South Bend city leaders to discuss '100 Houses in 500 Days' plan

NOW: South Bend city leaders to discuss ’100 Houses in 500 Days’ plan
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -

City leaders and housing experts are discussing a housing plan that could affect your neighborhood. The name of that plan, ‘100 Houses in 500 Days’. The goal is to build 100 houses from the ground up in specific areas throughout South Bend.

The team who came up with this plan says, with so many new developments happening in South Bend, they just want to see options for everyone and they think they may have the formula for that.

The Community Relations Committee of the South Bend Common Council says people have raised serious concerns the last few years about the large number of vacant lots in low-income areas near the west and south sides of the city.

“There aren’t a lot of new 3-bedroom homes with garages and two bathrooms in the city of South Bend, so if they want to buy houses like that they often have to go live in the suburbs,” said Anne Mannix with Neighborhood Development Associates.

No homes have been built yet and the plan is still in the works. A public meeting is being held Wednesday at the County-City Building to bring that plan to city leaders and discuss the new affordable housing and how much funding is needed. They say the goal is to give people that suburban home feeling without moving across town to get it.

“It’s important, it’s important to me. I grew up on the west side and I’d like to see it come back to life. I still want to live in the community that I grew up in, live near the schools that my children go to, I want to be involved,” said Rosie Leyva, Project Manager.

“A lot of times, what happens in cities is you’ll have folks who are at the higher end in terms of their household income and then folks at the low end. So what this does is it kind of fills the gap. There are a lot of young professionals who grew up on the west side who went off to college and maybe they want to come back home, wanna live down the street from their folks or in the same neighborhood they grew up, and so this is an opportunity,” said Regina Williams-Preston, South Bend Common Council representing District 2.

That meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. and will be held on the fourth floor of the County City Building in downtown South Bend. Organizers encourage questions.

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