Identify Housing Demand
Start with documented market needs and local housing gaps.
LEI Housing Production Demonstration
60+ attainable homes. One repeatable system for Northeast Indiana.
Lilly Endowment's investment is helping Northeast Indiana prove a practical model for producing attainable homes, activating buyers and renters, and building local housing capacity that can be repeated across Indiana.
60+Demonstration Units
2Initial Sites
6Housing Product Types
Who This Serves
Attainable housing means homes people can realistically reach.
For LEI, attainable housing means practical options that better match local incomes, household needs, financing conditions, and the price points missing from the current market.
Working householdsFirst-time buyersRenters seeking stabilityLocal employeesModerate-income familiesSingle parentsDownsizersOlder adults
Find Your Role
LEI needs more than one kind of partner.
Whether you build, finance, approve, employ, support, or live in the region, LEI is designed to create a clear place for you in the housing production system.
01
Builders
Help test housing products that can be built predictably and priced for the market gap.
Become a Builder Partner →02
Lenders
Help make attainable ownership and rental housing easier to finance.
Support Financing Pathways →03
Local Governments
Help align land, zoning, infrastructure, approvals, and public tools.
Engage Your Community →05
Housing Partners
Help connect residents, education, trust, and housing access.
Join the Partner Network →06
Residents / Buyers / Renters
Stay connected to housing options designed around real household needs.
Stay Connected →Why It Matters
Housing Is Economic Infrastructure
Northeast Indiana is growing. Employers are investing, communities are gaining attention, and more people are considering the region as a place to live and work.
But growth does not automatically produce housing.
When the right homes are not available at the right price points, employers struggle to recruit and retain workers, residents face fewer attainable options, and communities risk losing the affordability advantage that helped make growth possible.
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A growing region cannot assume housing will appear just because people want to live there. Housing has to be produced.
Program Overview
From Housing Demand to Housing Delivery
LEI is a regional housing production demonstration focused on helping Northeast Indiana move from market analysis to measurable housing delivery.
The initiative is designed to test and produce attainable housing types that the market needs but does not consistently deliver on its own, including smaller single-family homes, attached ownership, missing-middle housing, and workforce-oriented rental options.
This demonstration is not only about building individual units. It is about creating the tools, partners, cost models, lending pathways, builder alignment, and buyer pipeline needed to make future housing production easier to repeat.
01
Prove what works
Test products and delivery methods on real sites.
02
Document the model
Capture lessons, costs, and pathways for reuse.
03
Help communities repeat it
Share tools that make the next project easier.
What This Demonstration Will Prove
This is not just a housing project. It is a demonstration of a system.
The LEI demonstration is designed to test whether Northeast Indiana can produce attainable homes, activate real demand, build local capacity, coordinate capital, and create a model that can be repeated across other communities.
01
Produce attainable homes
Test whether repeatable product types can help deliver homes that working households can realistically buy or rent.
02
Activate real demand
Use Club 720 to identify buyers, renters, employers, lenders, and partners who are ready to participate.
03
Build local capacity
Help local builders, nonprofits, lenders, and community partners participate in a more predictable housing production system.
04
Coordinate the capital stack
Align philanthropic, public, private, lender, employer, and community resources around one delivery model.
05
Create a repeatable model
Prove what can be replicated across other Northeast Indiana and Indiana communities.
What The Demonstration Produces
LEI is not just funding units. It is proving a repeatable housing production system.
The demonstration homes matter because they create proof. The bigger opportunity is the reusable set of tools, pathways, and partner models that can help future housing move faster in other communities.
01
MB Line Pattern Book
02
ROM Cost Books
03
Builder Participation Model
04
Lender-Ready Product Types
05
Appraisal / Comps Strategy
06
Community Adoption Toolkit
07
Site Activation Process
08
Public-Sector Playbook
09
Employer Engagement Model
10
Buyer Pipeline (Club 720)
Production Engine
Mission BUILD
Bringing Unprecedented Innovation to Land Development
Mission BUILD is the production engine behind the LEI Housing Production Demonstration.
Its role is to help communities move from housing ideas to housing delivery by aligning sites, housing product types, builders, lenders, cost models, public tools, and implementation steps.
Through LEI, Mission BUILD supports product testing, site activation, builder engagement, ROM cost books, capital stack coordination, and the repeatable tools needed to make attainable housing production easier to finance, approve, build, and scale.
What does it take to make the housing we need possible to produce?
Mission BUILD helps communities build the production system behind the housing - not just the houses themselves.
Production System
01Sites
02Product Types
03Builders
04Lenders
05Cost Models
06Public Tools
07Implementation Steps
Powered By
How the System Comes Together
LEI brings the demonstration, production engine, and demand activation platform into one coordinated housing delivery model.
01Demonstration
LEI
The housing production demonstration designed to test product types, sites, and delivery methods.
02Production Engine
Mission BUILD
The system that aligns sites, housing product types, builders, lenders, cost models, public tools, and implementation steps.
03Demand + Partners
Club 720
The platform that supports partner coordination, demand activation, and housing resource alignment.
Process
How LEI Moves Housing From Idea to Delivery
The demonstration is designed to connect market demand, sites, product types, financing, builders, and public tools into one repeatable process.
Activate Demonstration Sites
Use real sites to test what can be delivered.
Match Product Types
Select locally appropriate housing types that meet real household needs.
Align Partners
Bring builders, lenders, employers, public tools, and housing partners into the same process.
Produce Demonstration Units
Build homes that test cost, design, financeability, approval pathways, and buyer demand.
Document the Model
Turn the lessons into tools that other communities can use again.
Housing Types
The LEI Product Mix
LEI tests a practical housing menu designed for the price points and household needs the market is not consistently serving today. The goal is not density for density's sake. The goal is a financeable, locally appropriate mix of attainable homes that working households, first-time buyers, renters, and local residents can realistically access.
01
Small Single-Family
Right-sized ownership for today's buyer.
Best for
First-time buyers, workforce households, downsizers, single parents, and moderate-income families.
Why it matters
Lowers total purchase price through smaller footprints.
02
Duplex / Two-Flat
Gentle density that fits into existing neighborhoods.
Best for
Renters, first-time buyers, small households, extended families, and workforce residents.
Why it matters
Adds more homes without requiring large-scale development.
03
Townhome
Attached ownership that lowers land cost per unit.
Best for
Young professionals, first-time buyers, small families, downsizers, and workforce households.
Why it matters
Reduces land cost per unit while preserving ownership.
04
Cottage Court
Small homes organized around shared open space.
Best for
Seniors, single-person households, small families, young buyers, and residents seeking community-oriented living.
Why it matters
Creates smaller homes in a neighborhood-scale format.
05
ADU / Accessory Unit
Flexible housing on existing lots.
Best for
Older adults, caregivers, young workers, students, family members, and small households.
Why it matters
Adds flexible housing on existing lots.
06
Small Multifamily
Workforce rental without large-scale apartment development.
Best for
Workers, renters, young households, seniors, and residents not yet ready or able to buy.
Why it matters
Supports workforce rental without large apartment projects.
Demonstration
The Demonstration
The LEI Housing Production Demonstration is designed to produce approximately 60 units while creating reusable tools and lessons that can support future production across Northeast Indiana.
Initial SiteFort Wayne
Testing attainable infill ownership.
Fort Wayne demonstration lots will help test right-sized housing products that can fit within existing neighborhoods and create attainable ownership opportunities.
Product TestingDecatur
Testing the MB Line and missing-middle product types.
The Decatur demonstration site will support testing of the MB Line, including product types that help communities move beyond default housing patterns and expand the attainable housing menu.
Future OpportunityAdditional Demonstration Opportunities
Building a model that can be repeated.
As the demonstration advances, additional sites, products, partners, and lessons may be added to show how the model can be adapted across communities.
Help prove how Northeast Indiana can produce attainable homes at scale.
LEI is looking for partners who can help move attainable housing from market demand, to demonstration, to repeatable delivery.
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