Over the past month, we’ve taken an in-depth look at the barriers that low-income Hoosiers face daily in accessing and maintaining safe, stable housing. We examined Indiana’s lack of a tenant’s bill of rights, the reality of housing vouchers that often go unused, the credit catch-22 that locks out qualified renters, and the new eviction-sealing law that offers hope to thousands.
We hope that, as you’ve followed along this month, what emerged from this series isn’t just a picture of individual challenges, but a portrait of a housing barrier system that makes stability incredibly difficult for those who need it most. For families in LaPorte County and across Indiana, these aren’t abstract policy issues; they’re the daily reality that determines whether children have a stable place to do homework, whether families can access healthcare, and whether working adults can maintain employment. Stability in life begins with housing.
As we complete our month-long series, we want to share three takeaways from this series and look forward to solutions to fix these issues.
1. Housing Barriers Don’t Stand Alone. They create an ensnarement of low-income renters.
Perhaps the most important revelation from this series is how housing barriers compound and reinforce each other, creating a cycle that makes housing stability nearly impossible for low-income renters.
Let’s walk through what this looks like for a typical low-income renter:
After years on a waiting list for a housing voucher, a family finally received one. This should be a moment of relief, a pathway to stability. Instead, this family will most likely face widespread landlord discrimination, with studies showing that between 15% and 78% of landlords refuse to accept vouchers. Even with rental assistance in hand, nearly 40% of voucher recipients cannot use it before it expires.
If they do manage to find housing, the challenges don’t end. Indiana is one of only five states without rent escrow or withholding provisions. This means that if their heat stops working in January, if mold grows on the walls, or if the roof leaks, they must continue paying full rent or risk eviction, even while living in uninhabitable conditions. Speaking up becomes dangerous when affordable housing is so scarce, and eviction is so swift, leaving this family in dangerous living conditions and facing extreme housing instability.
When the economic pressure of spending 50% or more of income on rent leads to a single missed payment, perhaps due to a medical emergency, a car repair, or reduced work hours, an eviction filing creates a permanent “Scarlet E” on their record. In Indiana, over 71,000 evictions are filed annually, and even dismissed cases have traditionally remained visible to landlords. In the state of Indiana, an eviction can happen in as little as 5 days, and often the renter will bear the court costs, further putting financial pressure on families.
That eviction record, combined with poor credit from medical debt or job loss, then blocks them from future housing opportunities. Nearly 90% of landlords check credit scores, and many require minimums between 580 and 670. The irony is devastating; those who struggle financially often have lower credit scores precisely because of circumstances like medical emergencies and job loss, the same circumstances that make affordable housing so critical.
With only 38 affordable rental homes available for every 100 extremely low-income Hoosier households, each barrier eliminates more options from an already inadequate supply. The result isn’t just housing instability; it’s a trap that perpetuates poverty across generations, affecting employment opportunities, physical and mental health, food security, and children’s educational outcomes.
2. The System Is Designed to Protect Landlords, Not Renters
Throughout this series, a troubling pattern emerges at nearly every level: Indiana’s laws and policies protect landlord interests over tenant stability.
The Legal Framework
Indiana’s legal landscape reveals where priorities lie. As one of only five states without rent withholding provisions, Indiana forces tenants to choose between paying full rent for uninhabitable housing or facing eviction. In 45 other states, tenants have leverage to ensure repairs are made. In Indiana, they have none.
In 2020, the Indiana General Assembly went further, passing preemption laws that prohibit local governments from regulating landlord-tenant relationships or requiring rental inspections, even when those communities recognize the need and want to protect their residents.
The Eviction Machine
With one of the highest eviction rates in the country, Indiana’s system enables landlords to use evictions as a revenue stream. The process can be completed in as little as five days, and each of those 71,000 annual filings has traditionally remained on record permanently, regardless of the outcome or circumstances.
Systemic Discrimination
The absence of protections means landlords can legally refuse to accept housing vouchers, despite the Federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, and other protected characteristics. With 41% of voucher holders being Black and 16% Hispanic, refusing vouchers can serve as a mask for discrimination that would otherwise be illegal.
Credit screening practices present similar issues. Despite no evidence that credit scores predict rent payment, nearly 90% of landlords use them as gatekeepers. Many use AI screening systems that automatically reject applications based on credit scores, with no human review and no opportunity to explain circumstances such as medical debt or a temporary job loss.
Rights Without Remedies
Even when tenants have legal rights on paper, the economic reality makes exercising them impossible. Legal representation costs more than most low-income renters can afford. While a few legal clinics offer pro-bono services, they’re difficult to access and can’t meet the overwhelming demand. Meanwhile, speaking up risks retaliation and eviction. When you’re spending half your income on rent and have no other housing options, fighting back becomes impossible.
Indiana now has the third-highest housing cost burden among all Midwest states for the lowest-income residents. Rights without enforcement mechanisms are merely suggestions. What good are tenant protections if you cannot afford to exercise them?
3. Solutions Exist, More Need to Understand Them
Despite the severity of these barriers, this series reveals an important and hopeful truth: we’re not facing unsolvable problems. Effective approaches have been tested, proven successful, and are already being implemented in various communities across the country.
Indiana’s Eviction Sealing Law: Proof That Change Is Possible
Indiana’s new eviction sealing law, which took effect July 1, 2025, demonstrates what becomes possible when housing barriers are recognized and addressed. Senate Bill 142 provides for automatic sealing when eviction cases are dismissed and clarifies that tenants who pay off judgments are eligible to have those cases sealed.
This is a practical change that will help thousands of Hoosiers. The law resulted from collaboration among housing advocates, legal aid organizations, Notre Dame Law School students in the Eviction Clinic, the Indiana Justice Project, and dedicated individuals who understood the problem and worked together toward a solution.
For the thousands of Hoosiers who have eviction cases dismissed each year, finding housing will now be easier. For families in which a single financial setback triggered a downward spiral, this legislation offers an opportunity to break that cycle and secure housing stability.
Evidence-Based Solutions Already Working Elsewhere
Research and real-world implementation have shown us solutions for common barriers:
Source of Income Protections: More than 20 states have enacted laws prohibiting source-of-income discrimination. These laws require landlords to evaluate voucher holders using the same criteria they use for all applicants: credit history, references, and rental history, rather than rejecting them outright because of their voucher status. Research shows these laws work, with voucher holders achieving significantly better success rates in jurisdictions with these protections.
Alternative Screening Methods: Rather than relying solely on credit scores, alternative approaches are proving successful. Positive rental payment reporting helps renters build credit while providing landlords with direct evidence of rental payment history. Income-based screening directly measures ability to pay rather than relying on a score that doesn’t predict rental payment behavior. Alternative documentation, such as bank statements showing consistent deposits, proof of on-time utility payments, and letters from previous landlords, provides concrete evidence of financial responsibility.
HUD has issued guidance recommending these alternative approaches, emphasizing that overbroad credit screenings could have an unjustified discriminatory effect and that landlords should offer applicants the opportunity to provide mitigating information about negative reports.
Streamlined Voucher Programs: Communities that have simplified the voucher process, creating user-friendly online portals, expediting inspections, and reducing redundant requirements, have seen increased landlord participation and higher family success rates. When the process is more straightforward, more landlords participate, and more families succeed.
Rent Escrow Provisions: Forty-five states have rent escrow or withholding provisions that give tenants leverage to ensure necessary repairs without risking homelessness. These laws protect both tenant safety and housing stability.
The Power of Understanding
What matters now is building awareness and understanding. When more people in our community understand these barriers and the solutions that work, change becomes possible.
For landlords and property managers, understanding that alternatives to credit-only screening can identify reliable tenants, expand their applicant pool, and potentially reduce vacancy rates.
For community members, recognizing that housing instability affects us all through impacts on schools, healthcare systems, workforce stability, and overall community wellbeing. When families have stable housing, children perform better in school, adults maintain employment more successfully, and healthcare costs decrease.
For organizations and advocates, continuing to educate and support both renters and housing providers in navigating these complex systems, and helping our community understand that stable housing is foundational to community prosperity.
Indiana’s eviction sealing law shows that when enough people understand a problem and its solutions, change becomes possible. The law didn’t emerge from nowhere; it came from individuals and organizations who researched the issue, documented the harm, proposed practical solutions, and worked collaboratively to implement them.
Moving Forward Together
The barriers we’ve explored this month affect real families in our community and across Indiana. They’re the reason a single mother with a steady job, excellent references, and rental assistance gets denied because of medical debt. They’re why voucher holders wait years for assistance, only to find that landlords won’t accept it. They’re why tenants live in dangerous conditions they cannot escape without risking becoming unhoused.
Understanding these barriers and knowing that proven solutions exist is the foundation for creating the stable, thriving communities we all want to live in. Housing stability isn’t just about having a roof over your head. It’s about children being able to attend the same school for an entire year. It’s adults maintaining employment without the constant crisis of housing insecurity. It’s about families being able to afford both rent and food, as well as housing and healthcare. It’s breaking cycles of poverty that span generations.
Indiana took an essential step with eviction sealing. Now it’s time to build on that momentum by continuing to educate, advocate, and work together to remove the barriers that keep our neighbors from accessing stable housing. Because when our community understands these challenges and the solutions that work, we can create lasting change, one barrier removed at a time.
