Statehouse Week Kick-Off Agenda

• Introduction

• Priority Bills

• How to Contact Legislators

• Stay Connected Jessica Love, Executive Director PROSPERITY Who is Prosperity Indiana?

• Known as Indiana Association for Community Economic Development (IACED) for 30 years – rebranded in 2016

• The state of Indiana’s cross-sector intermediary for organizations dedicated to community economic development Our Network REAP Prosperity

Resources – Technical assistance, funding, best practices, trainings, data sharing, marketing, webinars

Engagement – Networking, summit, regional meetings, newsletter, Facebook group, directory

Advocacy – Full time lobbyists, action alerts, state house day, legislation tracker

Programs – Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network, Housing4Hoosiers, Outcomes Platform, Community Loan Center, Empower Indiana, Opportunity Starts At Home, Opportunity Investment Consortium, Opportunity Zones Priority Bills Andrew Bradley, Policy Director PI 2021 Policy Agenda: a A Blueprint for Equitable Response, Recovery, and Rebuilding in Indiana

Our members want Indiana’s policymakers to focus first on ensuring that basic needs are met through these urgent policy priorities:

• Provide adequate housing stability resources so that no Hoosier is evicted, foreclosed upon, or made homeless due to the pandemic. • Increase Hoosiers’ consumer protections, guarding against predatory lending and increasing financial assets and opportunities at a time of great economic upheaval. • Protect resources for community economic development organizations in budget decisions to ensure vital services for the organizations on the front lines of the pandemic. See more: www.prosperityindiana.org/Policy-Priorities DO NO ADDITIONAL HARM TO HOUSING STABILITY OPPOSE OVERRIDING GOV. HOLCOMB’S VETO OF SEA 148

Oppose SEA 148 and any bill that would expand and expedite evictions or preempt local solutions to housing stability in the midst of an ongoing public health emergency. SEA 148:

• Bans Indiana cities from requiring that • Preempts local housing discrimination landlords provide tenants with information ordinances, impacting many cities’ Human on their legal rights. Rights and human relations commissions.

• Decreases cities’ ability to address • Favors landlords’ rights overwhelmingly disclosure and retaliation violations over tenants’ rights at a time when Indiana through fines, allowing more types of is already seeing an eviction crisis fueled by retaliation against tenants to occur when affordability and habitability concerns that reporting concerns. have only been exacerbated by COVID-19. Improve Urgently-Needed Housing Stability Authored by Rep. Ed Clere Support HB 1219 Co-authored by Rep. and Rep.

HB 1219 would help renter households (over a third of Hoosiers) access and maintain safe and stable housing during the pandemic and beyond: • Increase buyer protections on land sales • Specify rights to access and correct tenant contracts by clarifying definitions and screening records by requiring a landlord to application of the statute provide an applicant denied rental housing with a copy of the tenant screening record, and providing the tenant a process to correct errors. • Allow for the expungement of certain eviction records, including when the eviction • Enable local governments to create problem- action was dismissed, decided in favor of the solving housing courts to bring parties tenant, or for an eviction not related to a breach together on a voluntary basis to resolve issues of the rental agreement. instead of simply defaulting to court orders. PROMOTE RECOVERY OF HOUSING STABILITY Authored by Rep. SUPPORT HB 1530 Co-authored by Rep. and Rep. Carey Hamilton

HB 1530 enables an equitable and transparent COVID-19 housing recovery through a housing stability task force and data dashboard.

• Establish the Indiana Housing Stability Task Force to incorporate housing providers, residents, and community stakeholders to advise on the implementation of Indiana’s COVID-19 housing recovery policies.

• Include a Housing Stability Dashboard on the state’s COVID-19 website to track residential evictions, foreclosures, and provide disaggregated data on outcomes of state housing mediation and rental assistance programs. HELP HOOSIERS ESCAPE THE DEBT TRAP Authored by Sen. SUPPORT SB 184 Co-Authored by Sen. J.D. Ford, Sen. , Sen. , Sen. , and Sen. Eddie Melton

SB 184 would cap payday loans at 36 percent APR to:

• Cut down on predatory lending that traps low-income consumers in debt. Payday lenders have drained over $300 million in finance charges from Hoosiers in the past five years.

• Prevent excessive reborrowing. The typical payday loan borrower has a median income of just over $19,000 per year and reborrows eight to ten times, paying more in fees than the amount originally borrowed.

• Help prevent housing instability, overdrafts, defaults, involuntary bank account closures, bankruptcies, and other damaging consequences borrowers experience after taking out payday loans. OTHER BILLS OF INTEREST TO PROSPERITY INDIANA MEMBERS to promote an equitable response, recovery, and rebuilding in Indiana

• HB 1314 (Rep. Torr) to permit a person to file a statement or notice that a recorded discriminatory covenant is invalid and unenforceable and allow amendment for language of historic covenants with discriminatory language.

• SB 236 (Sen. Lanane) and HB 1473 (Rep. Errington) to promote the development of Land Banks through fees, property taxes, and a list of county tracts to transfer to land banks.

• SB 350 (Sen. JD Ford) to provides legal counsel to indigent tenants during possessory actions in Marion County small claims courts. OTHER BILLS OF INTEREST TO PROSPERITY INDIANA MEMBERS to promote an equitable response, recovery, and rebuilding in Indiana

• SB 116 (Sen. Tallian) provides for landlord-tenant settlement conference programs.

• SB 82 (Sen. Crider) defines ‘mental health diagnosis’ and allows licensed social workers the ability to diagnose mental health issues.

• SB 258 (Sen. Niezgodski) allows a landlord to apply, with the tenant’s consent, for state rental assistance if the tenant is 30 days behind on rent and has not yet applied. Prohibits the landlord from requiring the tenant to pay the difference between the maximum benefit and the rent owed. How to Contact Legislators Find Your Legislators

Go to Prosperity Indiana’s Advocacy Action Center at www.prosperityindiana.org/Action-Center and enter your address to find your legislators: Find the Action Alert Where to Call

• Indiana House of Representatives – (317) 232-9600 OR (800) 382-9842

• – (317) 232-9400 OR (800) 382-9467 Tell us what your Legislators say!

Help Prosperity Indiana track legislators’ commitments and follow up with them by logging your interactions with our Voter Voice tool at tinyurl.com/ku6ruvxk

Don’t forget to enter your information to receive email alerts! Stay Connected!

Join the Network: Contact PI’s Engagement Director Rita O'Donohue at [email protected] 317.222.1221 x405 PI Action Center Sign up for: • Action Alerts • Email Updates • Voter Voice www.prosperityindiana.org Thank you!

Andrew Bradley Policy Director [email protected]

Natalie James Coalition Builder [email protected]

Michaela Wischmeier Research & Communications Specialist [email protected]