Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition (HHNC)

HHNC is a program of Prosperity Indiana (also known as the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development), a poverty-relief group. HHNC also works in close association with the National Low Income Housing Coalition. ^{2  1}

HHNC claims over 1,500 individual members and subscribers who attend the group’s meetings. ³

History

The Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition was founded in April 2020 by members of Indiana’s housing security advocacy community to support advocacy for housing and homelessness prevention in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the group’s early funding came from the Central Indiana Community Foundation and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. HHNC was staffed by employees of Prosperity Indiana. ¹

Policy Advocacy

The Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition endorses the federal priorities of the HoUSed Campaign, a program of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. These policies include expanding federal rental assistance, creating a national housing stabilization fund, strengthening renter legal protections, and encouraging the construction of more rental properties. ^{4 5}

In Indiana, HHNC supports the “equitable” implementation of federal housing programs, strengthening the Emergency Rental Assistance program, and creating a state-wide housing database to track housing eviction, foreclosure, and demographic data. HHNC also advocates the creation of a state-level eviction-expungement program and implementing a process for tenants to see their tenant screening profiles. ^{4 5}

HHNC supports the expansion of Indiana’s eviction diversion programs and problem-solving housing courts, and tweaking Indiana housing law to combat discrimination. ^{4 5}

HHNC opposes what it describes as the “criminalization of homelessness.” As of 2025, according to HHNC, the Indiana legislature had defeated three bills that proposed enforcing a Class C misdemeanor for sleeping outside with penalties of up to $500 in fines and 60 days of jail time. HHNC claims that these laws were devised by the Cicero Institute, a right-of-center think tank. ⁶

HHNC supports expanding federal and state Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs to expand the supply of low-income housing, which, in 2022, the group claimed had a 40,000 unit shortfall in Indiana. ⁷

HHNC supports implementing a rule permitting tenants to deduct the costs of repairs from their rent. In 2023, Indiana was one of five states without this rule. ⁷

HHNC supports the establishment of an Indiana Commission on Housing and Homelessness to centrally organize the state’s efforts to combat homelessness. ⁷ HHNC has also advocated for the establishment of a state Commission on Housing Safety, Stability, and Affordability. ⁸

HHNC partners with Opportunity Starts at Home, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding the supply of low-income housing launched by the National Low Income Housing Coalition with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Children’s HealthWatch. ³

Leadership

As of 2025, Andrew Bradley was working as a spokesman for the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition as well as the senior director of policy and strategy at Prosperity Indiana. Bradley was also a member of the boards of National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Indiana Coalition for Human Services at the time. Previously, Bradley worked as the state network director of the National Skills Coalition, a senior policy analyst at the Indiana Institute for Working Families, a veterans health policy fellow in the U.S. Senate, and as a presidential management fellow at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. ^{7 9}

As of 2025 HHNC’s steering committee consisted of members from AARP Indiana, the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention (CHIP), the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, Family Promise of Greater Indianapolis, Hoosier Action, the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute – INCAA, Indiana University McKinney School of Law, Prosperity Indiana, the Ross Foundation, and United Way of Central Indiana. ¹