborhoods need CHHI model.

To fulfill the dreams of our fallen leaders, we need to address these findings. It won’t be easy – but real solutions never are. While the report contains many facts and figures, we must remember that we are dealing with people’s lives. Ignoring the problem or relying on solutions that create new neighborhoods to replace – not save – the existing ones threatens permanent damage to people, families and neighborhoods. Further, procrastination is not an option! We must act now!

Obviously, federal, state and local funding are essential. We need to use that funding to leverage action by the corporate community to benefit all residents. We also need proactive, but fair and consistent, enforcement of the housing code to prevent small problems from becoming overwhelming. We must make sure that homes with common code violations do not become unhealthy homes that must be either renovated or demolished.

A key step is for Mayor Peterson to work with the housing network and housing advocates and develop a comprehensive strategy to resolve the problem.

Please join me in making the dream of safe, affordable and healthy housing for all a reality!

Sincerely,

Dr. Rev. C.V. Jetter, President

Concerned Clergy