ARPA called century's best chance to deal with housing shortage

NEBRASKA CITY – Nebraska City commissioners agreed Monday to send a letter of support to the Otoe County board for using American Recovery funds for an incentive for new home construction in the county.

They also discussed using ARPA funds for a housing program within the city.

Street Commissioner Vic Johns said Nebraska City has had committees and discussed the need for more housing for decades, but has not seen real production out of it.

 

Johns: “One of the problems is infrastructure costs. The cost to put utilities in. If we have this discussion, I want to bring the utilities in and ask how can we be creative for a chance. Let’s not talk about the stuff that happened 40 years ago with Wildwood and whatever happened there. Let’s start a fresh slate and a fresh discussion.”

Johns said the American Recovery Funds are a great opportunity to address an issue facing Nebraska City for 100 years.

City Administrator Lou Leone said an investment in housing will provide the city and county with a stronger tax base.

Leone: “There’s been numerous housing studies. I even have a copy of the last one from March and in there it was saying the city, in the next five years, would need about 110 to 160 houses – workforce houses.”

Leone: “As Commissioner Johns had mentioned, the ARPA funds are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The $1.29 roughly million that the city has and we can use that toward workforce housing.”