SE Nebraska commissioners talk housing shortage solutions

FAIRBURY, NE — Leaders from multiple southeast Nebraska counties are working to solve a workforce housing shortage.

It’s a problem Jefferson County Commissioner Mark Schoenrock says is not unique to them.

“We know the demand is there, we’re not going to have any problem selling these houses," he said. "We just have to get them built. That’s easily where our problem is.”

Officials from Jefferson, Saline and Gage counties met with representatives from Hometown Housing Tuesday. The group assists rural governments to attract investors and builders to address the issue.

Clint Fichter, a former small town city manager and Hometown Housing's legal counsel, attended via Zoom. He likened the process to the Homestead Act.

“What we’re looking at doing is creating a public-private partnership that allows people to see those housing opportunities in the same way your great-great grandparents would have seen a homesteading opportunity," Fichter said.

If contracted, the group would talk with local employers, research the area’s needs and develop a proposal. Hometown Housing would then pitch the project to investors and local contractors.

They’d continue to be involved through the bidding, construction and marketing process, according to Shane Gilbert, a home builder and member of Hometown Housing. 

“How we show returns, how we show this to be long-term successful is a big goal of ours," Akers said. "We’re not just looking at the investors return, we’re looking at the communities’ returns.”

The three counties are looking to help local businesses finding it challenging to recruit people due to lack of middle-class housing for prospective employees. Hometown Housing said that's particularly tricky because contractors can get government funding and incentives for building low-income housing and, naturally, high-income individuals have the money to pay contractors for their services. 

Fairbury, for example, has spent months tearing down dilapidated houses. Tuesday, Fairbury Mayor Spencer Brown said the town is closing in on 40 old houses being demolished.

Finding someone to build new ones is a different challenge. 

“That’s a lot of old houses that are gone, but guess what? We’ve got a bunch of empty lots," Schoenrock said. "We’d like to get houses on those lots. That’s where we’re at.”

According to Hometown Housing though, it's an issue they're familiar with tackling. Fichter said Tuesday the group is currently working on a project in a rural area of Florida's gulf coast that would construct over 1,000 homes in an area with a similar median income to southeast Nebraska. Eighty percent of those homes are being designed to be sold to people who make between 80 and 120 percent of the area's median income.

Fichter said the median income in the area this project is going up is $46,000. According to the latest US Census data, Jefferson County's median income is just under $49,000.

County officials hope them teaming up to make one larger project to offer to investors and builders will make it more attractive. They hope to meet again in the coming weeks to discuss details of a potential contract.