Safe & Healthy Homes for Monroe County
A safe and healthy home is the foundation for a thriving community. Everyone in Monroe County deserves a safe and healthy place to live regardless of how much money they have.
For too many families in our community, safe and affordable housing is becoming harder and harder to find and keep. If you live in Monroe County outside the City of Bloomington you don't have the same resources or protections as a renter in city limits who can turn to HAND to hold their landlords accountable. Rent is higher than ever, and wages aren't keeping up.
Monroe County families right now are getting sick from mold, and forced to go without AC in the summer because of a few greedy landlords who put profit over people. Unmaintained rental properties cause health damage like asthma, burns, and falls and psychological distress. Children in low-quality housing have more emotional and behavioral problems at school and poorer academic performance. The lack of quality, affordable housing threatens the health and future of our community.
The lack of quality affordable housing in our county forces renters into unsafe homes with issues like:
Mold 🦠
Pests, bugs, mice 🐜
Water leaks 💧
Exposed electrical systems 🔌
No working smoke detectors 🔥
Broken ACs in the summer 🥵
Broken furnaces in the winter 🥶
While many landlords in our community uphold quality standards and provide well-maintained housing, a few bad actors get away with violating basic legal safety standards and take advantage of the lack of county oversight. They know renters are in a bind, often with nowhere else to go, and threaten eviction if tenants speak up.
Sign the Safe & Healthy Housing Petition
Find Resources
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Indiana Justice Project and several collaborators have created the Indiana Tenant Habitability Guide. It explains the available protections in Indiana for tenants who have habitability concerns in their home. This guidebook was made possible through a partnership with the Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative at Indiana University School of Medicine. Our housing work is supported by a Catalyst for Infant Health Grant from HRSA.
Disclaimer: Accessing this guide does not constitute legal advice or form an attorney client relationship with the Indiana Justice Project. Where feasible, you should seek legal advice from an attorney. Additional resources for tenants are listed below.
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