Honoring the People Behind Nebraska’s Housing Progress

2026 NIFA Innovation Expo Award Winners

Innovation Expo | April 14-15, 2026 | Lincoln, Nebraska

Every year at NIFA’s Innovation Expo, we take time to recognize the people and organizations doing the hard work of making Nebraska a place where people can afford to live, put down roots, and stay. This year’s honorees represent the full range of that work: affordable housing development, homelessness system reform, rural community advocacy, and direct service. From Lincoln to Lexington to small communities throughout, this work is happening across the state.

We’re glad to celebrate it.

2026 Housing Hall of Fame

Fred Hoppe, Hoppe Development

If affordable housing in Nebraska looks different today than it did four decades ago, Fred Hoppe is part of the reason why.

As principal of Lincoln-based Hoppe Development, Fred has spent more than 40 years working to change not just the quantity of affordable housing in Nebraska, but the fundamental assumptions behind it. His work has challenged the idea that affordability and quality have to be a tradeoff; that if a project serves lower-income families, it has to be smaller, plainer, tucked away somewhere people won’t notice.

Hoppe Development’s portfolio spans the state: Lexington, Grand Island, Fremont, Papillion, Lincoln. Their projects don’t just add units. They build neighborhoods. The Tallgrass development in Papillion is a 600-unit mixed-income community at 72nd and Capehart, one of the clearest examples of that philosophy in action. Affordable and market-rate housing, side by side, in a desirable part of town with good schools and real community infrastructure.

The thinking behind that isn’t accidental. Hoppe Development has long pointed to research showing that lower-income families have better outcomes when they live near good jobs, schools, and opportunity rather than apart from them. That conviction runs through every project they’ve built, from Vintage Rows in Lexington, a senior mixed-income community serving households 55 and older, to Bluestem Commons in Fremont to Foxtail Meadows in Lincoln.

Nearly every project they’ve built has been done in partnership with NIFA through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. That work has produced homes for thousands of Nebraska families. As the driving force of Hoppe Development and newest inductee of the NIFA Housing Hall of Fame, Fred Hoppe isn’t just someone who worked in affordable housing for 40 years, he helped shape what it is and what it could be.

Making a Difference Award

Jeff Chambers, UNL Center on Children, Families, and the Law

Jeff Chambers has spent more than 30 years working on the systems that stand between people and stable housing. That work has touched more Nebraska lives than most people know.

As Senior Project Director at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center on Children, Families, and the Law, Jeff leads the Nebraska Balance of State and City of Lincoln Continuums of Care. That means overseeing the Homeless Management Information System, the coordinated entry system that prioritizes housing placement based on vulnerability and need, and the planning and evaluation work that keeps Nebraska’s homelessness response functioning as an actual system rather than a collection of disconnected programs.

In October 2018, Lincoln was recognized at the federal level for ending veteran homelessness. Jeff’s coordinated entry work was a key part of what made that possible.

More recently, he led a $1.3 million Youth Homelessness System Improvement grant from HUD to build a statewide network of support for young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. His stated goal:

Jeff also serves as Vice Chair of the Nebraska Commission on Housing and Homelessness. The Making a Difference Award goes to people who do consistent, unglamorous work that other people build on. Jeff Chambers has been doing exactly that for well over three decades.

2026 Housing Champion

Amy Thelander, Center for Rural Affairs

For more than two decades, Amy Thelander showed up for communities that don’t always make the news.

As Executive Director of the Southwest Nebraska Community Betterment Corporation (SWNCBC), Amy spent 21 years writing and administering grants, working through every challenge, and building affordable housing in a five-county rural region where the need is real and the resources are limited. Over her tenure, the organization secured more than $6 million in grants supporting over 300 households.

She also served as a Commissioner, and ultimately Chair, of the Nebraska Commission on Housing and Homelessness, bringing rural western Nebraska’s perspective into statewide housing policy. Holding both roles simultaneously, practitioner and policymaker, is uncommon. It made her more effective in both.

Amy retired from SWNCBC at the end of 2025 after more than two decades of service. Her impact on rural housing in Nebraska will continue to be felt for years to come. The 2026 Housing Champion award celebrates Amy’s career that was built on persistence, collaboration, and a genuine commitment to people in places that need someone in their corner.

Development of the Year

Union at Antelope Valley, The Annex Group

Downtown Lincoln’s newest affordable housing community is a $52.7 million, five-story building with 187 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments for households earning at or below 60% of the area median income. It sits at 1810 K Street, across from the Telegraph District, a few minutes from Memorial Stadium, The Haymarket, and Pinnacle Bank Arena.

For families navigating housing costs in Lincoln’s market, that location is meaningful. Being close to transit, employers, schools, and neighborhood amenities is part of what makes housing stable over time, not just affordable on paper.

The project was supported by more than $21 million in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity from US Bancorp and more than $25 million in permanent financing from Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust. NIFA was a central partner as the allocator of the state and federal tax credits.

This is The Annex Group’s second Lincoln community, following Union at Middle Creek, which opened in 2024. The Development of the Year award recognizes Union at Antelope Valley as a development that brings both quality and real scale to the capital city.

What This Year’s Awards Reflect

The 2026 Innovation Expo honorees represent something worth saying clearly: Nebraska has a deep bench of people doing serious housing work.

Developers who are rethinking what affordable housing can look like. Researchers and systems builders who make sure the right people get help in the right order. Rural advocates who show up for our smaller communities. And direct service organizations doing the day-to-day work of keeping people housed.

As Governor Pillen noted during the Expo, housing is needed for our communities to thrive and businesses to grow across the state. Every home built and every family stably housed is part of the solution.

NIFA is proud to work alongside all of them. Congratulations to the 2026 Innovation Expo honorees.

Nebraska Investment Finance Authority (NIFA) is Nebraska’s housing finance agency, providing financing and resources through a wide range of programs in order to increase the availability of affordable housing across the state. Learn more at nifa.org.