Communities gather to discuss, learn at Nebraska’s first Supportive Housing Toolkit Workshop

NIFA-sponsored event advances implementation of the Strategic Housing Framework effort to create 10,000 new units for special populations

LINCOLN, Nebraska – Communities from across Nebraska gathered in Lincoln on August 13-14 to learn about developing affordable housing at the Nebraska Strategic Housing Council’s Supporting Housing Toolkit Workshop led by BeauxSimone Consulting and sponsored by the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority.

Attendees at the first of four, two-day sessions included community representatives from North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings, Fremont, Lincoln and Omaha as well as representatives from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Nebraska Field Office.

Discussions during the workshop revolved around affordable housing, touching on how to determine need, the housing development process, affordable housing financing programs and structures, operations, budgeting, property management and leasing.

“Operations management, maintenance and compliance. Those are big items that you have to plan for on the front end [of a development],” said Kathy Mesner of Mesner Development.

Each participating community was also able to craft an individualized technical assistance plan, giving them the financial knowledge and technical resources necessary to develop affordable, supportive housing programs and projects that respond to the needs of their communities.

“What the [toolkit] really intends to do is help train and provide technical assistance to communities who are wanting to bring more units of supportive housing to their communities, and then really develop a pathway whereby, at the end of the process, they will have a very feasible project concept—they’ll have a timeline and funding sources identified,” said Katie Symons, CFO of BeauxSimone Consulting.

“The Nebraska Strategic Housing Council remains committed to the implementation of the Housing Framework and the goal of creating 10,000 new supportive housing units in the state,” said Shannon Harner, executive director of NIFA. “NIFA’s commitment to the Housing Council and the State of Nebraska is to support impactful, important work—like this workshop—that will lead to the achievement of that goal.”