INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Each week on Community Link, Carolene Mays takes a look at an organization or business that is making a positive impact on the community.

This week, Mays was joined by Rabbi Dr. Aaron Spiegel and Pastor Darryn Scheske, President and Vice President of the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance to speak on how they’re addressing housing issues in Indy.

GIMA is an organization of faith leaders from diverse backgrounds to serve together on civic projects in Indianapolis.

Trying to track an exact number of homeless individuals in Indy is hard, since many people and families don’t get counted.

“What we do know, is that Marion county still has four to five hundred eviction fillings a week,” Spiegel said.

Housing insecurity is caused by three primary issues, Spiegel said. “Lack of affordable housing … the second is the influx of out of state hedge fund private equity ownership of rental properties in Indiana. And third is Indiana law or lack thereof,” Spiegel said.

GIMA’s work tries to empower tenets to have a voice in the state, when Indiana law favors landlords, Spiegel said.

“It’s really this subset of private equity hedge fund landlords who are out of state, out of country. Our state needs to say that’s not okay anymore,” Spiegel said.

Faith leaders from different communities decided to speak out on homelessness, together they formed GIMA.

“We’ve got the Christian community, the Catholic community, the Jewish community, even the Muslim community and other groups that have come together to say we want to unite on this and be a voice for the voiceless,” Spiegel said.