Bamesberger says funds a key factor in latest development
A $1 million Rural Workforce Housing Grant awarded to Hamilton County last year is having an impact in Hampton, where a new single-family dwelling is in the final phases of construction.
Karen Bamesberger shared visible excitement this week as she reported success in an on-going effort to provide housing opportunities to help the rural community grow.
“This is a big deal,” said Bamesberger, a liaison with Hampton Housing Solutions, a nonprofit entity formed in 2017. “It’s good for Hampton. We continue to need rental property, single-family homes and we need some apartment-like duplex kind of things.”
Finding available lots on which to build is a challenge, Bamesberger noted, so when a lot on 4th Street became available the housing group didn’t hesitate.
“It’s a lot between two existing houses and it just became available because the lady in one house died and she had an extra lot,” Bamesberger explained.
The previous owner, the late Azelda Henderson, owned a cafe in downtown Hampton years ago, along with her husband, Bill. Hampton Housing Solutions was able to purchase the lot at 545 4th St., with construction starting in June on a three-bedroom home expected to be completed in October.
“The interest is strong,” Bamesberger said of the 1,350 sq. ft. single-level home, which includes an attached garage. “We’ve put for sale signs up here and there and have had people call, so the interest is very strong. The house is framed up, but we can’t get windows now so I think there’s probably a three- or four-week delay before we can take more steps. We hope to finish by Oct. 1.”
The asking price, Bamesberger reported, is listed at $245,000.
“I think that’s a very fair price and it’s affordable for some of the people that want to try to get into housing here,” she said.
Gabe Hewen, president of the Hampton Housing Solutions board, said he hopes this project will be the first of many in Hampton.
“The goal of our group and the goal of any housing solutions group is to try to address any kind of housing demand that exists in the community, whether that be a new family moving to town or someone that’s new and joining our workforce,” Hewen said. “It’s good for projects like these to help address high demand. Obviously, this community has been a great help and I think it’s due to their generosity and contributions that have helped us get this project off the ground, and in the future hopefully others like it.”
Hewen and Bamesberger agreed that having access to Rural Workforce Housing Grant funds made a significant impact, helping keep the price of the house down while also utilizing a revolving loan fund that could be used for future projects.
“Projects like this could get done without it, but it certainly aids us and helps us in getting projects off the ground when that money is available for the community,” Hewen said. “So, when money like that becomes available and we’re able to use that grant money for things, that kind of motivates all of us to come up with more projects. The first step is securing that lot and once we get to that point it’s kind of an all-go from there.”
Hamilton County funds
As for how and when the Hampton housing group began exploring application for the grant funds, Bamesberger said she listened closely when the grant was awarded in April of 2021. At that time, Gov. Pete Ricketts and the Nebraska Department of Economic Development announced the recipients of $9.1 million in grants under the 2020 round of Nebraska’s Rural Workforce Housing Fund. Included in the list of 14 recipients was the Aurora Housing Development Corporation, which was awarded $1 million. Combined with $1 million in local pledges, that created a $2 million pool which was to be used as a revolving loan fund for future housing projects.
At some point within the past year, Bamesberger reached out to Gary Warren of Aurora, who helped prepare AHDC’s grant request.
“I told Gary that I was going to apply for some workforce money and if he’d help me I’d appreciate it,” she recalled. “He said he would make sure we get that because it’s for the county, not just Aurora.”
Jannelle Seim, AHDC president, confirmed that the Hampton application fit the original purpose of the grant request.
“When we started planning for the grant we looked at the original purpose of Aurora Housing Development Corporation, which was to provide affordable hosting to individuals in Aurora and Hamilton County, and decided to carry that intent into the Rural Workflow Housing Fund,” Seim said. “The conversation between Hampton Housing Solutions and AHDC has been on-going for quite some time. What I remember is they wanted to do a project and that we were hoping after the initial project at Streeter’s III and IV that we could do a project outside of Aurora, so it just fell together.”
As for how the grant funds are utilized, Seim explained that the fund was created to keep as much of the initial investment (including local contributions) working for as long as possible.
“We do this through low-interest loans to builders and developers who then repay the loan upon completion of their builds,” she said. “As we consider investing in projects, we are very careful of our choices in an effort to decrease our risk in losing the money that our donors have gifted.”
As the first applicant other than AHDC to apply for and receive the grant funds, Bamesberger said she felt it was a learning experience for everyone involved.
“We’ve been negotiating and designing (grant application) forms back and forth since probably April and we finally have everything in place,” she said. “Their general rule is that they will fund 70 percent (of the project) and then the builder, or the entity building the house, in our case Hampton Housing Solutions, has to figure out the 30 percent. It’s interest free for one year, and then it’s payment due in full.”
Coordinated housing effort
Bamesberger also noted that Hampton Housing Solutions is just one of three local entities working to provide housing opportunities.
“There is the Hampton Development Corporation, there’s Hampton Housing Solutions and then there’s Hawk Builders,” she said, explaining her role as a board member on the development corporation and liaison to the other two organizations. “To be most effective, we decided we need to coordinate our efforts. I’m not on the other two boards, but I attend meetings or at least get the minutes so I kind of know everything that’s going on.”
Hawk Builders was responsible for newest housing subdivision, having built and sold a new home on the last of six B Street lots in January of this year. The Hampton Development Corporation has focused much of its efforts on finding available lots, announcing in June the purchase of nearly seven acres on the west edge of town, referred to as the Wall farmland. When added to an alfalfa strip already owned by HDC, approximately eight acres between B Street and Highway 34 are now available for future development.
“There are a lot of people who say whey don’t you guys build a duplex or those kinds of things,” Bamesberger said. “That’s going to be my next challenge now that we have that Wall farmland. That’s probably what we’ll target next.”