But Still Good Things Happening in Republic County Housing
The Kansas Housing Resources Corporation (KHRC) on Friday, December 16th, announced the first grantees of their 2022 Moderate-Income Housing Program. Republic County’s application was not chosen, but there will be technical calls held to help improve the application and RCED plans to submit the application again for future rounds.
It’s not all bad news for the housing market in Republic County though. “While we are disappointed that the Kansas Housing Resource Corporation (KHRC) didn’t select our application at this time, our efforts were not in vain,” stated Jenny Russell, RCED Director. Russell went on to say, “The process helped RCED think through all of the many multi-faceted elements that make housing such a tough problem to tackle.”
Other good news on the horizon and items that came out of the efforts to formulate a the Moderate-Income Housing application include a private apartment complex building that is in the works, more citizens releasing unoccupied homes and putting those on the market, a housing program that will be starting in January to build homes through the High Schools in Republic County that have industrial arts classes, and a new revolving fund to start building houses as a service to the communities.
In 2020, the NCK Regional Planning Commission secured grant dollars from Dane G. Hansen Foundation for the area to start a down payment assistance program that included Republic County. This program was so effective that the available housing stock was depleted down to single digits. In recent weeks, for sale signs have started popping up in yards and the available houses for sale have risen dramatically. “I believe this is a credit to all of our Republic County citizens who have paid attention to the drastic need for housing and the new influx of people from the wind farm. Most of the best solutions to County issues come from the great people that live here,” Russell stated.
Another area where local citizens can help is to consider a donation into the new revolving program to build houses. Currently accepting donations that are tax deductible, the account will fund the building of a house and once that house is sold, the profits will revolve back to build the next house. Building housing in rural areas is usually not lucrative and that is why Republic County has not seen an overabundance of developers choosing to target the county. To consider a donation to the Revolving Housing fund, please contact the RCED office at rced@nckcn.com or call 527-2310.