Forty-three new townhomes have opened at Sherman Park on Indianapolis' Near Eastside, transforming a stretch of land once poisoned by decades of industrial use into housing for lower-income families. The $15.1 million project, called Bridges Townhomes, sits on 1.7 acres between St. Clair and North Streets along LaSalle Street, and city officials and community partners gathered to celebrate its opening this week.
The seven-building development offers two- and three-bedroom homes for households earning between 60% and 80% of Marion County's median income, according to WISH-TV. That income range translates to roughly $46,000 for an individual up to $95,000 for a family of five, per the same county figures cited in the station's report. Monthly base rents run between $1,000 and $1,260, and eleven of the units are designated as permanent supportive housing for families transitioning out of homelessness, with some of those families moving in directly from Wheeler Mission's Center for Women and Children.
Built by Design for Families With Kids
The decision to build townhomes rather than apartment buildings was deliberate. Englewood CDC Executive Director Joe Bowling explained in July 2023 that the layout was chosen specifically to give low-income families with children more living space, fewer shared walls, and their own front porches, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal. Englewood Community Development Corporation, which grew out of Englewood Christian Church founded in 1897, now manages roughly 400 affordable rental units across the Near Eastside, per the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance.
Getting the eleven permanent supportive units ready for move-in required more than construction. Elements Financial awarded a $27,500 grant through its Elements Cares Committee and the Central Indiana Community Foundation to fully furnish those units for families arriving with little of their own, the bank has said.
A Toxic Legacy Decades in the Making
The land beneath Bridges Townhomes carries a heavy industrial history. A Westinghouse/RCA/Thomson facility manufactured electronics and vinyl records at the 52-acre Sherman Park site starting around 1920 and operated there until it closed in 1995. That closure eliminated a plant that had once provided up to 8,000 jobs, and the surrounding 46201 ZIP code subsequently saw a 29% surge in unemployment and a 21.5% drop in population between 2000 and 2015, according to Indy East Promise Zone.
The city of Indianapolis took ownership of Sherman Park in 2017 specifically to clean up the industrial pollution left behind, and the site was identified as environmentally contaminated. Between July 2022 and January 2023, the city completed an American Rescue Plan Act-funded remediation phase that excavated 191,446 cubic yards of contaminated soil, construction debris, and hazardous material, according to city records. U.S. Rep. André Carson separately secured $850,000 for soil testing and geological surveys at the site, and the city says cleanup efforts continue on other parts of the property.
Stacking Public Money to Make the Numbers Work
Financing Bridges Townhomes required layering multiple public funding sources. The city donated the land for the project, used $1.5 million in federal COVID-era pandemic relief funds, and secured a $750,000 loan through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority in 2023. The city council also approved a 15-year tax break worth about $504,000 to support the development, and construction began the following year, in 2024.
The state authority separately awarded $1.2 million in annual 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits over ten years to Bridges Townhomes in November 2023, selecting the project alongside other Indianapolis developments including Grand Meridian and Richardson Townhomes, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. Englewood CDC partnered with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, Wheeler Mission, Gratus Development, the National Equity Fund, and Fifth Third Bank to pull the project together.
Part of a Larger Neighborhood Rebuild
Bridges Townhomes is only one piece of a wider revitalization plan for the 50-acre Sherman Park property. The site is also anchored by a $13 million, 112,500-square-foot facility for RecycleForce, an electronics recycling social enterprise that employs returning citizens and broke ground in late 2021, according to IFF. An infrastructure analysis prepared for Near East Area Renewal estimated that rehabilitating infrastructure across the former industrial area, including installing 5,000 feet of storm sewers and new water mains, will cost more than $10 million, according to VS Engineering.
The need extends well beyond one neighborhood. A March report by Prosperity Indiana and the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that Indiana faces a statewide deficit of 137,138 affordable rental units for extremely low-income households, supplying just 34 available units per 100 of those families — a rate tied for the lowest in the Midwest. Closer to home, the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership has found that 31.4% of Marion County households are low-to-moderate income and housing cost-burdened, while the regional housing market under-builds affordable units by roughly 1,750 each year. Against that backdrop, the opening of Bridges Townhomes represents a small but concrete dent in a shortage that local and state data suggest will take far more than 43 units to close.
