Good Samaritan Affordable Housing Grants

Grantmaking Purpose and Criteria

Who we are: The Good Samaritan Home, Inc., Evansville, Indiana, opened in 1962 and was a long-standing senior care health care ministry serving Southwest Indiana and Western Kentucky. Upon the sale of its senior care facilities and operations in 2023, United Church of Christ member churches chose to carry on the good work of the ministry with a focus on improving access to Mental Health, Senior Care, and Affordable Housing in member church areas of Southwest Indiana and Western Kentucky. As part of this focus, an affordable housing funding opportunity was created.

Our “why”: Affordable housing is a critical and growing need in the region. The lack of access to safe, quality, sustainable, and energy efficient housing affects individuals and families on multiple levels – economically, physically, emotionally, and socially. Good Samaritan Home is committed to leveraging its funding to support and seed effective strategies addressing critical housing needs.

Our overall approach: The Good Samaritan Affordable Housing Grant Cycle is a new funding opportunity seeking to make impactful grants to address affordable housing issues.

A pilot grant process will open in 2026 offering two competitive grant cycles per year. This funding opportunity is a $5 million dollar commitment to affordable housing with an anticipated spending of $1 million per year. Good Samaritan will consider applications of any size; however, larger dollar requests are expected for capital projects (minimum of $50,000), and smaller dollars for non-capital requests (minimum of $5,000).

Stay up to date on the Good Sam Facebook page. Contact the Grants Manager with questions or to receive email updates and notifications: housing.grants@goodsamhome.org

Good Samaritan Home will learn from the 2026 pilot year and refine funding strategies as needed towards greater impact.

Our goals: To make the following impact in the IN/KY region:

1. Increase the stock, quality, and energy efficiency of affordable housing.
2. Increased education and resource development for successful, sustainable housing occupancy.

We will fund projects in:

• Indiana – Dubois, Daviess, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, Warrick
• Kentucky – Daviess, Henderson, McCracken

Who is eligible to receive funding:

Organizations that qualify as tax-exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code may apply, so long as the activities of the organization align with Good Samaritan’s funding criteria

*UCC Member Churches are not eligible for funding

We will fund:

• Capital build and restoration projects
• Elements that support build projects, e.g., engineering designs
• Programming to support occupancy success
• Evaluation to measure success
• New, innovative projects
• Existing projects

We will prioritize strategies that:

• Can leverage our grant dollars for greater impact
• Are innovative while informed by research and best practices
• Demonstrate a focus on energy efficiency and environmentally sustainable building materials
• Can implement projects quickly, e.g., using for-profit developers able to expedite projects
• Recognize historic inequities and disparities in served geographies
• Serve affordable and accessible housing needs for households in poverty or meeting ALICE criteria
• Serve affordable and accessible housing needs for seniors
• Serve affordable and accessible housing needs for residents with occupancy challenges, e.g., physical disabilities, mobility issues
• Include supportive programming for occupancy success along with any proposed capital build/renovation project

We will consider on a case-by-case basis emergency funding for:

• Shortfalls and gaps
• Staffing
• Operations
• Training/continuous education for staff

Open Grant Cycle Dates:

First Cycle: January 15, 2026 – February 27, 2026 (closes 5 pm)

Second Cycle: July 1, 2026 – August 12, 2026 (closes 5 pm)