A nonprofit provider of affordable homes in Indiana hopes to make more options available

A nonprofit provider of affordable homes in Indiana hopes to make more options available for Hoosiers.

RDOOR Housing Corporation, formerly Merchants Affordable Housing, currently services 3,000 affordable, multifamily housing units throughout Marion County and Indiana, with plans to grow more in the state and regionally.

President and CEO Bruce Baird, said it takes a lot of resources to create affordable housing.

“It takes a lot of partners, a lot of partnerships. It takes resources, of course,” Baird said. “We must line up money, we have to line up cash, we have to line up loans, we have to line up grants. And we have a whole team of people that are dedicated to that work.”

He said Marion County’s lack of affordable rentals is a problem.

“We're not New York City, we're not Los Angeles. So, we do have more supply than some of those cities when it comes to affordable rentals. But we have significant needs for very low-income individuals,” Baird said.

A 2021 National Low-Income Housing Coalition report found the shortfall of affordable homes and rental homes in Indiana had reached 130,000 units.

RDOOR renovated the former Girls Inc. office at 441 W. Michigan St. as its new headquarters.
The downtown Indianapolis location will allow the team to be closer to its clients and co-locate with partners in housing.

Contact WFYI Morning Edition newscaster and reporter Taylor Bennett at tbennett@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @TaylorB2213.