You can find a job in Fishers, but good luck finding an apartment

John Tuohy
IndyStar
Fishers is seeking to build a 70-unit affordable apartment building.

Fast-growing Fishers has an even faster-growing problem: a growing gap between wages and residential rents.

The Hamilton County suburb has recently added hundreds of high-paying tech jobs, burnishing a reputation as a desirable landing spot for skilled young workers. That’s not the problem.

The snag is that those positions have helped drive rents so high that they outpace wage increases for many of the city's middle-class jobs in government, teaching, hospitals and the trades. That higher cost of living is making it difficult for those workers to move near their jobs, which adds to their transportation expenses.

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At the same time, Fishers has added hundreds of service-industry jobs at retailers like Ikea, with more on the way, including at a planned culinary and shopping district on 116th Street. If those employees want to live in Fishers, they have few housing options. A local housing organization says the county is 10,000 apartments short of what is needed to meet the demand of moderate- and low-income workers.

“The sectors that hire the most people have some of the lowest-wage jobs,” said Jennifer Miller, executive director of Hamilton County Area Neighborhood Development (HAND), which provides low-income housing. “Even in the high-paying industries, there are a number of lower-paying jobs like janitors, secretaries or security guards, and they have to live somewhere.”

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness recognizes the predicament and last month announced an agreement to build a 70-unit "affordable" apartment building downtown in the Nickel Plate District.

But getting it done won’t be easy.

RealAmerica, a Fishers-based apartment builder, is applying for a state-issued tax credit that would subsidize the company for cheap rents. But there is fierce competition for the credits from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and only one has been handed out in Hamilton County since 2013.

Downtown Fishers along 116th St. and Municipal Dr. is seen, Monday, August 6, 2018.  Downtown Fishers includes housing, government offices, and businesses.

“It’s a competitive process, and there is no guarantee they’ll get it,” Fadness said. “If they succeed, we are ready to assist” with $100,000 in fees and tax breaks.

Residents in the $14 million, four-story SouthPointe Village on Lantern Road would need to earn between $27,703  and $41,700 per year, per household to qualify. The one- and two-bedroom apartments would rent for $700 to $850 a month.

The apartments are expected to be filled by moderate-income and entry-level workers from a number of employers, RealAmerica Vice President of Development Jeff Ryan said. And that includes Fishers city government, where the average salary is $55,000, officials said.

“The salary range is where most of our public works, parks and administrative employees fall,” Fadness said.

Highest rent in county

Fishers’ median rent was the highest in the county in 2016 -- $1,133 per month -- and its median income was $97,100, second-highest behind Carmel. But the biggest share of the city's jobs are in food, hospitality and retail, where waiters, bartenders, hotel clerks, housekeepers and scores of other workers make a lot less, often near minimum wage.

That makes it difficult for a $30,000-a-year wage-earner to keep their rent and utility costs below 30 percent of income, the threshold beyond which the federal government calls “cost-burdened.” A 2013 report from HAND, the low-income housing group, found that 1,500 Fishers households made less than $25,000 annually but only 254 apartments for under $750 a month (or 36 percent of $25,000) were available.

Of course, most residents in Fishers and elsewhere in Hamilton County work in Indianapolis and other counties, so they also have high commuting costs. While the government says housing and transportation expenses together shouldn't exceed 45 percent  of income, Fishers residents spend an average of about 60 percent of their pay on those necessities, according to the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Chicago-based research firm.

“As a city you can lack affordable housing or public transit, but it is a very hard living arrangement if you lack both,” said HAND outreach coordinator Andrea Davis.

Fadness said 30 to 40 percent of city workers live in Fishers. One is Andrew Magee, 28, a city planner, who said snagging an apartment for the right price close to City Hall was a challenge.

“It was difficult to find an apartment I felt I could afford within a reasonable drive to work,” Magee said in an email. “The closest and cheapest options were completely full and had no one-bedrooms available, and a long waitlist. Same with the next-closest. I had to move up in price to find one that was guaranteed available for when I needed to move, but still close enough to work that I wasn’t spending so much of my day in a car.”

After a month of searching, Magee found an apartment for $1,000 a month that is a 12-minute drive on local roads from the office, which saves on gas and car wear and tear.

“However, I’m still paying student loans on the order of $360/month, plus my rent, car insurance, utilities, etc. Most of my income goes to those things,” he said. “There’s no house/townhouse/condo in Fishers that I can afford anymore with the way the prices have gone up even in the last 12 months.”

Another municipal employee, Ross Hilleary, 27, said he has a two-income household and was able to find an apartment within walking distance of City Hall.

“I believe I saved hundreds of dollars in gas and car maintenance alone by living near where I work, most days never using my car,” Ross said in an email. “I believe housing near your place of work should be more accessible to all and I believe we (the city) are moving in the right direction.”

 

New businesses need new apartments

Ryan, of RealAmerica, said the commercial and residential building spike made it the right time to offer a low-rent project in Fishers.

“We talked to a lot of employers who are having a hard time keeping workers because of the rents,” Ryan said.

Miller, of HAND, said workers will travel only so far low-paying jobs, otherwise their expenses exceed their pay.

“How many fast-food restaurants is a person going to pass to get to the one that  they work at?"  Miller asked. "How far will they travel for the same low-paying job?"

Fadness said he hopes the apartments on Lantern are a first step in a larger process.

“This is the first time we’ve done something like this since I’ve been here,” Fadness said. “The rents for new apartments, especially, are high, $1,300 to $1,500 a month. Home prices are also high. You do start to wonder where all these people are going to live.”

The city has one other low-income housing complex, Cumberland Crossing near 121st Street, which secured a tax credit in 1999. The 232-unit subdivision offers apartments between $600 to $910 for households earning $32,400 to $53,000 per year. 

Other housing assistance is scarce in Hamilton County, which now has a population more than a third the size of Indianapolis at 309,000. 

The Noblesville Housing Authority distributes 185 vouchers that cover 70 percent of rent for poor households in Hamilton County under the Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 program. The state's housing authority distributes another 84 vouchers. In Indianapolis, the city's housing authority hands out 8,000 vouchers.

NHA Executive director Aimee Jacobsen said the great majority of vouchers go to the elderly on fixed incomes and the disabled.

But she said many working people get them, too, including school assistants, paraprofessionals and health care workers.

“I know one person who works at Meijer and another who works three jobs, including at Topgolf,” in Fishers, Jacobsen said. “Many of the working people are those who have two or three part-time jobs.”

The waiting list to get the vouchers has been closed since 2015 but will open again in October.

Township trustees also distribute financial assistance for rent, mortgages and utilities.

In Delaware Township, which includes downtown Fishers, Trustee Debbie Driskell said her office gave out $61,022 to 99 households last year. The year before, it was $45,000 to 109 recipients.

In Fall Creek Township, Trustee Doug Allman said he distributed $43,404 last year. About 85 percent went toward rents as opposed to mortgages.

“It’s usually a one-time boost after the bread-winner loses a job or there is a medical emergency or a car issue in which we can help free up money for that,” he said. 'We try to get them on their feet again and don't see much repeat business."

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.