BLOOMINGTON — The home of the Hoosiers has a big home problem: many houses in Bloomington are too large and too expensive for normal residents to afford. The city may modify its zoning codes to counter the housing crisis.
Bloomington planning and transportation department director David Hittle gave a presentation before the city council Wednesday night outlining how the city's unified development ordinance could change in favor of affordable housing.
"You have to be pretty wealthy to buy a single family dwelling in Bloomington," Hittle told WRTV before his council presentation. "The typical household in Bloomington now is just two people, but there's very little housing stock to reflect that."
The goal for 2026 and beyond is to open the barriers for smaller and denser housing construction in Bloomington. That includes duplexes, cottages, accessory dwelling units, and even splitting large housing lots for more residents.
"We're not going to be creating new land to build housing on," Hittle said. "We need to use the land we have as best as we can."
Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County is currently building a neighborhood of smaller homes near RCA Community Park. The neighborhood will eventually feature nearly 70 homes, but CEO Wendi Goodlett said that is not enough to counter Bloomington's need.
"This year, we had more than 250 inquiries," Goodlett said. "Our community relies on the labor of the people that we partner with, and yet they can't afford to live in this community."
Goodlett said developers in Bloomington face challenges with the construction process, which makes it difficult to build more homes in a hurry.
"It is at least a two-year process," Goodlett said. "For us, it just means more fundraising. If the costs go up, we just have to fundraise more. However, for a traditional builder, that means the price of the home is going up."
Hittle said Bloomington is in the early stages of auditing its permitting process so developers can build homes much faster.
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Taj Simmons the In Your Community reporter for Monroe and Morgan counties. He joined WRTV in August of 2023. The Oakland, CA native is not a Hoosier by birth, but is excited to learn all about the area and tell the stories of the people who make this state feel like home. Share your story ideas and important issues with Taj by emailing him at taj.simmons@wrtv.com.
