Hastings city council reviews affordable housing plan amid rising costs

HASTINGS, Neb. — The Hastings City Council has reviewed its Affordable Housing Plan and the qualifications of where it should be in the future.

Officials say the housing challenges found in Hastings aren't unique and are seen across the Midwest and the country. The discussion allows the City Council to create a baseline of understanding the housing market to later form an action plan.

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According to Chad Bunger, Director of Development Services in Hastings, the cost burden runs more than thirty percent in a household.

“This plan will kind of lay out just how we’re going to bring more units to market with funding, finding developers, and different housing products that will be able to meet that affordability need in the city,” Chad Bunger said.

Bunger hopes this will give more guidance on how to tackle workforce housing.

“We’ll take this plan, it's really just a first step, and over the upcoming months and years, we’ll update it to make sure it’s appropriate and that we have a really good path for it on how to address housing,” Bunger said.

Bunger says the housing is there, but the challenge is that there are not a lot of home builders, plus the cost of land continues to increase.

“From there I believe a resolution will be passed next month to formally adopt and then from there it will just be some direction to the staff and to our area partners and then we’ll just bring back continuous updates to the council," Bunger said.

By law, Hastings has to adopt an Affordable Housing Action Plan by the beginning of next year, but the City Council plans to vote on it next month.

Updates will be posted when they become available.