Partners In Housing is an organization that helps provide housing for low income and homeless residents. Carter’s My Plumber has been in Greenwood, Indiana for 30 years. It is a third-generation family owned company. We’ve all grown up, attended school, and raised our children in Greenwood. Greenwood is home, and we consider Carter’s My Plumber as well as ourselves to be part of the amazing community that is Greenwood/Indianapolis, Indiana. As a community business, Carter’s My Plumber strives whenever possible to assist members of our community when they are in need. One such instance of this is our efforts with Partners In Housing to provide assistance to members of our community transitioning into supportive housing.
Partners In Housing History
Partners in Housing was founded in 1993 with the purpose of bringing supportive housing to Indianapolis through the leveraging of historical and low-income tax credits to rehab abandoned properties. These properties now house formerly homeless and extremely low-income citizens of Indianapolis. Partners’ first housing project, The Burton Apartments, opened in June 1996. Partners’ opened their signature property, the Blue Triangle Residence Hall, in 1998 in what was formerly a YWCA but had been abandoned for 27 years prior to Partners’ rehab. The building now provides 96 single units of supportive housing for Indianapolis’ most needy. Since 1993, Partners’ has provided 248 supportive housing units and 335 affordable housing units by rescuing and rehabbing abandoned and distressed properties. Partners’ recently opened another property in Kokomo, Indiana and is piloting a program with several other organizations to provide a safe haven for individuals experiencing homelessness. In total, Partners’ has 12 apartment communities that provide supportive housing to members of our community in need.
How Carter’s My Plumber Is Helping
In 2018, Carter’s My Plumber is donating an entire year of toilet paper to every resident of a Partners in Housing complex. Toilet paper can be taken for granted, but those transitioning from homelessness have few possessions. Even if they have some income, benefits like food stamps do not pay for hygiene items. For this reason, Partners in Housing provides every new resident with a welcome basket full of basic hygiene and cleaning supply items. One of the items included in the baskets is toilet paper. When someone can’t afford toilet paper, they may use other items as toilet paper, flush them, and create a problem in the entire complex’s plumbing system. This exacerbates the toilet paper issue, making it not just an issue for the person who can’t afford toilet paper, but also for every other building resident. It is important for residents to have access to basic items like toilet paper because it helps residents maintain their dignity and helps the building’s plumbing. When the buildings are well maintained, Partners’ can save money and allocate it to their mission and services to keep people housed.
Earlier this year, Partners’ met with Lisa and Kelson from Carter’s My Plumber to discuss donating to the welcome baskets. Donating several rolls to a welcome basket just did not seem like enough to address this issue, so we decided to supply toilet paper for every Partners in Housing resident for the entire year. This donation will allow members of our community transitioning from poverty or in extreme low-income situations maintain their dignity and more easily improve their situation, and it will allow Partners in Housing to worry less about plumbing and more about the organization’s mission. At Carter’s My Plumber, we are proud to be part of the Greenwood/Indianapolis community and assist our fellow community members.