Loren Lippincott
I recently attended the opening of a new home in Clarks that was built using funds from a state program called the Rural Workforce Housing Fund (RWHF). It allows state money to be loaned to builders on an interest free loan for two years or whenever the home is sold, whichever occurs first. This loan only applies to homes sold for $325,000 or less. (For rental homes the threshold is $250,000 or less.) Since builders operate on a narrow margin of profitability, this helps keep affordable homes on the market in the more rural parts of the state. Otherwise, builders tend to build larger, more expensive homes which provide them a larger profit margin. This leaves a housing gap for families looking for homes priced less than $325,000.
The program started in 2017 and is only for communities with populations less than 100,000. (Lincoln and Omaha need not apply, but they have their own such programs). In 2021, Grand Island received a $1 million grant from the fund that was matched with local money. GI received additional grants in 2023 and 2024.
To build the home in Clarks, local folks raised the match money over three months, bringing in from generous donors the $200,000 needed to get a two-thirds match. RWHF then kicked in $600,000 which will allow Clarks to build two homes each priced at around $275,000. The one I toured was a beautiful three-bedroom home with a huge walk-in closet in the master and a two-car garage.
Surveys show that when people move from place to place, the top concern by 42 percent of them is available housing in their price range. “Family” is the second most important factor, cited by 26 percent of those polled. Employment comes next at 16 percent. Once the location of the move is decided, the No. 1 concern is affordable housing, followed by the safety of the neighborhood, the new job, proximity to family and friends and finally whether or not the population of the area aligns with their beliefs.
A while back I visited with Grand Island native and developer Ray O’Connor. Soon after graduation from high school, Ray left Grand Island and joined the U.S. Army. After serving as a sniper in Vietnam, he returned to Nebraska and got his degree and then returned to his hometown in 1971, when the city’s population was 25,000. At that time the number of homes for sale was 950.
By 2022 GI’s population had grown to two times what it was in 71. Today it’s over 53,000. But from 950 homes for sale in 1971 the number had shrunk to just 78 in 2022, with only 18 of those homes priced at $250,000 and less. This situation has a negative ripple effect on the economy. A magazine cover Ray showed me on which a lady asks, “Why should I look for a job when there is no place to live?” says it all about the affordable housing crisis in rural Nebraska.
While 45,000 people move into our state each year, 50,000 move out, making for an annual net loss in population of 5,000. But the biggest part of our population problem is our declining birth rate. After WWII our parents and grandparents had 3.79 children meaning the average single-family home was occupied by six people. Today the average number of children per family in Nebraska is 1.92. That means that instead of being occupied by six or more people, the average single-family home has four or less. The result is that it takes more homes to house a smaller population.
In a recent sit-down interview Elon Musk was asked, “What is your chief concern at this time?” His answer was, “Our dwindling population! It has far reaching consequences!” Unless something changes drastically, these statistics point to a concerning future featuring a declining workforce leading to a shrinking tax base. While the solutions to this situation are complicated and will no doubt involve major cultural mindset shifts, in the short term, the RWHF is making a difference in many local communities and is a step in the right direction.
Loren Lippincott represents Legislative District 34 in the Nebraska State Senate. Read his column in the Nance County Journal.