OMAHA — A new house popped up suddenly last week in the Miller Park neighborhood of North Omaha.

It arrived by truck in huge chunks built by construction students at a nearby college specifically to fit the narrow lot where the components were assembled.

Holy Name Housing Corp. next will add on-site touches such as shingles, basement finishings and possibly a garage to the bungalow also designed by students at Metropolitan Community College.

If all goes as planned, the four-bedroom residence will be sold to a family for under $275,000, a homeownership opportunity in a high-rental pocket of one of the state’s more distressed areas.

Belying its swift, pop-up entrance — a captivating spectacle for onlookers — the house at 2452 Camden Ave. is the result of a lengthy and multi-organization process also involving an ‘at risk’ state housing fund intended to help ease Nebraska’s affordable housing shortage.

Housing For Middle Income Workforce

Matthew Cavanaugh is executive director of Holy Name Housing, a grant recipient of the state’s Middle Income Workforce Housing Investment Fund, which since its 2020 creation by the Legislature has distributed about $42 million to help multiple nonprofits develop houses in qualified older and urban neighborhoods of the state’s three largest counties.

The fund for Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster Counties is competitive. Holy Name over the years has been awarded a total of about $7 million, for which its private donors provide a partial match. The agency used recent grant funds to boost a revolving loan program that helps build homes such as the one that popped up in Miller Park.

A relatively new partnership with Metro offers a different twist: Holy Name pays for building materials while the students prepare the architectural plans and major housing components.

Holy Name covered the cost to transport the Camden Avenue house in sections from the college’s Fort Omaha campus a half-dozen blocks to the neighborhood. The bungalow was the second house produced via the partnership.

The idea is that repayment of loans into the nonprofit’s revolving fund will multiply the number of houses available for sale at relatively affordable prices. The targeted population of working-class homeowners is expected to help build stability and mixed-income neighborhoods. That ideally would lead to more jobs and economic prosperity in historically disinvested areas.

An even quicker benefit of the Metro partnership, said Cavanaugh, is hands-on training and enthusiasm-building provided to budding workers in construction trades — an understaffed industry he said is a key reason for high housing costs.

“They’ll be able to see the finished product, the contribution they made in a home that will be there for the next generations,” he said. “So hopefully it inspires students to continue to work in the trades … that’s what we’re excited about.”

The Middle Income Workforce housing fund has no income restrictions for homebuyers, but the Holy Name team says it screens applicants to weed out investors seeking to rent the property. Rules limit construction costs per house to no more than $330,000. A law change this year allows the grant funds to also be used to construct or renovate rent-to-own housing in qualified urban areas.

‘It’s All At Risk’

Continued state funding for the program has been in jeopardy in recent years.

With the state budget facing major shortfalls, the Appropriations Committee sought to cut $4 million from each of the Middle Income and the separate Rural Workforce housing funds.

Instead, the Legislature approved a one-time $8 million transfer from the state’s longest-running housing program, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, to help with budget woes. Unlike the two newer funds, that pot is fueled by a portion of the documentary stamp tax from real estate transactions.

“It’s all at risk,” Carol Bodeen, director of policy and outreach for the Nebraska Housing Developers Association, said of state funding for housing programs.

She said the last time the Legislature and governor committed new money for the housing funds was in 2022. Last year, the Legislature shifted $25 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to put in the two workforce funds.

State lawmakers have named affordable housing a priority, but less than a month ago the Legislature’s fiscal office confirmed Nebraska’s current two-year budget was back into a projected deficit of about $95 million.

Meanwhile, housing advocates hope philanthropy and other innovative housing programs will help fill gaps.

‘A Win-Win’

The Craftsman-style bungalow on Camden Avenue was the second house Metro has worked on with Holy Name, but the college’s students previously completed four similar residential projects.

Metro said 170 students were involved over the past year in creating the bungalow. The cross-section of students represented architecture, electrical, plumbing, building and construction science programs. Built in four modules, the house features a welcoming foyer with custom-built cabinets, a kitchen pantry and an open floor plan.

“Beyond the education and skills that they developed over the past year finishing the home, it’s a tangible place that can always be a source of pride for our students long after they complete their degrees at MCC,” said Andrew Henrichs, the faculty member who led the project.

Cavanaugh hopes for a continued partnership with Metro as Holy Name continues its focus on building up neighborhoods near the Fort Omaha campus.

He said Holy Name, which acts as developer and general contractor, is enthused to have fresh and creative student ideas complementing the agency’s other affordable housing models.

“It’s a win-win,” said Cavanaugh. “It’s awesome to give students that opportunity — and we get to see a new style of house designed by their architecture program.”

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/18/new-student-built-house-rolls-in...