Food and housing costs are up, so Mary Rigg hopes to help more westsiders

(MIRROR INDY) — Guillermo Campos was one of nearly a hundred people lined up against the outside wall of the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center on Nov. 20.

The 73-year-old isn’t used to getting aid. He worked in restaurant kitchens throughout the Midwest from the moment he emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico in 1994. He used the money he saved while working long hours to purchase a home in West Indianapolis.

“We have a home we bought with thousands of sacrifices,” Campos said in an interview conducted in Spanish. “It’s small, but it really helps now because we don’t have to pay rent.”

But Campos has recently had trouble making ends meet. About five years ago, Campos received nerve damage in his left arm while working and has been unable to hold a job since. Now, he depends on the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center to get enough food.

“I can share the food I get here with my neighbors,” Campos said, “some who I’ve seen have to dig in trash cans for food.”

The center, located in the heart of the neighborhood at 1920 W. Morris St., gives away about 20,000 pounds of food every month. Every person is allowed two visits to the center’s food market every month. They pick up food staples, such as proteins, vegetables, fruits and cereal, as well as a few treats.

Mary Rigg helps about 8,000 families a year, who also receive job training and other support, such as afterschool child care, to transition into a new job. They receive financial support, as well.

All of the help is a continuation of the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center’s 85-year history. Despite new investments that could bring prosperity to the neighborhood, residents are increasing their dependence on the center because of rising food and housing prices.

“We know by hearing from the families that we serve at Mary Rigg that many are living at or below the federal poverty line,” Executive Director Heather Pease said. “We know in the neighborhood there are challenges meeting many basic needs.”

The center is being pushed to its limit. Now there are plans to expand to meet rising demand.

A struggling neighborhood

The cost of buying or renting a house has increased substantially in West Indianapolis over the past few years.

That’s mainly due to out-of-state investors scooping up homes and turning them into rental properties. About a third of all rental units in West Indianapolis were bought by out-of-state owners in rapid cash transactions, according to a 2023 Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana report.

The quick turnover drove up the average price of purchasing a home in the neighborhood by 10% between April 2022 and April 2023.

Many people are forced to rent at rates that swallow up about half of their yearly income. According to Zillow Rentals, the median rent in the 46221 ZIP code is about $1,485 a month, which is $100 higher compared with last year. A year of rent at that rate totals $17,820, about half of what the average West Indianapolis resident makes in a year, according to the Polis Center at IU Indianapolis.

Food prices, meanwhile, have gone up 28% since 2019.

The rising prices have led to a large increase in aid requests for the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center.

“Between ‘22 and ‘23, we saw a 17% increase in the use of our food pantry,” Pease said. “This year compared to the same months last year, we’re up to a 27% increase. So we’re getting close to twice the increase we saw last year.”

A history of helping

The Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center began in 1911 to help immigrant families assimilate to their new life in downtown Indianapolis.

It was originally called the Foreign House and Immigrant Aid Association. When many eastern European immigrants returned to their home countries in the years before World War I, the center changed its name to the American Settlement and expanded to help more residents, especially those living in slums near West Indianapolis’ industrial and meatpacking areas.

Mary Rigg, one of the city’s first social workers, became its director in 1924.

During the early years of the Great Depression, the center helped thousands of people living in shantytowns that popped up along the White River by offering some financial aid, entertainment and medical help.

Nearly a hundred years later, the situation is not as dire. But the center is still helping people facing food and housing issues.

Michelle Kemper was able to provide for herself and family for decades by holding multiple jobs around the city. That is until she injured her spine about a decade ago. A surgery to repair it was unsuccessful, and she has been unable to work since.

Kemper, a senior citizen, has avoided homelessness by living at the William Penn Commons senior living center, but she depends on the center to feed herself.

“If it wasn’t for Mary Rigg, I would probably run out of food before the end of the month,” Kemper said. “I got hurt a couple of years ago and can’t work anymore. I get disability, but that only goes so far.”

Situations like Kemper’s and Campos’ are not unusual in West Indianapolis.

Planning an expansion

Mary Rigg hopes to collect enough donations to purchase a building that would become a full-time pantry for the neighborhood — an expansion that would allow it to get more federal funds to help more people.

“West Indianapolis is an incredible and historic neighborhood, and there are many families here that are living in a very vulnerable situation,” Pease said. “I think there’s an opportunity for Mary Rigg to play an important role in elevating that story.”

Currently, the center’s food market is a temporary setup that requires staff members to fit in donated goods wherever they can, potentially limiting the use of the center’s amenities, like the gym and other spaces, in order to make room for food several days out of the week.

The center has a limited amount of refrigerators and freezers, so it cannot store any food. The food has to be given away as quickly as possible to those few dozens who are able to make it to the food market.

Pease said she is seeking about $500,000 in funding to buy either the former dentist’s office across the street or a former thrift store about half a block away.

“We would like to have it set up like a grocery shop so people can come through and choose what’s right for their family. We would have a very deep storage area for shelf stable food as well as refrigeration and freezer so we could store things appropriately,” Pease said. “My goal is that it’s as little red tape as possible.”

A full-time pantry also would allow the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center to access financial assistance through a U.S. Department of Agriculture emergency food program.

The overall plan, though, requires funding.

“We really want it to be the crown jewel for the neighborhood,” Pease said, “where other partners are able to use the space and we’re able to bring more resources to the neighborhood.”

Visiting the center

The Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center, 1920 W. Morris St., is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday or on an appointment basis.

Head to the center’s website for more information on its services.

To make a monetary donation, visit the center’s donation page. To set up a recurring donation, call 463-900-4740.

Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz or on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.