The Back Home in Indiana Alliance helps people with disabilities become homeowners. It establishes teams that include service and housing providers to work with disabled individuals in selected areas. Indiana HUD's Bill Shaw is a member of the Alliance's steering committee, and makes them aware of HUD's financial tools and provides access to technical assistance.

Some time ago, Back Home in Indiana established a homeownership committee for Marion County, Indiana, that is a model for public/private partnerships. The team included Habitat for Humanity, the Indianapolis Neighborhood and Housing Partnership, HUD, Near North Development Corporation, the Indianapolis Resource Center for Independent Living, and Independent Residential Living of Central Indiana. The alliance secured a commitment from a local homeownership counseling/lender organization as well as from Habitat for Humanity to target a small number of people with disabilities who wanted to become homeowners.

The techniques used by the partnership were shared at the Indiana Conference for People with Disabilities, sponsored by the Governor's Planning Council for People with Disabilities and held last year in Indianapolis. At a panel session, HUD's Shaw explained two different approaches that enabled persons with disabilities - with incomes at 30 percent or less of the local median income - become homeowners.

For one homeowner, David Hankins, HUD's CDBG program played a key role. He worked with the Indianapolis Neighborhood and Housing Partnership to secure a loan and down payment assistance using local CDBG funds. Since David's parents, now deceased, also had established a special needs trust fund to help him buy-down the mortgage, HUD and the City of Indianapolis wisely examined if federal funds could be used in conjunction with trust funding. The decision was "yes," and David now lives in a house held both by him and the trust on the far eastside of Indianapolis.

For Eve Minton, "sweat equity" invested by her and her parents played a big role, because they worked with Habitat for Humanity and it helped lower the cost of her home. But equally important, with technical assistance from the Back Home in Indiana Alliance, Habitat submitted a grant request to the Lion's Club International that provided supplemental funding to cover the additional costs of making the home accessible - including a ramp, extended porch, roll-in shower, and grab bars in bath areas. Today, Eve is a homeowner in a CDC area on the near south side of Indianapolis.

To expand homeownership opportunities for persons with disabilities, the Indianapolis HUD office participates in conferences and other venues to encourage groups throughout the state to examine and adapt approaches that will work in their community (Indiana HUD also anticipates that some communities will use the Section 8 Homeownership Program to play a role in these efforts).