SB Friedman analyzed the existing unmet need for households in La Porte, Indiana, and identified strategies to increase housing production and housing rehabilitation efforts.
The city of La Porte, part of Northwest Indiana and the county seat of Laporte County, is home to 30,000 residents. While La Porte has pent-up demand for high-quality housing, it has seen limited recent housing development. Most existing units are older, and face quality and safety challenges. Households across the income and age spectrum face a challenging environment navigating the local housing market.
SB Friedman worked with the Health Foundation of La Porte, a local philanthropic organization, as well as City of La Porte planning staff, to understand La Porte’s housing market dynamics, and to identify appropriate strategies. This work included:
- Identifying the unmet housing need for renters and owners, across incomes.
- Conducting focus groups and interviews with stakeholders, including developers and homebuilders, real estate professionals, employers, social service providers the faith community, as well as young professionals and seniors, to understand housing-related challenges different groups face.
- Assessing the housing stock for a downtown priority investment area, and identifying patterns associated with building quality challenges present there.
- Establishing housing production targets for affordable, market-rate, and senior-friendly units.
- Developing strategies, along with implementation actions to increase the construction labor supply, jumpstart residential development, and support rehabilitation efforts.
- Drafting a marketing brochure geared toward prospective real estate developers.
Results: The study informed a 2023 charette process led by the Notre Dame School of Architecture. This charette identified a vision for future housing development in and near La Porte’s downtown. Since the study, the City has increasingly taken actions to support housing affordability, including partnering on a new construction townhome development, and approving new housing for people experiencing homelessness.