Back home again: Reimagining rural housing

As Indiana grapples with a shortage of desirable housing that fits residents’ budgets and families seek alternatives to the hustle and bustle of large cities, rural communities face a dilemma. How can communities increase attainably priced housing stock when available construction labor is scarce and material costs are skyrocketing?

The Paoli Housing Task Force is a team of local residents who joined together in 2020 to address this issue in Paoli, the county seat of Orange County, Indiana, with a population of less than 3,700. With the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement’s Hoosier Housing Ready Toolkit in hand, the task force gathered to develop primary strategies to meet housing needs in the community.

Following a survey that garnered more than 400 responses, the task force set forth to revitalize existing housing with a repair and renovation program; offer workshops for future homebuyers to prepare them for the purchasing process; inventory available lots for residential construction; and construct a model home that is modestly priced, includes energy-efficient and sustainable features, and fits an existing and common residential lot size.

“You have to start somewhere,” said Martha Nice, Paoli plan commission member and member of the task force. “Our community voiced its needs, and we have an opportunity to build the solutions together.”

The task force already had a jump start on the model home initiative, thanks to IU Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design faculty member Jon Racek and the students in his collaborative design class. In 2019, Racek’s class focused on creating home designs that fit the available lots and character of Paoli during a partnership in the center’s Sustaining Hoosier Communities initiative.

“The goal of this initial project was: can we, from a design point of view, create a new way of building in rural communities?” Racek said.

While his students cast a wide net to examine affordable housing ideas in the world, Racek met with Lost River Career Cooperative instructor Jon Shellenberger, who leads the building trades program, and Phil Mininger of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, to discuss innovative construction options they have explored in past projects that could inform these new designs.

“As simple as that sounds, that is kind of an unusual process with architects and contractors,” Racek said. “I started out with ‘I am here to learn from you. You have methods and ideas about how to do this well, and I want to try to incorporate as much of that into the designs as I can.’”

This exploration led Racek and his students to focus on a design based on insulated concrete forms, which are blocks that can be interlocked easily in the construction process. Shellenberger’s class of Orange County high school students at Lost River Career Cooperative joined the effort as the construction crew, where they are using this innovative building technology to construct the initial model.

“The students take those skills, no matter what they end up doing, and these skills are with them for the rest of their lives,” said Mininger.

The model home’s design incorporates passive solar techniques with glass facing the south side of the house. Racek flipped the original interior plans for the house, which will sit on a lot atop a hill overlooking downtown Paoli, so that the front door faces the historic Orange County courthouse. The house was built on a grid to minimize material waste and mechanical systems were grouped together to save installation costs.  Racek is also seeking donations for solar panels for the house.

“The other thing we tried to do is create little moments that felt like special aspects of the building,” Racek said. “Instead of an eight-foot ceiling, we put in a nine-foot ceiling, which feels a lot more spacious. We added larger trim to the baseboards. These small moves don’t cost a lot but add a special touch to the project.”

The team is documenting the project to show developers and builders that this is a viable way of building—whether part of a public-private partnership or a private industry venture—that adds to the diversity of housing stock needed to meet demand. The model home is currently under construction will be sold to a private resident at cost upon completion.

With housing playing a critical role in resident retention and attraction, as well as workforce growth, the Paoli Housing Task Force is working in collaboration with the Orange County Economic Development Partnership, the Orange County Community Foundation, and the IU Center for Rural Engagement.

At the launch of this model home project, the Paoli Housing Task Force announced its “25 by 25” campaign to build and renovate 25 homes by 2025 through partnerships with community organizations, developers and builders, financial institutions and local, state and federal programs.

Imojean Dedrick, executive director of the Orange County Community Foundation, said at the model home groundbreaking ceremony in September, “One person can make a difference, but together we can make an impact. That is what we are doing today.”