No matter our race, gender, or income, we all want to live in a safe and decent home in a vibrant community. But too many Lincolnites are struggling to keep a roof over their heads as the costs of housing, health care, and food go up while our incomes stay the same. When we build and preserve housing that people at every income level can afford, we can make sure everyone in our community can live and thrive here.
In 2019, the city of Lincoln commissioned a study of affordable housing in the city, which was adopted by the city council as the Affordable Housing Coordinated Action Plan (AHCAP or the Plan) in late 2020. The Plan confirmed what Collective Impact Lincoln1 has heard directly from residents for years: housing quality and affordability is a major challenge for many Lincolnites.
The Plan also offered important and useful information about Lincoln’s affordable housing needs. Most crucially, the Plan outlined the number of housing units the city needs at different price points by the year 2030, including the need for nearly 5,000 additional rental units that rent for $1,000 per month or less, with nearly half of those units renting for $500 or less.2
As we close in on reaching the halfway mark since the Plan’s adoption, Collective Impact Lincoln is concerned about the city’s ability to meet these needs. According to the city’s Affordable Housing Progress Report, only 1,283 new affordable housing units have been constructed since 2020. In addition, the city’s progress report mixes homeownership and rental units, despite those needs being separately articulated in the Plan. It’s unclear how many of these newly constructed units meet the AHCAP affordability goal of renting for $1,000 or less.
Even assuming that all of the 1,283 newly constructed units fall within the affordable price range outlined by the Plan, and that all of those units are rental units, Lincoln is less than a fifth of the way to meeting the needs for low income renters outlined by the Plan. If we were on schedule, we would have had 2,000 newly constructed rental units that rent for $1,000 or less built by the end of August 2024. According to the progress report, we are only 65% of the way to where we need to be at the end of August 2024.
Unfortunately, the city’s Affordable Housing Progress Report is not tracking progress towards the AHCAP goal of adding 5,000 new units that rent for $1000 or less by 2030. Instead, it’s tracking progress towards the goal announced by the mayor in her 2020 state of the city address, which is to provide 5,000 new or rehabilitated affordable housing units by 2030. Including rehabilitated units in the overall goal risks significantly underachieving on the creation of new units. While the mayor announced in her 2024 state of the city address that the city is ahead of schedule in meeting this different goal, it is important to note that we are falling behind in our efforts to meet the goals laid out in the Plan. We applaud the city’s efforts to rehabilitate dilapidated rental units and consider it a key strategy to support affordable housing in the city of Lincoln, as does the AHCAP. In fact, the Plan contemplates that Lincoln can only afford to lose 600 units between 2020 and 2030, emphasizing the importance of rehabilitating units when they become uninhabitable. As the Plan states:
“Homes in poor condition or that are obsolete should be gradually replaced in a city’s housing supply. The number of units lost annually is based on historic demolition trends. While some units will be lost, the first priority should always be on saving units as these are often the most affordable units in a city.”3
However, even though rehabilitation is vitally important to maintaining Lincoln’s existing affordable housing stock, rehabilitating existing affordable units does not add new affordable units to the city’s housing ecosystem. It is essential that the city is tracking the number of housing units that are or have been lost between 2020 and 2030, and continue to rehabilitate affordable units to prevent their loss. But those efforts must be in addition to the goal of adding 5,000 new rental units that rent for $1,000 or less.
When discussing this issue with Lincolnites across the city, our neighbors are concerned about the reporting on The Plan’s progress, as they are the ones who see new “affordable” housing go up that doesn’t seem “affordable” to them. Carina McCormick, a renter in the Near South neighborhood shares,
“Our neighbors deserve housing that is affordable, safe, and healthy. The city identified a dire need for an increase in affordable housing and has an obligation to see it through. Our city can’t wait for the increase in affordable housing we were promised. These are real families who currently can’t access safe and healthy housing due to rental prices being out of reach, and the slowness of the city to deliver on its promises has a huge impact on their lives.”
Collective Impact Lincoln will continue to monitor Lincoln’s progress toward the needs as outlined by the AHCAP, as we believe it to be the most comprehensive and credible resource to use in addressing Lincoln’s critical housing needs If, like us, you are concerned about the progress we are making as a city and the ways that progress is being tracked, we encourage you to reach out to the Mayor’s office or your city council representatives. Share this information with the people around you. Lincoln is strongest when everyone is able to live in a safe, stable home, and we must continue to ensure everyone has a place to call home.
- Collective Impact Lincoln is a partnership between Nebraska Appleseed and Civic Nebraska. ↩︎
- RDG Planning & Design, City of Lincoln, Nebraska: Affordable Housing Coordinated Action Plan, 44 (Dec. 21, 2020), https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/2/urban-development/lincoln-affordable-housing-coordinated-action-plan.pdf. ↩︎
- Id. at 43. ↩︎