Improving Rental Housing without Displacement

How can a community intervene in a rental market to improve standard of living without displacing scores of renters? That was the fundamental question being considered by municipal and nonprofit staff. Upon completion of the South of Downtown Redevelopment and Strategic Plan (adopted by the Lincoln City Council in February 2021), the City partnered with the South of Downtown CDO to create a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district in hopes that it would begin to generate future fiscal support for public improvements in the area. Two years later, the TIF district is generating $1.4Mn in annual increment for public spending in the area.

At the request of Urban Development Director Dan Marvin, the Directors of South of Downtown CDO and NeighborWorks Lincoln joined a small working group to explore, author, and implement a rental rehabilitation grant program that would be efficient to implement and ensure compliance. An outline of the program was vetted with area landlords and the working group was stunned to receive interest from owners and property managers representing more than 2,000 apartments in the study area (roughly 20x the anticipated annual capacity of the program). Incorporating that feedback, the working group fleshed out program requirements, application procedures, and scoped out a grant administrator role ultimate fulfilled by NeighborWorks.

The program launched in January 2023 offers up to $15,000 per dwelling unit to improve the quality of affordable rental housing by funding upgrades such as energy efficient windows and doors, additional insulation, roofing and foundation repairs, and other structural and life safety improvements. The first round of funding focused on 130 units in parts of the Near South and Everett neighborhoods in an area south of downtown bounded by Lincoln Mall, ‘A’, 9th and 17th Streets. It is anticipated that the City will fund the program at similar levels for a decade, resulting in the upgrade of more than 1,200 units in the area. The jury prioritizes grant applications based on the opportunity to increase a rental unit’s affordability, energy efficiency, accessibility, and safety. Participants have also been encouraged to take advantage of other available improvement programs, such as lead paint remediation, provided by the City, and energy efficiency programs offered by community partners like Lincoln Electric System and Black Hills Energy.

Full program DETAILS
Initiative implemented with NeighborWorks Lincoln