Quarterly Meeting Features Insightful Review of the US' National Housing Crisis and the Lack of Local Middle Housing

HUNI's second quarter meeting took place in person on May 4 at Indiana Landmarks.

Jordan Blair Ryan, Architectural Historian and Archivist, was our featured presenter on the topic of "Middle Missing Housing." Her co-presenter was Lourenzo Giple, Deputy Director, Dept. of Metropolitan Development, City of Indianapolis.

Missing middle housing—or all housing types between single-family homes and mid-rise apartments—was once common throughout the country, particularly in cities. However, early zoning ordinances, which favored single-family zoning, have had a detrimental impact on our housing options, density, affordability, and attainability.

Jordan and Lourenzo offered several examples of historic-missing-middle-housing to enable attendees to better understand the scale, type, footprint of these structures. Present-day critiques of the lack of new missing middle housing center on local zoning ordinances. The duo highlighted the actual obstacles in cities like Indianapolis where zoning ordinances have largely been corrected in recent years. The presenters also offered comments on current challenges and how we can incentivize missing middle housing during a national housing crisis.