As a kid, Will Malone often heard his dad talk about the importance of homeownership.
It’s a big deal in their family. Malone’s great-grandfather, who was formerly enslaved, bought property in Tennessee in the early 1900s that remains in the family to this day. About a century later, Malone now owns his own home in Indianapolis’ Norwood neighborhood on the southeast side.
“Black people really didn’t have property,” Malone said. “For that first generation to buy a piece of property or buy a home, that was huge.”
Malone’s been thinking a lot about homeownership lately because of a survey he recently filled out about his personal and family relationship to wealth and economic policy. The survey is part of a city government project to understand and document how economic policies have impacted Indianapolis families, especially within Black communities.
Indianapolis’ efforts are funded through a grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. The group is a New York City-based nonprofit that aims to help local governments come up with policies to help improve economic equity in their cities.
Indy city officials plan to use input from the survey and a series of community conversations to create a set of policy recommendations to improve economic equity in Indianapolis. They also plan to create a timeline with resident stories and commission local artists to create art, both aimed at representing the story of wealth in Indianapolis.
But officials involved with the project also hope that this opens up a conversation about generational wealth and financial literacy that will help Indianapolis communities.
“If you are from a neighborhood that has been historically disinvested in or historically disenfranchised, the idea of building wealth seems so fantastic that you can’t even approach it,” said Ben Tapper, the city’s chief diversity and equity officer. “We want folks to understand, this conversation is for everybody.”
About the project
The city’s hope is that this project will spotlight the effects that government policies had on individual families.
Indianapolis’ history with policies such as redlining — the discriminatory practice where banks refused to make mortgage loans to certain predominantly Black neighborhoods — is well documented. What’s missing, Tapper said, are stories of how these policies affected families.
“We know broad strokes what this policy did, but what was the actual effect on the people that lived here?” Tapper asked.
That’s where Joi Harmon comes in. Harmon, a local consultant focused on economic equity, has been working with the city to gather feedback from the community through conversations with historians and elders, community meetings and the survey.
For Harmon, it’s important that wealth isn’t just about money or material assets. All that needs to be shared so that neighbors can begin to build their own legacies.
“It is a wealth of knowledge,” she said, “but we have to build wealth as well within the community, because you see other communities building wealth and passing on wealth.”
Empowering neighbors
Shamika Anderson’s grandmother bought her home in the Crown Hill neighborhood on the city’s north side for $12,000.
Anderson grew up in that house, along with several of her cousins. The house was the center of their family for many years and Anderson’s grandma was proud of being a homeowner.
“It was creating a place of stability for her,” Anderson said. “Her house was her house. She took pride in that.”
Years later, though, Anderson said her family lost her grandmother’s house due to a family member not paying the property taxes.
When Anderson filled out the community wealth survey, she couldn’t help thinking about all the ways she’s trying to pass financial knowledge on to her own children and do things differently from her own parents, such as adding her teenage daughter as an authorized user on her credit card.
Most of all, as a homeowner, Anderson’s determined that her own home in Lawrence will stay in the family. She wants to help her kids build generational wealth, but she also wants her kids to have a safe place to go if they need it.
“My driving force is always making sure my children understand, this is your house,” Anderson said. “When something happens to me, this house will be passed down to you all, and under no circumstances do you sell this house.”
For Malone, completing the survey brought to mind the ways that he — and his neighbors — were affected by the construction of the I-65 and I-70 freeways in the 1960s and ‘70s. That construction displaced thousands of Indianapolis residents — many of whom were Black.
“People lost land, people lost businesses,” Malone said. “That, right there, was huge, especially for the south side.”
But moving forward, Malone’s determined to not only build wealth for himself, but encourage his family to, as well.
He’s looking at developing his family’s land in Tennessee, as well as improving his own house in Norwood so that both can stay in the family.
“I want to continue to build on our family legacy,” Malone said. “I want to continue for the next generation.”
Learn more and get involved
For more information about the project, contact Joi Harmon at info@successplug.com.
You can complete the survey using this Google form. The deadline to fill out the form is Jan. 31, Harmon said.
Harmon and the city will also host one more community conversation, where they plan to share some of the takeaways and invite residents to share their stories for the timeline portion of the wealth project.
The event will be from 1-3 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27 at Frederick Douglass Park Family Center, 1616 E. 25th St. Register in advance using this Google form.
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Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, on most social media @clairerafford or on Signal 317-759-0429.
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