INDIANAPOLIS— A new program is helping residents in the Riverside Neighborhood stay in their homes.
"My mom bought this house in 1951," said Carolyn, a west side resident.
Carolyn says she's seeing rapid reinvestment in her neighborhood and fears, like many, she could be forced out.
Houses are being flipped in the area which increases property value and in turn increases property taxes.
"A lot of times your seniors fall behind and they have a fixed income when you tell me you’re going to raise people's property tax you’re putting them in a bind as well," said Kimberly West, a west side homeowner.
West says his dad has owned their house for almost 30 years. Over the last year their property taxes went up by 121 percent.
The city and state are now working to help longtime homeowners out in this case.
"The goal of this is to protect qualified homeowners of a spike in property tax from one year to the next," said Vop Osili, the City-County President.
The Riverside Neighborhood has been chosen for the anti-displacement pilot program. It was introduced in the city's 2024 budget and passed through the city-county council earlier this month.
Osili says this is something they've been working on for seven years and is now possible thanks to Senate Bill 46.
"It had in the this last year the greatest increase in assessed values of all the communities with in the city," said Osili.
The program will cap property tax increases at 4 percent for people 55 and older who have been in their houses for 10 years or more. Right now, about 550 people could be eligible.
"If you’ve been in a community, you’ve raised your family there, you were raised there. You should feel safe in in a sense that I shouldn’t fear being displaced," said Osili.
Applications are expected to be available through the Marion County Auditor’s Office in late October. The deadline to complete an application for the tax credit is December 31, 2023. The application must be delivered or postmarked by January 5, 2024.
