Housing Research

Jenny Nixon Author

02/06/2025 Added

1 Plays

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Megan Patent-Nygren with UNL discusses housing research. Recorded June 16, 2021.

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[00:00:00.000]One time this summer. So I invited them to
[00:00:03.100]Participate and kind of maybe they'll have some questions later on for Jamie or somebody that
[00:00:09.780]Will try to stump Kurt later in the program.
[00:00:13.560]I'll report that I spent most of last weekend Valentine and had an excellent experience.
[00:00:23.100]Oh, really, what, what all did you do
[00:00:25.160]I was there for the NACO highway superintendent summer meeting.
[00:00:29.640]Oh yeah
[00:00:30.140]So we did that for a couple days, but I got in around at Frederick peak and did some shopping downtown and headed west to the winery at Nunzel
[00:00:43.000]Did you go on a Friday night when they have pizza night
[00:00:46.860]No, I went on Sunday evening when I got it all to myself.
[00:00:51.960]Okay.
[00:00:52.520]They have a on Friday nights. A lot of times they'll make homemade
[00:00:59.280]pizza. And then they'll make a pizza that's like, I'm not sure what kind of oven they're using. I think they've got like a brick oven or something. And they, the grandkids make pizza supervised by Father Neil and and they bring pizzas over and pretty good.
[00:01:12.840]So let's see. We're up to 13. I guess we can get started. We wait for Deb.
[00:01:28.920]So, Joni is not coming today. She is, she apologized. She is doing something with rodeo. What a thought. And so we will excuse her this time. This is awesome. I think, and I do have some interns, maybe I can invite them sometime too. They're just getting started on all their good stuff. So it's really exciting.
[00:01:48.620]Today, what's that?
[00:01:52.300]I was going to say, for those that just joined us, Connor and Victor are,
[00:01:58.760]they're rural fellows through the University of Nebraska that are doing some
[00:02:02.300]work with us here in Ballantyne on economic development projects that I've
[00:02:06.360]never seen to, been able to get the time to work on.
[00:02:08.920]So they're actually,
[00:02:10.820]they've been headquartering out of the Mid-Plains Community College.
[00:02:14.160]We gave them a key and said, have at it.
[00:02:16.800]So they got full access to the M&M machine and all of that.
[00:02:20.080]So they're pretty much on the honor system there, I guess.
[00:02:23.360]But so we'll have them talk a little bit later on and they'll probably have some
[00:02:28.600]questions after we get through with some of our discussion.
[00:02:31.520]So Jenny, I'll let you introduce Megan then and we'll get into the subject for today and
[00:02:38.020]sit back and learn something.
[00:02:40.080]Awesome.
[00:02:41.280]Well, welcome, Victor and Connor.
[00:02:43.240]We're so glad to have you.
[00:02:44.440]I'm going to introduce somebody I've known for quite a while, Megan Patent-Niger, and
[00:02:49.440]she works at LTAP.
[00:02:51.840]What is that?
[00:02:52.840]And I had to put a little description in there.
[00:02:54.800]She's the gal that's my go-to about transportation.
[00:02:58.440]Transportation stuff.
[00:02:59.460]And I love that we have a connection to somebody who helps communities, villages, counties,
[00:03:06.700]whoever, deal with transportation programs, problems, and whatever.
[00:03:11.160]In fact, as I sent her a picture this last summer that she's, hopefully she's not going
[00:03:15.760]to use it in this section, but yeah, the highway side outside of Lusk, Wyoming, says that the
[00:03:22.780]construction is going on for the next 163 miles.
[00:03:28.280]And it's like, oh my God, I'm not going that way.
[00:03:31.400]And it really, the decimal point is too small to see.
[00:03:34.520]It's really, you know, 16.5 or whatever it is.
[00:03:38.980]Somebody was really excited about that.
[00:03:41.040]So Megan said she used that in one of her presentations.
[00:03:43.360]But you know what?
[00:03:44.660]She is so interesting.
[00:03:45.680]She does so many other things.
[00:03:46.820]So she's been working on a degree and one of her courses this last semester really dealt
[00:03:52.140]around housing.
[00:03:52.880]And so that's why I'll have her talk a little bit about what she does with communities with
[00:03:57.100]LTAP.
[00:03:58.120]The housing piece I thought was really interesting and I wanted her to bring forward some of
[00:04:03.820]the things that she and the rest of her class worked on around rural housing.
[00:04:07.720]So Megan, take it away.
[00:04:10.640]Thanks for inviting me.
[00:04:13.720]As Jenny said, we've worked together for a long time in a couple of different capacities.
[00:04:18.720]I've been with LTAP for about seven years now and LTAP is a federally mandated program
[00:04:27.220]through the highway.
[00:04:27.960]We do extension work, but it's all funded by the DOT.
[00:04:31.740]So most of my work centers around roadway safety, the manual and uniform traffic control
[00:04:37.640]devices.
[00:04:38.140]I've been teaching a lot of work zone stuff.
[00:04:40.920]Usually that's a pretty popular spring program as cone and drum season is gearing up here
[00:04:49.060]statewide.
[00:04:49.540]So you'll be excited to know that one out of every 10 miles you drive this summer could
[00:04:56.180]potentially be through a work zone.
[00:04:57.800]Um, so that's our, that's our typical stat in Nebraska in June, July, and August.
[00:05:03.500]Um, but I did, uh, just finish up my planning degree in May after a very lengthy, um, not
[00:05:11.680]recommended for others path through the graduate college.
[00:05:15.020]Um, and I, Jenny said one semester, I actually spent two semesters this year, um, focusing
[00:05:21.520]on housing.
[00:05:22.120]So I'm going to talk a bit, a little bit about both of those projects.
[00:05:25.080]Um, first just, um,
[00:05:27.640]I'll apologize because both of my projects focused on Lincoln.
[00:05:30.940]So I, um, I did pull up some pieces that I'll share at the end that can hopefully tie some
[00:05:40.720]of the things I did in Lincoln out to the rest of the state.
[00:05:44.220]Um, so I spent the fall semester in our, let me share my screen quick, um, in our studio
[00:05:52.320]course.
[00:05:52.940]And, um, so for planning, we
[00:05:57.480]we kind of finish out the program with, uh, a course where we work as a contract, um,
[00:06:04.760]planning firm with a client this year, or I guess last year, a year ago, um, they took
[00:06:12.860]kind of an interesting spin on it and paired us with a comparable class in the architecture
[00:06:18.000]program, um, under professor Jeff day, who's a pretty well-known architecture faculty member,
[00:06:25.180]um, here at Nebraska.
[00:06:27.320]And, um, we paired up with not one client, but six clients in Lincoln and Omaha, um,
[00:06:37.480]to work on some affordable housing projects that they had in mind.
[00:06:41.700]So each team had a planner and, um, a small group of architecture students and each project
[00:06:48.760]really had some kind of unique pieces.
[00:06:51.140]Um, they ended up very different, some of which I think have some strong applicability
[00:06:57.160]outside of Lincoln and Omaha.
[00:06:58.740]So, um, in common community development is a smaller development group in that works
[00:07:05.380]primarily in South Omaha.
[00:07:06.580]And they were looking at, um, building some affordable duplex housing.
[00:07:11.600]They found out midway through the process that the land that they purchased to put their
[00:07:17.780]duplexes on was only zoned, um, for single family and had some environmental concerns
[00:07:23.540]that were not going to let them change, um, the zoning.
[00:07:27.140]So they ended up with a very nice, um, couple of single family, um, plan projects, but didn't
[00:07:35.320]really get to test out, um, what they'd set out to in the beginning.
[00:07:38.960]Um, the Omaha Economic Development Corporation, um, works out of North Omaha.
[00:07:43.940]Um, it's a historically African-American, um, neighborhood and, um, organization.
[00:07:50.780]They've done a lot of projects in North O, um, and,
[00:07:56.780]and this particular, my screen just went away.
[00:08:01.100]This particular project that they worked on, um, with our class was really looking at kind
[00:08:09.740]of the next level of housing.
[00:08:11.120]They've done a lot of low-income projects and they were looking more at, um, kind of
[00:08:17.260]a middle income transitional type housing.
[00:08:19.960]Um, and one of the fears they had was that as they brought some higher income
[00:08:26.660]people, um, back to this particular small neighborhood they were working in and, uh,
[00:08:32.200]or as people in the neighborhood were making more money and we're going to be able to
[00:08:36.040]afford to move into, um, slightly higher level of housing, um, how they could do that and
[00:08:42.400]have a mixed income neighborhood without, um, inciting gentrification.
[00:08:46.560]Um, so the planner that works on that project, um, focused a lot on redlining in Omaha and
[00:08:53.480]the history there, as well as, um.
[00:08:56.520]Really what, what we can do to try and gradually improve the housing stock without displacing,
[00:09:05.520]um, a lot of current residents through gentrification, the South of downtown community development
[00:09:10.980]corporation is here in Lincoln and it's headed up by, um, an executive director who used
[00:09:17.980]to be with neighbor works and has been working in Lincoln in affordable, um, and equitable
[00:09:22.360]housing for a long time.
[00:09:24.720]And he came up with kind of an interesting.
[00:09:26.480]This was actually the team that I was primarily responsible for and he wanted, um, kind of
[00:09:34.660]larger.
[00:09:35.300]So South of South of downtown is, uh, the area South of the Capitol, um, kind of around
[00:09:42.340]the Capitol and South that has a lot of older, very grand homes.
[00:09:47.160]It also has a lot of older homes that have been broken up into small apartments and it
[00:09:54.940]has a lot of infill development.
[00:09:56.440]Um, that up until about 20 years ago, when Lincoln adopted, um, neighborhood design standards
[00:10:03.240]for the core of the city, um, really cover the gamut of sometimes kind of nice to really
[00:10:12.100]abysmal architectural styles.
[00:10:14.120]And so, um, the project challenge here was to look at, uh, a multifamily unit, um, but
[00:10:24.300]not a traditional apartment building.
[00:10:26.400]Our apartment complex really looking at, um, the concept of micro housing, possibly with
[00:10:33.780]a co-op component so that we could have ultra affordable housing for individuals, um, single
[00:10:43.000]moms, retirees who wanted to downsize people who weren't looking for, for tons of square
[00:10:50.140]feet.
[00:10:50.480]Most of the units ended up being in the 450 to 600.
[00:10:56.360]Um, square feet range, um, with some bigger common spaces that could be used by the residents
[00:11:05.340]or have the potential to be, um, micro business development centers as well for entrepreneurs.
[00:11:12.300]So those all had first floor access, street access, um, kinds of things.
[00:11:18.840]I realize I, um, the images on this slide are a little bit small, but the big challenge we had
[00:11:26.320]here, um, and the, the focus challenge here was that a Lincoln zoning doesn't allow for this
[00:11:32.540]co-op micro housing concept. Um, so we proposed some zoning, um, clauses that could potentially
[00:11:40.080]be adopted to allow the project to, to happen, um, putting a few less restrictions on some of
[00:11:48.020]the multifamily housing, um, zoning that currently exists, as well as looking at how we could put a
[00:11:56.280]structure in a historic neighborhood that still met design standards. Um, so I've got another
[00:12:05.260]slide where I'll talk about that a little bit coming up, um, but kind of an interesting concept.
[00:12:09.680]The last project, um, oh, there was one more group. Habitat for Humanity wanted some new model
[00:12:19.760]houses. So typically here in Lincoln, Habitat for Humanity builds one of three floor plans.
[00:12:26.240]And so they wanted the architecture group to, that they worked with to come up with, um, two to
[00:12:32.040]three additional floor plans, um, specifically looking at, um, multi-generational housing and
[00:12:39.820]how, um, particularly in some of the, the immigrant cultures here in Lincoln, um, it's very common to
[00:12:48.320]live in a multi-generational household. And how do we incorporate that into the Habitat for Humanity
[00:12:56.200]project? Um, NeighborWorks, um, their project kind of fell through too. I don't remember exactly what
[00:13:06.620]all the details were. I wasn't on that team. Um, but they were also looking for more of like a model
[00:13:11.580]type, um, plan, not necessarily a site-specific program. Um, the second group that I worked with
[00:13:18.840]was the, um, Northern Ponca
[00:13:26.160]Tribe Housing Authority.
[00:13:27.320]One would think I hadn't, hadn't zoomed in PowerPoint in a while, but I'm sorry. It's being
[00:13:40.860]unhappy today. Okay. The Northern Ponca Housing Authority. Um, this was the project I was most
[00:13:48.400]excited about. Um, they were accessing some federal, um, block grant funds,
[00:13:56.120]I think this project might actually happen. Um, I'm not so sure about any of the others,
[00:14:01.180]but this one has the most likelihood to actually occur. The Ponca Housing Authority had bought some
[00:14:07.200]land. Um, again, maybe if anything came out of this class, if you're going to buy some land
[00:14:13.940]for development, you should actually look at it and look to see how it's zoned before you buy it.
[00:14:18.900]Um, seems like a reasonable expectation, but really none of these groups actually
[00:14:26.080]did that. Um, and the Northern Ponca Housing Authority was also one of those. So they bought
[00:14:31.980]a piece of land, um, in West Lincoln with the idea of putting six to 12 units on it,
[00:14:38.320]specifically targeted older or disabled, um, members of the tribe. So they wanted a hundred
[00:14:47.480]percent of the units to be, um, ADA accessible, and they wanted to have, um, a multi-unit
[00:14:56.040]setup, but not have an apartment building. And so they're actually little duplexes that are set up
[00:15:04.500]in, um, kind of a village so that there is quite a bit of open space on the property. Some of that
[00:15:11.580]is because about a third of the property is a wetlands, um, designated piece that is not going
[00:15:18.000]away. Um, so they have to develop around it. And, um, they also, as part of their general,
[00:15:26.000]um, tribal philosophy, you're trying to increase, um, mobility and health initiatives within the
[00:15:32.660]tribe. So they wanted a walking path, um, that of course would be ADA accessible to encourage that,
[00:15:39.600]that movement and, um, community development. So, um, I, I think this, this project has
[00:15:47.840]a lot of applicability to other places because as we look at a lot of the housing
[00:15:55.960]demographics, um, and data and, um, some of the changing populations across the state,
[00:16:03.100]one of the housing voids that we have, um, or needs that is pretty strong in a lot of communities
[00:16:11.160]is housing for older populations who are transitioning out of single family homes,
[00:16:18.640]but maybe not quite ready to go to a care facility and need some of that additional, um, accessibility
[00:16:25.920]as well as other, um, disabled people, um, returning veterans, um, and other, other people
[00:16:35.440]finding quality ADA compatible housing, um, really is a challenge statewide.
[00:16:41.360]So this project has some, some pieces, I think is a scope and a size, um, that could fit in a lot
[00:16:50.080]of communities, um, for a lot of the projects. Um,
[00:16:55.880]neighborhood design standards, um, were an issue. So looking at, you know, what's existing in the
[00:17:01.720]neighborhood, how can we build in a way that it's going to feel like it needs to continue in the
[00:17:07.340]neighborhood. When we talk about, um, accessible and affordable housing, um, that's a concept that
[00:17:15.580]in a lot of existing neighborhoods, people are afraid to have added to their neighborhood.
[00:17:20.880]And so designing accessible housing,
[00:17:25.840]that looks like regular housing, um, is kind of a challenge. It's been a trend in the industry,
[00:17:33.040]um, for a while now that sometimes these, um, accessible housing projects have really bright
[00:17:40.760]colors or kind of unique, funky architecture and really stand out. And everybody drives past and
[00:17:47.560]says, oh, that's the, you know, that's the section eight housing or, you know, whatever
[00:17:53.020]terminology they have to it. And so,
[00:17:55.800]how can we make feasible and accessible housing that also blends in with existing
[00:18:02.480]neighborhoods in a way that doesn't spotlight the residents that live there?
[00:18:09.680]One of the pieces I did on the planning side for a course requirement, we also
[00:18:20.120]actually did an exhibition at the Nebraska State Historical Society History Museum
[00:18:25.760]in conjunction with a traveling exhibit called Evicted. And so this was one of my panels for
[00:18:32.620]that. We selected a handful of communities across the state. We wanted a range of sizes
[00:18:39.780]since the projects we were working in all ended up in Lincoln and Omaha. We have very small
[00:18:46.120]communities like Randolph and Hebron up to some mid-sized cities, Auburn, Ord, Alliance. And
[00:18:55.720]then bigger communities like North Platte and Fremont. We looked at was the project compatible
[00:19:05.140]as is? Was there some place in that community that zoning would allow that particular project?
[00:19:12.940]We also, if we could find a housing study, sometimes I just called the city office and
[00:19:18.800]chatted with the city clerk. I'm from a really small town, so I understand that sometimes that's
[00:19:24.140]the best way to get good information.
[00:19:25.680]You know, is this something, what is the housing demand in your community? How many houses are
[00:19:32.200]available? Types of conversations. And we found that a handful of the projects really do have a
[00:19:40.380]lot of applicability. And primarily that Ponca project was one, as well as the duplex and single
[00:19:48.940]family projects as well. The project I worked on with the micro housing was a little bit more
[00:19:55.640]of a stretch. But I don't think we always think about multifamily housing in smaller communities.
[00:20:02.560]And a lot of the rural housing studies for smaller communities I did find identified
[00:20:09.700]multifamily housing as a strong need. So maybe this micro housing co-op thing isn't the right
[00:20:17.580]model. But there's definitely demand for multifamily housing. So that kind of wraps
[00:20:25.600]up the fall semester. And then in the spring semester, I worked on a project for, again,
[00:20:34.220]for the city of Lincoln. We don't always get to pick the client.
[00:20:39.920]And I shifted gears a little bit to look at the city is updating.
[00:20:55.560]They're making their comprehensive plan. And one of the pieces that they're realizing
[00:21:00.560]post 2020 is that nowhere in the comprehensive plan did it address social justice and equity
[00:21:10.300]topics. So each of the people in the final capstone course took a different section
[00:21:16.980]of the comprehensive plan and really dove into how the plan met best practices
[00:21:25.520]for equity and inclusive planning, as well as
[00:21:29.480]kind of some general updates, as the last update is about 10 years old.
[00:21:36.160]So I ended up with housing again, in kind of a roundabout way.
[00:21:41.360]So I lost out on transportation to an actual transportation planner.
[00:21:45.680]So one of the things that we found is that separating affordable housing and
[00:21:55.480]equitable housing into different studies is really difficult because of the
[00:22:02.940]demographics of the socioeconomic status of a lot of populations of people of
[00:22:09.340]color in the United States.
[00:22:11.200]And those trends tend to continue in Nebraska.
[00:22:14.640]Really the two go hand in hand.
[00:22:18.080]Most of the people of color who don't qualify for affordable
[00:22:25.440]housing have the wherewithal to work through the process that
[00:22:30.500]already outlaws discrimination in housing and tend to be successful at that.
[00:22:38.140]So it ended up focusing more on affordable housing than I think either
[00:22:42.980]the planning department or I hoped it would, but that's where we ended up.
[00:22:50.260]The American Planning Association pretty recently, I think three years ago,
[00:22:55.400]issued a planning for equity policy guide.
[00:22:59.400]And there's a very small section on housing.
[00:23:01.780]It's about a page and a half.
[00:23:03.260]And we use that as the kind of the core concept or the core idea.
[00:23:07.720]Lincoln does have a very recently published affordable action housing plan.
[00:23:13.700]So there are a couple of pieces of this that might feel like there are some holes,
[00:23:18.280]but they're already addressed in the affordable housing plan.
[00:23:22.480]And so we were looking for areas where we didn't have duplication,
[00:23:25.360]the biggest need is true statewide as well.
[00:23:31.800]We just need an overall increase in dwelling units.
[00:23:36.800]Housing availability in Lincoln is really tight right now and has been for a few years.
[00:23:42.560]And that's actually true statewide as well.
[00:23:45.920]The Department of Economic Development found pre-2019 flood where we had a lot
[00:23:52.160]of housing units damaged, particularly here in eastern Nebraska.
[00:23:55.320]That we were about 28,000 housing units short of actual need in Nebraska.
[00:24:02.880]Either to replace housing units that are not considered safe or just people looking for housing or housing needs.
[00:24:12.680]And so, in general, increasing the overall number of units will make more units available with less discriminatory practices.
[00:24:25.280]There isn't a lot of published research in this particular area, specifically if we're trying to move beyond affordable housing.
[00:24:34.120]And so, a lot of my time was spent looking at peer cities and looking at what some of our peers to the City of Lincoln were doing to be at the forefront of equitable housing movements.
[00:24:48.240]It ended up that Lexington, Kentucky/Fayette County, Kentucky, Madison,
[00:24:55.240]Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and St. Paul, Minnesota were the most progressive or had already started enacting some policies and were having some data showing some success in improving the equitable housing market.
[00:25:15.200]One of the biggest issues that came up is the types of housing forms. If we look at housing built in Lincoln in the last 25 years,
[00:25:25.200]most of it is going to fall in larger single family housing units or in large multifamily complexes.
[00:25:33.200]And so we have quite a few housing alternatives that might be more attractive and be more accessible on an affordability standpoint that fall in other housing forms.
[00:25:44.200]So smaller single family units, what we call the missing middle housing, so small like four plexes, six plexes,
[00:25:55.160]and again I think those have a lot of applicability to rural communities where you might not need 200 apartments, but 12 apartments might go a long ways to meet the housing need in a town of 3000 people.
[00:26:13.160]So looking at zoning policies do we have we increase setbacks in open spaces between units and
[00:26:25.120]limited off street parking options and some of those kinds of things that have made the smaller more accessible housing types, less available, or less reasonable for builder to pursue land banks have been a really hot topic in some municipalities the cost of land
[00:26:52.120]acquisition to build on.
[00:26:55.080]And so, you know, in Nebraska we did recently have legislation that expanded the land bank opportunities for communities beyond the Omaha, so that may be an option to pursue where the land bank actually owns the land, and the house that's built on it, then that occupant or that owner can rent at a reasonable price the land, instead of having to include that land acquisition costs in there.
[00:27:25.040]So that's one of the things that we need to think about in terms of how we can reduce the cost of new construction or in some cases rehabilitation.
[00:27:35.040]We found a lot of communities don't actively reach out to some of these populations that have been marginalized. That's something Lincoln's actually started before the,
[00:27:55.000]comprehensive plan or update the comprehensive plan. And we found that not a lot of the pure cities that we identified were doing that a couple had proposed it but hadn't actually done it.
[00:28:07.000]Looking beyond the traditional stakeholders that show up to public meetings and reaching out to specific targeted populations to get information to bounce ideas to follow up on projects to see how effective they've been increasing green space is
[00:28:24.960]particularly important.
[00:28:26.960]There's some pretty strong research that communities of color have less open space less green space, less parks per dwelling unit, those types of things.
[00:28:40.960]There's some, some interesting information out of Baltimore, and looking at traditional neighborhoods of color, and the overall daily temperature can be as much as eight degrees warmer than in a comparable
[00:28:54.920]income level, white neighborhood, where there may be two or three or four times as much green space, which we know cools, especially concrete urban environments.
[00:29:06.920]So, making sure that we have adequate green space plan into neighborhoods of color is a, is a key piece as well.
[00:29:20.920]One of the things that cities struggle with in general.
[00:29:24.880]Is okay so we put together this comprehensive plan or we, we find money for these programs and we start a program, but we don't really have an evaluation process.
[00:29:34.880]So we, we lead forth with an initiative, but we don't have follow up to find out if it was effective or not. So where we don't have a lot of research backing up some of these concepts, or some of these strategies, ensuring that there is a data collection
[00:29:52.880]and an evaluation process.
[00:29:54.840]So that in three years, in five years, in 10 years, as these projects are implemented,
[00:30:01.680]we can find out what really does work, what maybe doesn't work as well.
[00:30:05.320]in reality as it did on paper and focus resources into those projects that are actually effective.
[00:30:12.360]Again, increasing the overall number of dwelling units is is probably the key main feature.
[00:30:21.400]And so here's kind of some text versions of what I just talked about that I'm not going to go through.
[00:30:29.880]I'll switch one more time.
[00:30:33.560]So a little bit more of the statewide information. So if we look at census data of where we have low to moderate income persons, really it's spread out statewide. There are some obvious census blocks where we have tribal lands, if we look at census data of people who are low to moderate income,
[00:31:01.560]if we look at census data of people who are low to moderate income,
[00:31:03.400]if we look at census data of people who are low to moderate income,
[00:31:03.480]if we look at census data of people who are low to moderate income,
[00:31:03.560]if we dive deeper into Lincoln and Omaha, some of the traditional more inner city type neighborhoods, but most of our counties that have multiple census blocks have at least one block where 50% or more of the population is considered low to moderate income.
[00:31:22.860]So the threshold that was used for this map are those low to moderate income criterion that meet,
[00:31:33.440]some of the HUD block grant program requirements.
[00:31:38.380]A few other things that we know about housing in Nebraska is that about a third of our housing is over 60 years old. As an old house dweller, I
[00:31:52.880]am sometimes a little offended that when we classify and sort things with data, living in an old house is a bad thing, but living in an old house
[00:32:03.300]is more likely to expose us to lead paint. They are more costly to maintain. They may not have insulation and windows and things that are going to make a home energy efficient.
[00:32:16.040]And so when we're talking about lower income housing, housing that's expensive to maintain isn't necessarily compatible with people on a very tight budget.
[00:32:29.680]We have a shortage of builders and contractors.
[00:32:33.040]I live in a small town between Lincoln and Omaha, and a lot of desirable builders are booked two, three, maybe even four years out on projects.
[00:32:45.080]And so increasing the number of people that pursue that trade and are available to build houses can bring down the cost of that construction.
[00:32:56.340]We have very low vacancy rates statewide.
[00:33:00.340]Kind of.
[00:33:03.020]Kind of like how we have low unemployment statewide.
[00:33:05.880]So in some hotter markets, that causes prices to go up or people to choose to move or live elsewhere instead of maybe where we need them and have jobs available.
[00:33:17.980]In general, again, the Department of Economic Development estimates our overall housing need at at least 25,000 units.
[00:33:27.980]Blueprint Nebraska, a couple of years ago.
[00:33:33.000]set the goal of increasing housing units in Nebraska by 30 to 50,000 by 2030. That's less than 10 years. That's a lot of dwelling units in what seems like a very short period of time.
[00:33:47.120]And that's statewide communities, large and small.
[00:33:51.580]One of the pieces I did appreciate
[00:33:54.700]in a lot of this literature is that it's not just new housing, we need to increase
[00:34:02.320]the
[00:34:02.940]livable housing units.
[00:34:04.680]So we can do some of that through rehabilitation.
[00:34:07.780]It's a lot more cost effective to rehabilitate some older homes in a lot of cases
[00:34:14.560]than to completely build from scratch.
[00:34:17.160]And so, think about rehabilitation options in your communities as well.
[00:34:22.000]Rehabilitation has, I think, kind of has a double whammy benefit,
[00:34:29.360]because not only are we getting more improved housing,
[00:34:32.940]but we also are potentially cleaning up housing or a property that maybe isn't the one
[00:34:39.940]that we're going to put on the postcard to welcome people to our city.
[00:34:43.220]And so, we get to take care of some problem properties at the same time.
[00:34:47.560]A couple of programs that exist.
[00:34:50.860]I'm sure you're all aware of the Rural Workforce Housing Fund that coordinates a lot
[00:34:56.740]of community block grants and provides a lot of assistance to communities
[00:35:02.500]in development.
[00:35:02.940]Rural workforce housing funds are a really big part of what we're doing here at the
[00:35:07.720]Rural Workforce Housing Fund.
[00:35:08.680]They're a really big part of what we're doing here at the Rural Workforce Housing
[00:35:10.580]Fund.
[00:35:11.580]They're a really big part of what we're doing here at the Rural Workforce Housing
[00:35:12.880]Fund.
[00:35:13.880]They're a really big part of what we're doing here at the Rural Workforce Housing
[00:35:14.880]Fund.
[00:35:15.880]They're a really big part of what we're doing here at the Rural Workforce Housing
[00:35:16.880]Fund.
[00:35:17.880]They're a really big part of what we're doing here at the Rural Workforce Housing
[00:35:18.880]Fund.
[00:35:19.880]They're a really big part of what we're doing here at the Rural Workforce Housing
[00:35:20.880]Fund.
[00:35:21.880]They're a really big part of what we're doing here at the Rural Workforce Housing
[00:35:22.880]Fund.
[00:35:23.880]We're trying to find sometimes if programs are successful in the bigger cities, our rural
[00:35:29.920]senators can make the argument that we need to expand those programs to other parts of
[00:35:34.180]the state.
[00:35:35.740]This particular program, again, doesn't focus necessarily on lowest income housing and what
[00:35:44.320]we think of as traditional HUD housing, but on that next level, how do we bring in those
[00:35:51.660]new teachers?
[00:35:52.920]Or those new entrepreneurs or business owners who are going to end up in that house that's
[00:35:59.200]between $125,000 to $250,000, who have good jobs, who are bringing skills and assets to
[00:36:08.560]our community, not just our traditional low income residents.
[00:36:14.360]I think that's kind of an interesting move as well as we look at worker housing for different
[00:36:21.160]types of individuals.
[00:36:22.900]I know I live outside of Wahoo and they brought Omaha Steel in to build a beautiful new facility,
[00:36:34.260]but over half of their workforce still commutes from Omaha because a house in this price range
[00:36:38.920]in Wahoo is not to be had.
[00:36:41.840]If your relative dies and has one of those houses, it is almost always sold before the
[00:36:45.620]funeral because there's such a demand.
[00:36:52.880]I'm about done.
[00:36:53.880]There are a couple of examples I wanted to pull out looking at some different communities.
[00:36:59.880]Both Nealey and McCook published letters of support for some of these projects and so
[00:37:05.880]I wanted to see what housing programs they had.
[00:37:08.880]I thought it was kind of interesting.
[00:37:11.880]Nealey, for example, has some low interest loans available, again, for that housing rehab
[00:37:17.880]to make the housing stock that they have.
[00:37:22.860]I think they have better quality.
[00:37:24.860]And McCook has some down payment assistance, some homeowner education courses, and some things that maybe we think of traditionally an offer for our, again, our affordable housing community, but are accessible to all residents of the community as well.
[00:37:43.860]And they're just two random examples.
[00:37:46.860]We're doing these things in a lot of places.
[00:37:52.840]I did the replicability study last that was about October, early November.
[00:37:59.840]I was really excited I found a lot of smaller and mid sized communities that had really recent housing studies, and that that data was invaluable.
[00:38:11.840]So even if your community hasn't had a chance yet to do a recent housing study, there might be one that has some similar demographics that you can borrow from, or the.
[00:38:22.820]So even if your community hasn't had a chance yet to do a recent housing study, there might be one that has some similar demographics that you can borrow from, or the.
[00:38:52.800]So even if your community hasn't had a chance yet to do a recent housing study, there might be one that has some similar demographics that you can borrow from, or the.
[00:39:22.780]So even if your community hasn't had a chance yet to do a recent housing study, there might be one that has some similar demographics that you can borrow from, or the.
[00:39:52.760]So even if your community hasn't had a chance yet to do a recent housing study, there might be one that has some similar demographics that you can borrow from, or the.
[00:40:22.740]Jamie notes that the only thing that she's seen is the water sewer broadband infrastructure but not housing. That's interesting. Want to expand on that, Jamie?
[00:40:35.140]As far as the COVID funding for communities, that's the only piece I've seen on infrastructure. You may be able to fit something under public health or negative economic impact, I don't know for sure, depending on
[00:40:52.720]how you word it.
[00:40:53.560]I'd encourage you to take a look at the Department of Economic
[00:41:02.780]Developments. They have a whole
[00:41:04.700]housing section
[00:41:05.540]that has half a dozen different
[00:41:08.900]grant programs. Some are
[00:41:10.740]state-funded, some are federal block
[00:41:12.780]grants.
[00:41:13.240]More than I was anticipating
[00:41:16.680]when I started digging into that.
[00:41:18.920]One of the pieces I did
[00:41:22.640]do was
[00:41:22.700]last fall.
[00:41:24.520]I was curious about
[00:41:26.340]and this was early
[00:41:28.740]in the semester so quite a while before
[00:41:30.720]the election
[00:41:32.140]is that sometimes
[00:41:34.160]some of our government leaders
[00:41:38.400]are very publicly
[00:41:40.700]claim or
[00:41:44.560]state that we're not going to participate in a particular
[00:41:46.820]federal program.
[00:41:48.220]I was curious to see
[00:41:50.960]if we were accessing
[00:41:52.120]the HUD dollars
[00:41:53.980]as a state
[00:41:56.340]in a way
[00:41:58.680]that was in line with
[00:42:00.760]other states of our
[00:42:02.440]population, for example.
[00:42:04.360]And we really are. I don't think
[00:42:06.600]we're leaving a lot of
[00:42:08.200]HUD money
[00:42:10.080]sitting in Washington because
[00:42:12.540]for whatever reason, we don't want
[00:42:14.660]to participate in that program.
[00:42:15.980]But I thought that that was
[00:42:18.660]one thing worth
[00:42:20.660]looking at.
[00:42:21.540]Because sometimes we have a history of
[00:42:24.700]not
[00:42:26.760]participating in every available federal
[00:42:28.460]opportunity. So I didn't
[00:42:30.740]find that gap with HUD.
[00:42:32.400]Megan, you mentioned
[00:42:37.140]about 25,000 units
[00:42:38.700]needed. I forgot
[00:42:41.120]the time frame on how long over
[00:42:42.980]the next year or whatever. How
[00:42:44.960]does that compare to the other places that
[00:42:46.800]you studied that you mentioned
[00:42:48.780]in there? Are they kind of in the same boat?
[00:42:50.960]Well, so that was
[00:42:52.560]a statewide number.
[00:42:54.660]In individual
[00:42:56.720]places like here in
[00:42:58.780]Lincoln, they
[00:43:00.660]actually estimate that they probably need
[00:43:02.300]they're looking at a
[00:43:04.720]longer time frame, so they're looking out to
[00:43:06.340]2040 or 2050. By
[00:43:08.420]2050, they want an additional
[00:43:10.140]25,000 dwelling units
[00:43:12.280]here in
[00:43:14.480]just the city of Lincoln.
[00:43:15.740]I don't
[00:43:17.440]I haven't looked at any Omaha
[00:43:20.380]estimates or
[00:43:21.820]goals in that
[00:43:23.780]matter, but
[00:43:25.160]it's proportional.
[00:43:27.960]if a town of almost 300,000
[00:43:31.880]needs this many, then a town of
[00:43:33.880]10,000 might still need
[00:43:35.140]2,500.
[00:43:36.300]Where's the
[00:43:39.620]happy balance? We all know that
[00:43:41.640]we need more housing
[00:43:43.920]right now. The question
[00:43:45.760]is then,
[00:43:46.560]does our
[00:43:48.480]housing study show that we need X amount
[00:43:49.800]of housing?
[00:43:50.340]To keep up?
[00:43:55.920]Where do you tip the scale
[00:43:58.380]to where you have
[00:44:00.420]enough or you have too much and you have
[00:44:02.220]a depressed housing
[00:44:03.940]economy maybe?
[00:44:05.780]Based on some of the smaller
[00:44:10.140]or Valley County
[00:44:13.040]housing study,
[00:44:13.720]I don't think
[00:44:15.880]we're going to be able to build houses
[00:44:17.400]at a rate that we're
[00:44:19.760]going to depress.
[00:44:20.320]We're going to depress the market
[00:44:20.840]before we realize it.
[00:44:22.680]But in
[00:44:25.520]kind of a similar look,
[00:44:27.660]one of my colleagues
[00:44:29.420]looked at commercial
[00:44:31.740]properties and
[00:44:33.760]particularly post-pandemic,
[00:44:36.000]Lincoln actually
[00:44:37.760]has a lot of excess commercial
[00:44:39.900]property right now,
[00:44:41.320]both retail and office,
[00:44:43.880]not so much on the
[00:44:45.920]industrial side, but retail
[00:44:47.860]and office for sure.
[00:44:48.840]And
[00:44:50.240]as we travel
[00:44:52.160]through 2020,
[00:44:53.240]we had some businesses
[00:44:55.960]closed. We also had a lot
[00:44:58.180]that some bigger businesses
[00:45:00.200]that decided that
[00:45:01.420]there's no reason for them to bring everybody
[00:45:04.060]to an office every day and have
[00:45:06.180]permanently closed facilities or dramatically
[00:45:08.320]downsized facilities.
[00:45:09.620]State Farm Insurance, for example,
[00:45:11.580]had two large office buildings
[00:45:13.700]here in Lincoln full of people. None of
[00:45:16.160]those people are coming back to those buildings.
[00:45:17.920]They've given
[00:45:20.180]up the leases and
[00:45:21.900]they're permanently staying home.
[00:45:23.840]I have a friend who works at Omaha
[00:45:26.080]Stakes.
[00:45:26.540]All of their customer service staff,
[00:45:29.840]well over 500 people, are not
[00:45:34.240]coming back to the office. They're going to
[00:45:36.120]permanently work from home.
[00:45:37.180]Mutual of Omaha
[00:45:39.320]is estimating that they're only going to use
[00:45:41.940]about 40% of
[00:45:43.960]their commercial real estate
[00:45:45.780]and they're going to
[00:45:48.020]move to a hybrid model.
[00:45:50.120]Some staff are going to stay at home permanently.
[00:45:52.100]Some staff are going to rotate
[00:45:54.060]into the office maybe once or twice a week
[00:45:55.920]and spend the rest of the time working
[00:45:57.800]from remote locations.
[00:45:59.080]How do we
[00:46:01.260]reimagine
[00:46:04.120]what all that space looks like?
[00:46:05.560]How do
[00:46:07.700]we use it?
[00:46:08.800]Can any of it be
[00:46:11.600]converted into residential
[00:46:13.840]space where we have more
[00:46:16.040]of a need?
[00:46:16.580]To circle back
[00:46:20.060]to your question, Michael,
[00:46:20.820]I don't think we know
[00:46:23.300]what the tipping point is,
[00:46:25.300]but we're far
[00:46:27.880]enough behind.
[00:46:28.580]I don't think we're going to realize that point
[00:46:31.780]soon.
[00:46:33.560]Anytime soon.
[00:46:34.720]You said there's
[00:46:39.820]a shortage of builders, which
[00:46:41.820]seems like we have
[00:46:43.580]30 contractors in a small town of
[00:46:45.700]Ballantyne, but they're six months
[00:46:47.660]out from starting a small project.
[00:46:50.000]Or a big project, maybe even more
[00:46:51.900]than that. So should this be something
[00:46:54.060]rural communities, we've been
[00:46:55.940]concentrating on
[00:46:57.240]rural healthcare workers,
[00:46:59.700]creating that workforce in those.
[00:47:02.280]Should we be working with our
[00:47:03.940]community colleges and trying
[00:47:06.040]to encourage people to go into building construction
[00:47:08.260]and start those companies
[00:47:10.060]in our own communities?
[00:47:11.280]Potentially. And it might not
[00:47:14.120]be, it might require
[00:47:16.300]a deeper dive into your local
[00:47:18.220]marketplace. It might not be
[00:47:19.940]a general contractor that you need more
[00:47:22.040]of, but if all the, if you have
[00:47:23.940]30 general contractors and they're all using
[00:47:25.740]three plumbers,
[00:47:26.600]your bottleneck might be the plumbers.
[00:47:30.020]I think that's good. The bottleneck is the plumbers.
[00:47:41.780]I try once in a while.
[00:47:45.360]All right. I don't want to dominate the
[00:47:49.880]conversation here.
[00:47:50.720]So if somebody else has a question or two here or comment.
[00:47:53.020]Well, I think we need to, our extension group,
[00:48:00.720]there was a small group of us, Marilyn Schlake and Cheryl.
[00:48:03.000]I don't know what the decision to call that.
[00:48:04.540]We're kind of looking into how the arc money that the American rescue plan.
[00:48:08.120]And I was curious as if it could be used for the state.
[00:48:12.100]The ED had that demo program. Jeez, it might've been 10, 15 years ago.
[00:48:16.940]You guys might know about it, but it's super popular, right?
[00:48:19.820]Like that money went fast. That demo acquire and demo has been 10,
[00:48:25.080]15 years. And it would sure be nice.
[00:48:28.780]If the ARC money can be used for something like that.
[00:48:31.460]I don't know if it can or not come out to follow up there.
[00:48:34.220]And like you said, Megan, I, you know,
[00:48:40.920]this whole work from home or even school from home thing,
[00:48:44.500]I don't think a lot of that, some of that's going to stay forever.
[00:48:47.300]And so we've all had,
[00:48:49.760]work from home and the challenges of working and having your kids school from
[00:48:53.960]home is,
[00:48:54.600]has been interesting and having people reconfigure their home,
[00:48:58.380]their existing homes that have school from home or work from home.
[00:49:02.400]And I don't think that home that needs going to go away.
[00:49:05.700]Even with a smaller family, you're still going to have work from home,
[00:49:09.640]school from home needs. So the 1940s,
[00:49:13.320]one car garage, two bedroom house is not even going to work for a family of
[00:49:17.320]three. I don't think so.
[00:49:19.700]Unless they have a basement that they can work on or something,
[00:49:22.160]but we need to think better, smart,
[00:49:24.260]smarter about like Megan, these new designs with, with ADA accessibility,
[00:49:28.880]even for our lower income folks, you know, so.
[00:49:31.320]I know I played the work from home set up really badly.
[00:49:36.360]So I hope the rest of you did better than I did.
[00:49:38.640]I did not think through it well enough when I set it up.
[00:49:43.380]I think it'll be a couple of years before,
[00:49:49.640]we know what's the productivity of people working from home.
[00:49:52.880]Is it par with coming into the office?
[00:49:55.140]I think in a couple of years,
[00:49:56.740]you may see some shifts again a little bit,
[00:49:59.140]either they're going to stay with it or they're going to go back to looking
[00:50:02.980]for some space to rent or whatever,
[00:50:05.440]to bring everybody into the office to get more productivity.
[00:50:07.820]And maybe it just trades off between some aren't going to be as productive,
[00:50:11.840]but other ones are going to be more productive doing that.
[00:50:13.840]Right.
[00:50:15.020]I guess, Mike, though, the way I think about that,
[00:50:19.580]we don't want to, there will be settling.
[00:50:22.320]I would call that settling in a few years,
[00:50:24.320]but I feel like one of the benefits are great quality of life in our little
[00:50:27.760]towns like Valentine is that you want that to happen. You want,
[00:50:31.960]we want people to live in Valentine,
[00:50:33.920]but work for corporations in Omaha or Denver. Right. So, you know,
[00:50:38.120]I think we need to have housing,
[00:50:40.780]affordable housing solution that fit those needs.
[00:50:43.700]I noticed that like McCook has a coworking space.
[00:50:49.520]I would, you know,
[00:50:50.280]that's not something I associate with a lot of smaller communities,
[00:50:54.300]but that might be a, you know,
[00:50:56.780]a resource too that can make some of those smaller houses work.
[00:51:00.400]People get to leave.
[00:51:01.780]So you're not distracted by your laundry pile that you need to do,
[00:51:04.920]but yet you can do that from any community with decent internet.
[00:51:10.360]And we haven't even touched on building construction costs, you know,
[00:51:16.200]besides the lack of builders and what the construction,
[00:51:19.460]materials cost is right now, you know,
[00:51:21.460]what we could have done for 180,000 14,
[00:51:25.960]15 months ago unless it starts coming down pretty dramatically here is,
[00:51:31.040]is, you know,
[00:51:31.720]that goes about half the way it used to or maybe two thirds to three fourths
[00:51:36.240]the way it is, but building construction costs,
[00:51:38.720]I know several people either commercial or residential that are holding off
[00:51:43.840]because of that until things calm down a bit,
[00:51:46.360]which you would think then contractors would be available.
[00:51:49.400]Even some of the, like some things are just skyrocketingly expensive.
[00:51:55.860]Some things aren't available at all. They're still not, you know,
[00:51:59.800]our shipping routes are still disrupted.
[00:52:01.400]I see Don has his hand up. Don, do you have a question?
[00:52:07.760]Just to comment out in Banner County, when I was on the school board,
[00:52:13.060]we provided housing for teachers in the old dormitories.
[00:52:19.340]It was a really unique situation. Back in its day,
[00:52:23.760]there was a waiting list to get into those because people liked it so much.
[00:52:27.700]They were really cheap for one thing.
[00:52:29.880]They were right on the school ground so you could walk to work in Banner
[00:52:33.360]County, which is another good thing. But as time went along,
[00:52:38.260]even unmarried
[00:52:39.620]kid, you know,
[00:52:43.560]kid childless people would not rent those for $400 a
[00:52:49.280]month. They'd rather drive to Scott's Bluff.
[00:52:51.540]And it becomes about the social life I think is what that became about.
[00:52:56.220]But that was sort of a unique deal because there's,
[00:53:00.640]there's zero housing out there. It's really, especially now.
[00:53:05.640]I mean, there are, there are some people moving into the county,
[00:53:08.920]but there's zero available housing, no childcare, no,
[00:53:13.080]no services, anything like that.
[00:53:15.740]And those have to come along if we want a community,
[00:53:19.220]like Banner County to grow,
[00:53:20.620]those would be the things that have to come along with them.
[00:53:23.440]Absolutely.
[00:53:25.740]So we do also have a comment.
[00:53:31.100]Jamie reminds us that the South central economic development district,
[00:53:36.160]their home Nebraska videos have a lot of housing stuff in them.
[00:53:40.240]And so she's put the link in the chat for us.
[00:53:43.240]I do get a lot of advertising for stuff that they're doing and that that's
[00:53:47.160]awesome. I hope that's helpful.
[00:53:49.160]To you other questions or comments.
[00:53:54.980]I have had requests, Megan, for the copy of your slides.
[00:54:06.140]And I typically keep the recordings and if you'll share the slides,
[00:54:10.880]I can put those up and folks can access them.
[00:54:14.240]I know there's a few folks that couldn't make it today.
[00:54:16.120]We can put those in our repository.
[00:54:19.100]Absolutely.
[00:54:19.540]Awesome.
[00:54:21.940]I am looking for more topics.
[00:54:25.680]Are you guys still ready to do every two weeks?
[00:54:28.480]I'm just checking because summer is here and I wanted to know if you're,
[00:54:31.600]I know we haven't Chelsea gotten together on our intermediate week for our
[00:54:37.280]social hour, which I get, I I'm very busy myself.
[00:54:41.940]So tell me how, how you would like to proceed.
[00:54:45.140]You still want to do every two weeks.
[00:54:49.040]Do you have topics?
[00:54:49.760]How many communities have interns? Like I met, we had Victor and Connor,
[00:54:55.300]somebody else said something about it here on the call today.
[00:54:59.040]And I wondered if we could do a call where we would have interns report on
[00:55:04.600]what they're doing in the community and maybe introduce themselves and say,
[00:55:10.420]Hey, this is the project I've been working on.
[00:55:12.860]And this is what I found out. And, and even,
[00:55:15.420]I know it's been really informative to have Connor and Victor,
[00:55:18.980]and Valentine and a couple of young men that are doing an outstanding job,
[00:55:24.180]but have never been to rural Nebraska before.
[00:55:25.800]So they're trying to learn rural Nebraska as well as work on projects.
[00:55:29.240]So I think that might be informative to see what some of the,
[00:55:33.040]the impressions are from some of the interns and the rural fellows like we
[00:55:36.840]have.
[00:55:37.100]That is awesome. I'm sure that there's, I have a few of my own here in Shattern.
[00:55:42.540]I know, I know the chamber director in Wahoo and she is an exciting person as
[00:55:48.180]well. And Maggie,
[00:55:48.920]you probably know her as well. I went to college with T and so she has a good
[00:55:54.920]project coming in that mesh as well with Mike's main street project.
[00:55:59.420]So I could certainly invite them to,
[00:56:02.280]to take a look at the next couple of weeks. Is that.
[00:56:05.620]I'm not sure Victor and Connor, they can answer this,
[00:56:08.920]but I've had the opportunity.
[00:56:11.300]Connor has been working on developing healthcare workforce for our community
[00:56:16.740]and Victor has been working on daycare.
[00:56:18.860]And meeting with a lot of people in the daycare industry and working with
[00:56:22.940]our Valentine children and families coalition.
[00:56:24.860]So they could report on some of that. And there might be some tidbits.
[00:56:29.220]I think Amanda had said something in a chat about childcare and Emily
[00:56:34.700]shook.
[00:56:35.120]When we met at the RC and D meeting last week or something,
[00:56:39.140]Emily had said something about that in the Bassett area too.
[00:56:41.520]So maybe it's time to compare notes on that and compare if we're as good
[00:56:46.720]as Chelsea, Harry and an Alliance.
[00:56:48.800]Yeah. You're, you're better. I'm no expert.
[00:56:55.400]And I think Connor has taken,
[00:56:58.640]he's probably up to 10,000 photos by now of sunsets and fishermen and stuff
[00:57:05.680]from the area that we're going to edit those down and put them on a database
[00:57:09.900]where businesses can use those for their web stuff.
[00:57:12.340]And Victor did a really cool video.
[00:57:14.440]We seen the rough draft of a business in Valentine, relatively new business,
[00:57:18.740]in Valentine.
[00:57:19.480]And they're starting to work.
[00:57:21.700]They're both involved with a mentorship program at UNL that's been very successful.
[00:57:26.980]And so they're also, we just kicked around, I think, mostly this week, guys, wasn't it,
[00:57:32.000]that developing a mentor program for new startup businesses and for daycare providers
[00:57:37.940]and for healthcare workers to try to help them along the way.
[00:57:41.720]So they're kind of, we've got them going in a lot of different directions.
[00:57:44.840]Have you introduced Victor to Feakin?
[00:57:48.680]Yeah, with First Five.
[00:57:50.340]With what?
[00:57:52.100]With Mike Feakin with First Five Nebraska on the childcare stuff.
[00:57:56.500]I don't want him anywhere near Mike Feakin.
[00:57:58.340]All he said was, I'm glad I'm not a vegetarian because we fed him elk meat and deer meat
[00:58:06.840]and burger and fresh caught fish.
[00:58:09.260]So, you know, it's been a kind of a whirlwind, but it's been fun.
[00:58:15.040]So I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer.
[00:58:18.620]Let's plan on a couple of weeks.
[00:58:19.760]If Connor and Victor, if you guys are good with giving us our group an update,
[00:58:24.380]then does that work for you?
[00:58:25.980]Okay.
[00:58:28.160]And Jenny, you had somebody that might be interested.
[00:58:30.760]Do you want me to bundle them and do two communities in a session?
[00:58:35.760]Or do you think we've got enough topic for one community per session?
[00:58:39.840]Well, we don't want to reveal all of our secrets at one time.
[00:58:43.720]So, you know, we could probably do them all.
[00:58:46.060]And just I think it'd be interesting to hear,
[00:58:48.560]from another community and what they're finding out there.
[00:58:50.780]So, and maybe send out to the lists or if there's other communities,
[00:58:56.160]because I know, you know, how many rural fellow communities are there?
[00:59:00.700]Is there eight like that right now?
[00:59:02.580]I can look that up.
[00:59:03.700]Some of them have been on in our group.
[00:59:05.280]I will look that up.
[00:59:08.260]There might be some others out west that just aren't on the call today.
[00:59:10.760]Yep.
[00:59:11.420]I will, actually, we are the farthest ones west.
[00:59:14.820]You and us.
[00:59:18.500]I will look them up.
[00:59:20.100]Let's do that in a couple weeks.
[00:59:21.620]Yep.
[00:59:22.340]And then we can have them back toward the end of the summer.
[00:59:26.260]Connor and Victor are here through like the first week of August or something.
[00:59:30.420]So, you know, they could give us an update at the end of the summer and see if we've totally exhausted them.
[00:59:35.360]That's a great idea because I'd love to hear the accomplishments.
[00:59:39.460]I know our kids are going great guns already and we're just barely scratching the surface.
[00:59:44.380]But, yeah, by July we're going to be, we're going to have products.
[00:59:48.440]All right.
[00:59:51.100]That sounds good.
[00:59:51.900]Thank you, everybody.
[00:59:52.740]Thanks, Jenny, for organizing things.
[00:59:54.680]Thanks, Megan.
[00:59:56.760]Appreciate you joining us today.
[00:59:58.500]Anytime.
[01:00:00.200]If you want to talk about transportation, we can do that sometime too.
[01:00:03.180]That would be awesome.
[01:00:04.340]Sure. Thanks, everybody.
[01:00:06.720]Thank you.
[01:00:06.820]Thank you.
[01:00:07.900]Thank you.
[01:00:08.020]Thank you.

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Housing Research

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