COLLECTIVE IMPACT LINCOLN

SUPPORT LASTING, MEANINGFUL, RESIDENT-LED INVESTMENT AND POSITIVE CHANGE

Collective Impact Lincoln (CIL) is a collaborative project between Civic Nebraska and Nebraska Appleseed, aimed to support lasting, meaningful, resident-led investment and positive change in six of Lincoln’s core neighborhoods. We focus on Belmont, Clinton, Everett, Hartley, Near South, and University Place neighborhoods, with Nebraska Appleseed’s emphasis on the Belmont and Clinton neighborhoods.

We’re always looking to connect with Belmont and Clinton residents, as well as housing advocates. Are you looking to get involved? Contact our CIL team Lizzie, Kasey, or Andrew!

LIZZIE TURNER

She/Her/Hers
Community Organizer
Collective Impact Lincoln

lturner@neappleseed.org
402-438-8853 x130

KASEY OGLE

She/Her/Hers
Staff Attorney
Collective Impact Lincoln

kogle@neappleseed.org
402-438-8853 x133

Place-Based Community Organizing

City-Level Advocacy

State-Level Advocacy

Speak Up for Housing Campaign

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PLACE-BASED COMMUNITY BUILDING

We help neighbors examine their communities’ natural strengths and identify new ways to improve through canvassing, community events, and advocacy.

A couple of the tools we use to do this are Community Builder Workshops and Mini-Grants. In the workshops, residents have identified issue areas or common passions on which they want to take action. The Mini-Grants, one-time grants of up to $1000, help the resident make their idea a reality. Some examples of these projects that community leaders, especially in the Belmont and Clinton neighborhoods, have worked on: Little Free Library and Little Free Pantry construction and stocking; neighborhood clean-ups, and a mural and a walk-by public art space.

BEHIND ON RENT is a short film by Lincoln filmmaker Gabriella Parsons that shares the stories of housing-insecure Nebraskans and their families amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

CITY-LEVEL ADVOCACY

POLICY SOLUTIONS

Collective Impact Lincoln works with City Council members to continue dialogue on affordable housing in Lincoln.

In May 2019, the City of Lincoln passed Ordinance 19-52, which adds new protections for renters and creates a better set of criteria for city inspectors to follow.

In 2020, we worked with the city as it developed the Lincoln Affordable Housing Coordinated Action Plan. We advocated for our top three policy priorities, which were ultimately included in the Plan. These policies include:

Source of Income Anti-Discrimination Protections

PROBLEM: Renters can be denied housing solely because they would pay rent with a voucher or other form of housing assistance. In Lincoln, voucher success rates from the Lincoln Housing Authority are currently running at about 74 percent. That is, 26 percent of voucher recipients in Lincoln are unsuccessful in finding housing that will accept their voucher.

SOLUTION: The city of Lincoln can strengthen this program by ensuring that landlords accept all legal sources of income as payment. This would allow Lincolnites with housing vouchers or other forms of rental assistance to utilize the resources they have. This protection for low-income renters is essential, especially as many households receive housing assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proactive Rental Inspections

PROBLEM: Lincoln’s current mechanism to ensure compliance with building and safety codes in rental housing is complaint-based. This means that inspections of the interior of rental units occur only after a number of complaints have been made by the tenants living in the units.

SOLUTION: A proactive interior inspection model would more fully ensure that building and safety codes are properly enforced. Such an inspection scheme would require periodic inspection of the interior of rental units, rewarding those landlords with units that are up to code with longer periods before follow-up inspection is required and giving more attention to those units not in compliance. Regular inspections of rental units helps protect the limited number of existing affordable units in Lincoln from deteriorating to the point of condemnation and destruction, while simultaneously protecting lower-paid Lincolnites from life-threatening violations of health and safety codes.

Inclusionary Housing

Inclusionary Housing is a significant tool that could be utilized to create additional affordable housing units in Lincoln. Inclusionary Housing policies require new housing developments to include a number of affordable units in exchange for cooperation and approval from the city and often include developmental incentives for. A feasibility study would allow Lincoln to determine how to design a policy specific to the needs of Lincoln’s housing market without discouraging further development. Feasibility studies look to previous housing developments within the city to develop pro formas and create models that allow for a requirement of affordable units, often in exchange for developmental incentives, to ensure that development remains profitable. Conducting a feasibility study would maximize utility in an inclusionary housing program without impacting profitability for development.

These policies have not yet been enacted, and we will continue to advocate for their adoption.

STATE-LEVEL ADVOCACY

POLICY SOLUTIONS

In early 2021, we also advocated for several housing justice bills before the Nebraska State Legislature, many of which were included and passed in LB320. That bill included the following changes:

What changes were in LB320?

1) Access to early termination of rental agreements for victims of domestic violence
2) Eviction data reports from the Nebraska Supreme Court
3) Require eviction filings to include a “statutory reason” so that tenants can know why they are being evicted
4) Updates to the Mobile-Home Landlord-Tenant Act to include changes that were made to the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act. Included increasing the 5-day notice to quit for nonpayment to a 7-day notice and requiring landlords to return security deposit balances without an explicit request.
5) Allow tenants and landlords to ask for one good cause continuance in eviction hearings. This increases a tenant’s ability to attend their eviction hearing.
6) Increase requirements for eviction hearing summons to a posting on the front door of the unit and mailed by first-class mail to a last known address.
7) Require landlords to provide 24-hours written notice for entering a tenant’s unit, except in emergency situations. This includes providing a reasonable period of time and reason for entering the unit.

COLLECTIVE IMPACT LINCOLN

SUPPORT LASTING, MEANINGFUL, RESIDENT-LED INVESTMENT AND POSITIVE CHANGE

LIZZIE TURNER

KASEY OGLE

CONNECT WITH US!

PLACE-BASED COMMUNITY BUILDING

CITY-LEVEL ADVOCACY

POLICY SOLUTIONS

STATE-LEVEL ADVOCACY

POLICY SOLUTIONS

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