Affordable housing

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City planning department gets feedback on affordable housing

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https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/05/14 ... -campuses/

Omahan rises from public housing to provider of affordable housing
Driving his ascent is Front Porch Investments, which announced $7.3 million in grants and loans

Don Curry said he knows firsthand how affordable housing can help boost a kid toward success. As a 13-year-old in 1983, he and his mom and sister became one of the first families in Omaha’s scattered-site public housing program. They lived in a government subsidized home near 16th and Emmet Streets before Curry moved away for college and, later, graduate school.

Today the entrepreneur is back in Omaha with his wife and two daughters. But now he is the property owner, having bought a vacant lot a half-block from where he grew up — with the dream to pay it forward by building an affordable place for others to live in.

On Thursday, the nonprofit, backed by several area philanthropic foundations, announced that it is awarding more than $7.3 million in grants and low-interest loans to 13 entities committed to advancing affordable housing options — including Curry’s startup real estate development business.

[ita]

For everyone interested in this issue, the City has a live website where you can put input and thoughts.

https://rdgusa.mysocialpinpoint.com/oma ... ction-plan

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Front Porch Affordable Housing

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North Omaha residents discuss affordable housing

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Omaha developer creates $150 million in affordable housing



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An Omaha developer is focused on thoughtful, affordable housing for senior citizens and single moms.

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The $2.3 Billion Question: Who Leads The Way in Tackling Omaha’s Housing Problems

Keiria Lowe hunched over a table with a crayon in her hand. On a piece of paper she drew a bird’s eye view of her neighborhood in red, green and gray. Around her, a din echoed through the room as North Omaha residents and Omaha city staff talked in front of poster boards. “What is the first thing we should do to make housing more affordable?” one read.

The open house, which took place May 3 at The Venue on N. 30th St. aimed to gather input from the community as the city works to build a new affordable housing plan. Since a 2021 Omaha Community Foundation report showed the city has a 80,000-unit, $2.3 billion affordable housing problem to fix, a lot has happened. First, the problem worsened. The pandemic pushed many more people to housing instability and others to homelessness while rent, utilities and home prices soared. Then, an unprecedented amount of money became available: hundreds of millions of dollars to address affordable housing. It’s a huge opportunity for the city to solve an intractable problem. But many wonder who will decide how to spend the funds. Will the communities most impacted be heard? And will the city, philanthropists, nonprofits or whomever ends up in charge follow old formulas to tackle an old problem, or will they try something new?

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Affordable Housing Gap: A Collective Approach to a National Problem

Savannah Behrends
It could be argued that affordable housing is the greatest challenge facing the Omaha-Council Bluffs area with the potential to stifle its growth.

Without affordable housing, how can Omaha draw in top talent in industries with vast shortages, such as technology, health care, education and manufacturing.

Currently, nearly one-third of Omaha and Council Bluff’s population is overburdened by housing costs, paying over 30% of their monthly income on rent or mortgages, according to the most recent Assessment on Housing Affordability.

Thirty percent of a person’s income is nationally recognized as the max housing payment for that housing to be affordable.

This is the first part of 3-part series where MBJ is investigating this issue. The first article lays groundwork of the housing environment in the metro and highlights what employers are doing to address the issue, specially Streck and their apartment project.

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Housing, parks and people;
City of Omaha announces plans to spend $40 million of federal dollars


Using federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert announced Tuesday they’ll be spending over $40 million on housing, people and parks among other priorities. Housing advocates have said for years that the city of Omaha has an affordable housing deficit of around 80,000 homes. The city is now throwing in millions of dollars with more money behind to begin to make up that deficit.

Stothert said the city will spend $20 million on affordable housing but that also includes partnering with non-profit Front Porch Investments, who’s matching the funds. Ideally, the money would add over 1,000 homes. “We have to increase, we have to increase that capacity. We have to have that momentum and inertia to actually propel us to get to that number and reach it,” said Meridith Dillon, executive director at Front Porch Investments. And possible state and federal grants could add another $40 million dollars with plans aiming at reducing the number of people in the city paying over 30% of their income on housing.

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Omaha housing affordability action plan seeks more diverse input
Planners say now, more than ever, residents have opportunity and resources to shape housing policy and options

More than any other point that Derek Miller can remember, Omaha residents now have the opportune time and resources to help shape affordable housing options in the city. But Miller, Omaha’s long range planning manager, is concerned that input received so far on what will be a major “housing affordability action plan” lacks enough sway from minority populations, disabled and lower income Omahans.

He wants the final product to reflect thoughts, gripes and wishes of all segments of the city, and he is urging broader participation in the “community vision survey” that will be available to take online through June 29. A Spanish version also is offered. City planners and partner RDG Planning & Design will be looking at responses to that survey — along with previously held open houses, small group listening sessions and housing-related data — to create the city’s first affordable housing action plan mandated under a state law adopted in 2020.

[bigredmed1]

Hopefully, this will be more equitable than the scattered site housing program where the leftists in Dundee got to preach a good game, but the only part of town that met it's allotment of scattered site houses was old Millard.

If we are going to have a city wide plan, let's make sure all the city has to play according to the same rules and expectations. Even if Fairacres gets renovated into multifamily homes.

[Big E]

If we are going to have a city wide plan, let's make sure all the city has to play according to the same rules and expectations. Even if Fairacres gets renovated into multifamily homes.

Fair. Let me know when you're ready to consolidate school districts and we can work from there.

[bigredmed1]

If we are going to have a city wide plan, let's make sure all the city has to play according to the same rules and expectations. Even if Fairacres gets renovated into multifamily homes.

Fair. Let me know when you're ready to consolidate school districts and we can work from there.

I live in OPS. No one will consolidate without OPS getting its administration cleaned up and shrunk. Completely agree that it would be better to have one, but not without some paradigmatic change. There is too much bad blood from west Omaha seeing itself as a tax factory and east Omaha looking at it as a tax factory.

Back to the housing issue. We as a city never developed the stones to push back against the rich areas of town that blocked the scattered site housing in their areas. No one is going to want their neighborhood put at risk of turning into apartment heck if some people get a pass. Especially when those people also get first turn at the microphone when it comes time to intimidate and guilt trip everyone else.

Buffett's neighborhood goes condo and then we talk.

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Digging up the Roots on Omaha’s Housing Segregation
A new research project is uncovering old efforts to keep Omaha neighborhoods white —
and how our history impacts our present.

The cursor hovered idly as thousands of rows accelerated across the spreadsheet. Natasha Winfield leaned in close to the monitor, the mechanical click of the mouse wheel filling the silent University of Nebraska at Omaha lab. Suddenly she found something. “See, restricted cov right there,” the 25-year-old graduate assistant said. It was a clue. And after panning through another spreadsheet, then searching a Douglas County website, Winfield found what she was looking for. “It is further covenanted and agreed that the lots hereinafter described, shall not be sold … to any person or persons of any other race than those of the Caucasian race,” reads a protective covenant for a North Omaha neighborhood from July 18, 1946.

Language like this was part of a nationwide practice banning non-white people from living in certain areas. While redlining, which barred people of color from obtaining mortgages, and inequitable development patterns, like highways that decimated many communities of color, are harsh examples of segregation in the 20th century, they are rooted in housing covenants. These agreements, created by individuals, neighborhoods and real estate developers, codified, if not started, segregation in cities like Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis and many others. They were legal, affirmed by Supreme Court decisions in the early 20th century, until the Fair Housing Act of 1968 made them unenforceable. However, the documents were not destroyed. Locally, they sit inside thousands of books kept by the Douglas County Register of Deeds, each containing thousands if not tens of thousands of the variety of documents properties accrue — all mixed together.



A housing covenant in North Omaha.

[Garrett]

Oh look, further evidence that the white flight of the 20th century wasn’t some imaginary “green flight” that certain people like to claim it was.

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Results from the survey. Interesting that top needs for the neighborhoods people want to live in: grocery store and public transit. Must be a bunch of downtowners that answered the surveys. People want walkability and multimodal transit. City should provide incentives for affordable housing around streetcar and future BRT stops. Hopefully the link works for you all. Click 'Download the Boards' to see the results.

https://rdgusa.com/ohaap/

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Developer breaks ground on housing project at 16th and Emmet

"Let me provide a solution to keep rent affordable in this community because it's coming where literally rent will not be affordable here," Don Curry says

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Results from the survey. Interesting that top needs for the neighborhoods people want to live in: grocery store and public transit. Must be a bunch of downtowners that answered the surveys. People want walkability and multimodal transit. City should provide incentives for affordable housing around streetcar and future BRT stops. Hopefully the link works for you all. Click 'Download the Boards' to see the results.

https://rdgusa.com/ohaap/

Months in the making, Omaha’s housing affordability plan is ready for scrutiny

Cindy Gonzalez
Private developers seeking the sometimes controversial public subsidy called tax-increment financing soon could be required to replace each affordable housing unit destroyed while building their new project.

They also might see a new mandate that TIF residential projects include a certain percentage of affordable housing units.

Those TIF-related changes are among numerous policy and housing code recommendations in the city’s proposed Housing Affordability Action Plan that’s been months in the making.

The goal of the 38-page action document (not including supporting planning materials) is to identify ways Omaha’s roughly half-million residents can achieve more affordable housing options. It also fulfills the Nebraska Legislature-approved Municipal Density and Missing Middle Housing Act.

Strategies were based on an extensive public input process and analysis of demographic and market trends.

Long-range city planning manager Derek Miller calls the study a “starting point” for addressing affordability needs and not a “silver bullet” that is going to solve needs on Day 1.

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Renters say Omaha is not an affordable city anymore

Omaha is often marketed as an affordable place to live, while still having a city's appeal.

Many renters say though, that's not the case anymore.

"You come into the Midwest because you would believe the Midwest is a lot cheaper than other regions in the country," said Kris Konou, an Omaha resident.

Konou says he's been trying to move out and into his own place but can't afford it right now.

"I'm searching for more two bedroom apartments right now and I've been seeing things that are up in the thousands and that’s a little too much for me," Konou said. "I can’t afford that myself, so I'd rather room with someone else."
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"Affordable" is defined by your housing cost being 30% or less of your income, experts say, but many are paying more than that in Omaha.

"There are a lot of people who are cost-burdened who are paying more than 30%," said Erin Feichtinger, director of policy with the Women's Fund of Omaha. "And even more who are severely cost burdened who are paying a substantial part of their income towards housing."

Feichtinger says the city isn't using the time, energy or resources to build affordable housing.

"We have also, as a city not invested an adequate amount of time and energy and resources into building more affordable housing for the folks who currently live here and instead have spent a lot of time building units that are for people more in the upper middle class," she said.

Existing buildings have raised prices, but many new buildings are going up. We checked: Many apartments, new or existing, are charging over $1,000 for a studio or one-bedroom apartment.

The first person they talked to has some thinking to do. He claims housing is not affordable because he can't find a 2 bedroom in his budget, but then says he would rather rent a room than pay for a 2 bedroom in this market. Why not get a 1 bedroom? I am confused.

On a serious note, prices are absolutely going up. I have gone back and forth on this issue. If you're just looking at prices of rent, the new class-A apartment buildings are higher and going higher than ever before. However, I don't think we should stop encouraging those types of developments when there as a perceived supply shortage of units. Furthermore, we don't know what kind of apartments these folks are looking at, the jobs they have, special needs, etc. This guy wanting a 2 bedroom could be making $50k/year and afford any 1 bedroom unit in the metro, but find some 2 bedroom to be outside of his budget.

There are people who are spending more than that 30% threshold, however, and that's where we do need to come up with answers. More units, more incentives/regulations to build affordable housing, encourage building in walkable/multi-modal transit oriented areas, etc. are all needed to address the issue. I've brought it up before, but I still think municipalities should take another crack at government housing. Countries in Europe have done it successfully; we can easily implement it if our leaders had the political will. That's an extreme solution, at least for us in America, but we need to be looking at all possible solutions if we want to address affordability.

[Athomsfere]

There are people who are spending more than that 30% threshold, however, and that's where we do need to come up with answers. More units, more incentives/regulations to build affordable housing, encourage building in walkable/multi-modal transit oriented areas, etc. are all needed to address the issue. I've brought it up before, but I still think municipalities should take another crack at government housing. Countries in Europe have done it successfully; we can easily implement it if our leaders had the political will. That's an extreme solution, at least for us in America, but we need to be looking at all possible solutions if we want to address affordability.

Absolutely we should. More things where it's even just one duplex/ quad in a random newer development where we aren't building accelerator chambers of concentrated poverty would be a great start IMO. Or through a few market rate condos/ apartments in Southside Terrace.

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‘Greenlining’ Fund Aims to Counter Ill Effects of Redlining in Omaha

The nonprofit Front Porch Investments is preparing to launch a “Greenlining Fund” to help reverse the historic and ill effects of local redlining. The organization, supported by major philanthropic foundations and the City of Omaha, describes the new program as a way to help low- to moderate-income families and individuals build wealth and stability. That mission differs from Front Porch’s earlier announced “preservation and development fund,” which was started earlier this year to create and preserve affordable housing inventory. In the next few weeks, the group will begin a search for a community advisory committee of people representing North and South Omaha, areas that have been affected by redlining, to help design parameters of the Greenlining fund program that will start next year.

Naomi Hattaway, Front Porch director of communications and community initiatives, said a core value of the nonprofit is equitable access to power, and she said that will live out in the advisory committee. “The committee will hold equal voting power with the Front Porch board of directors and staff,” she said. “The input, guidance, and collective decision making from the community is absolutely imperative to bring intentional reinvestment and displacement prevention support to formerly redlined areas of the greater Omaha metro.” Among the Greenlining fund goals: to assist low to moderate-income people expand down-payment assistance and financing for buying homes; providing zero-interest equity loans for home repairs; low-cost financing for debt consolidation; property tax relief in revitalizing areas with escalating property values. The funding program, Hattaway said, also is intended to proactively prevent future displacement of residents due to rising property values as a result of current and future development in the community.

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Here is the draft plan up for approval at next month's planning board meeting:

https://planning.cityofomaha.org/images ... B_HAAP.pdf

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Here's a neat development of affordable housing in a suburb of St. Louis. I think concepts in terms of design, size of units, shared amenities, could/should be applied in affordable housing developments here in Omaha.

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2022/1 ... ty-dignity







https://www.southernliving.com/travel/s ... s-missouri

[ricko]

Here's a neat development of affordable housing in a suburb of St. Louis. I think concepts in terms of design, size of units, shared amenities, could/should be applied in affordable housing developments here in Omaha.

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2022/1 ... ty-dignity







https://www.southernliving.com/travel/s ... s-missouri

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Heck, for my taste, that would be considered great design for regular housing. I don’t know why so many developers are lacking in imagination when it comes to designing a neighborhood. Most suburban communities look so boring and uninspiring to me, “affordable” housing developments even more so.

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Affordable housing funds awarded in Omaha

Millions awarded on Thursday for housing projects will help Omaha improve the housing crisis here.

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Nonprofit, City Award $11 Million for Affordable Housing

Front Porch Investments and the City of Omaha have awarded $11 million to support local affordable housing and preservation projects. The money, part of the city and nonprofit’s Development and Preservation Fund, will be distributed to 14 organizations for a variety of projects including housing for seniors and youth formerly experiencing homelessness as well as preserving affordability elsewhere.

This is the first announcement of affordable housing investment between the housing nonprofit and city. In May of this year, Front Porch Investments also awarded $7.3 million through its Innovation Fund.

The investments follow a growing demand for housing solutions. In 2021, citizens named affordable housing investments as a top priority in a city survey. The city also debuted its Housing Affordability Action Plan earlier year. Nonprofits have also highlighted the growing cost of housing, the number of people paying too much on their housing, the lack of affordable housing stock and how much money it would take to close the gap.

Housing is a major determinant of health, affecting your income, education, access to healthcare and much more. In Omaha, not all areas have received the same investments which has contributed to poorer housing, lower rates of homeownership and more. The benefits of investing in housing, from tax revenue to expanded opportunities for residents, were also heavily noted in reports like the Omaha Community Foundation’s “Housing Affordability in the Omaha and Council Bluffs Area: An Assessment of Housing Affordability, Need & Priorities” released in April 2021.

Front Porch Investments, which began operating earlier this year and grew out of philanthropic research into affordable housing, created the Development and Preservation Fund matching pandemic relief money with philanthropic donations. Applications for the first wave of funding were due Sept. 12. It received 26 applications requesting $24.6 million. A scoring committee, including representatives from Front Porch Investments and the City of Omaha, reviewed the applications. The $11 million total awarded this cycle includes $9.7 million through the American Rescue Plan Act and $1.3 from philanthropic sources.

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Omaha city council passes affordable housing plan

The Omaha City Council passed an affordable housing plan on Tuesday. There is a long-term goal of establishing a blueprint that makes it easier for city residents to pay rent and mortgages. The plan calls for changing zoning regulations, puts more restrictions on tax-increment financing and seeks to expand a series of housing programs.

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Habitat for Humanity to muscle up affordable housing efforts in Omaha area

Cindy Gonzalez
Habitat for Humanity of Omaha, boosted by donations and $4 million in federal pandemic recovery funds, plans to build or rehab about 400 houses for lower income families over the next four years.

The nonprofit expects to invest more than $200 million by the end of 2026 in housing programs — almost double the amount from the previous four years, said Chief Executive Officer Amanda Brewer.

“We understand the enormous effort it’s going to take from all of us,” Brewer said. “These ARPA funds (American Rescue Plan Act) will position the organization to serve more families in the community.”
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According to a new report by online real estate company Rent., whose website is rent.com, Nebraska saw the fifth-largest increase in median rents among states this past year. The median sale price of a house in the Omaha and Lincoln areas, meanwhile, grew nearly 12% this year compared to last year, according to the Great Plains Regional multiple listing service.

In Habitat’s multi-year plan through 2026 called Transformative Change, the agency lays out goals that include building or completely renovating some 400 houses to be purchased by working families who meet certain eligibility requirements and typically contribute sweat equity.

“Habitat believes homeownership offers permanent stability for a family,” Brewer said.

The organization said it plans to repair more than 1,000 homes and prepare about 600 families and individuals for homeownership through its programming.

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Omaha nonprofit to build new affordable housing in vacant lot
Rent for units with 1-3 bedrooms expect to run $700-$1,200 monthly

Dead shrubs are all you can see on the vacant lot just down the street from Hanscom Park. But new life, new families, and new housing units are coming to town. That’s thanks to inCOMMON, a local nonprofit that aims to carve out space for low and middle-income families at Park and Poppleton avenues. For the 100-unit $25 million project, tenants are expected to pay significantly less than market-rate rent. According to Rent.com, the average price of a one-bedroom apartment in Omaha is $1,105. The new units coming in are expected to be up to $400 a month cheaper. “As the need continues to outpace the supply, we’re really looking forward to being able to provide those units for people that need it,” said Andrew Whealy of inCOMMON.

Funding is coming from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and Front Porch Investments, a philanthropic organization. Whealy said they hope to finalize construction on this project by the end of 2025.

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Mixed-use development in Elkhorn aims to address Omaha metro's affordable housing crisis



A construction site to the west of an Elkhorn neighborhood looks very typical at first glance, but Kassie Inness with Metonic Real Estate Solutions said it’s anything but typical. "This is the first community of its kind that we have done," she said. The 15-acre project called Capriana Homes will bring a mixed-use residential development to the area. Work is currently in the early stages; on the south side will be 149 apartment homes and to the north will be affordable homes built by Habitat for Humanity.

Eleven of those units will be built as part of the project, each one appraised at around $230,000. The apartment units will be rented at the market rate. Inness said she picked Elkhorn because it has the state's top-rated schools. "There are a lot of lower-income families who don’t have the opportunity to live in Elkhorn or send their children to the Elkhorn school district just because of the cost of housing in that area," She said. "We thought this was really cool that we could provide 11 families with that opportunity that they may not have had previously."

Inness said construction for the entire project will take two years to complete. Work on the Habitat Homes should start next spring. She sees it as the perfect partnership that can chip away at the current housing gap. "Even if it’s 11 homes at a time, 11 homes is better than no homes."

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Affordable housing study proposed by Sen. Terrell McKinney



Monday, some Nebraska senators heard from the public, nonprofits and developers on affordable housing during a public hearing at Metro Community College. The hearing is part of Sen. Terrell McKinney's proposal to for the Urban Affairs Committee to create an interim study on affordable housing. Senators got an earful of feedback and suggestions on Nebraska's state of housing. With many noting, North Omaha faces the highest need for affordable housing.

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Omaha receives $20 million grant to expand affordable housing options



Affordable housing is scarce but starting to surface in a growing north Omaha neighborhood of homes built by Habitat for Humanity. "We think that that builds a synergy both for our families and for this part of Omaha, which really has not been very hospitable to housing," said Ed Thiele, with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

The Bluestem Prairie is home to about 60 houses under construction, with Phase 1 already underway and more around the corner in the next two years. City planning officials are expected to approve a plan to rezone this land, which used to be Scatter Joy Acres. People are already moving in nearby. Federal officials are also driving home the effort.

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City, developers working to meet the demand for affordable housing in the metro



The city of Omaha is working to bring more affordable housing options to the metro. It's a tall order since the demand is so great and options are limited. Chad Alioth graduated two years ago from college and moved back to his hometown of Omaha. He has a full-time job, but he can't afford to live by himself right now.