Architecture graduate students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln dreamed up a new approach to Nebraska’s growing affordable housing needs. Now, they’re finally breaking ground.
The project — titled “Our Story” — will start with two affordable housing units built on one 4,770-square-foot lot in North Omaha’s Benson neighborhood. The size and price range of the homes are ideal for first-time homebuyers, aging residents or single families.
Around 60 people gathered on the corner lot for Monday morning’s groundbreaking ceremony. Project partners and city officials expressed excitement about new ways to tackle the affordable housing crisis, including Omaha Mayor-Elect John Ewing.
“What’s different about this one, from my perspective, is the level of collaboration, having the University of Nebraska system involved, having young professionals involved and students involved,” Ewing said.
Omaha’s newly-elected mayor said his administration would focus on community collaboration and neighborhood involvement — two things he said are critical for addressing Omaha’s affordable housing crisis.
“We’re not doing things to people, but we’re doing things with people,” Ewing said. “That’s going to be the mark of this administration, is that we are going to be working with the people of this community so that we can address the needs that we have.”
With rapidly increasing demand, Omaha’s Housing Affordability Action Plan states that the city will need 30,000 more units by 2030. About 60% of those will need to be affordable, meaning the occupants aren’t paying more than 30% of their income on housing.
Seventeen students from the UNL College of Architecture’s Fabrication and Construction Team, or FACT Studio, dreamed up the design plans. Architecture Professor Jeff Day said executing an affordable housing project is complicated, but students tackled the challenges well.
“Affordable housing occurs at the intersection of design, finance and policy,” Day said. “They really understood that putting all of that together is really critical for making it a real project.”
With design covered, finance and policy were left. A construction loan from Spark Capital will cover building costs, and Holy Name Housing Corporation will handle the construction. Partners for Livable Omaha is the project’s developer, fitting the Our Story project into Omaha’s other affordable housing initiatives.
Executive Director Jessica Scheuerman said FACT’s students brought a lot to the table.
“I worked with FACT Studio three times now, and it is always a delight,” Scheuerman said. “They create beautiful designs based on the constraints and challenges you give to them, and they’re eager to work in the real world. It’s a beautiful opportunity to leverage their expertise and their curiosity and their potential to create something that no one’s seen yet.”
Despite this being the first professional project for many of the graduate students, Day said they had many creative ideas.
“You know, sometimes it’s naivete that leads to really interesting ideas, because they haven’t done it 10 times before,” Day said. “So, working on a small, attainable house, they came up with all sorts of great ideas.”
Architecture student Paulina Garcia has one year left in her master’s program. She said the house is designed with energy-efficient heating and cooling, which reduces extra cost on energy bills.
“As future architects, it helped shape my values to understand what I want to focus on, what’s more important when it comes to designing a home, and that’s something I want to apply further in my future career,” Garcia said.
Starting in the spring semester, student Kayden Lichtas worked on detailed floor plans and renderings. Lichtas said it was interesting to take a project out of the classroom.
“Typically, studios are more imaginative projects to kind of get you ready for the workforce,” Lichtas said. “So, seeing projects like this that are actually real, and you get to work with people in the industry and make those connections, are very important.”
Scheuerman said the design is another real estate development tool to meet a wide array of homebuyer needs.
“If you’re trying to house an older adult, or an adult child or someone with developmental disabilities, or you’re maybe looking to create rental income, there’s lots of ways to leverage this product to meet an opportunity or a need that you’ve identified,” Scheuerman said.
Day said the homes’ modular design elements can be mixed and matched.
“Everything is built into one system of parts that are all prefabricated, and then the walls of the house are also factory made so that everything comes together in a kit of parts,” Day said. “That actually came from one of the initial student concepts and really made sense for moving this forward.”
Day said this design allows for different versions of the house to fit different needs. He also said the construction process could transfer well to the state’s rural areas.
“The fact that most of it is built in the shop actually means that we could work in a small town in Nebraska where there aren’t builders, or there’s no electrician,” Day said
Day said FACT’s fall cohort will focus on optimizing parts and come up with ideas for clustered houses that share an outdoor space. He says affordable housing projects are a great place for those students to start.
“I think it’s a really important space to be in, and I think for students, having some expertise in the challenges of affordable housing is going to really help them in the long run in their careers,” Day said.
One of the two houses has already sold. The second, smaller house will be listed for $150,000. Both houses are expected to be completed and sold by the end of 2025.
The post UNL Architecture students break ground on new approach to affordable housing needs appeared first on The Reader.
