Dorchester Times: Omaha Newspaper: Time To Tackle Nebraska's Rural Housing Shortage

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Omaha Newspaper: Time To Tackle Nebraska's Rural Housing Shortage

Even the newspaper editors in Omaha understand how bad the rural housing situation is.

For some time, this blog has reported on the housing shortage negatively impacting small communities like Dorchester.

We've also reported that between Dorchester's two major employers -- Farmers Co-op and Dorchester Public School -- fewer than 20 of approximately 100 employees live in Dorchester.

The problem is three-fold:

After the Great Recession, the only developers and home builders left standing are those focusing on high-income housing or huge apartments in large cities. The average new home in America last year cost over $450,000. In our area, the only homes going up in recent years have been those in the $350,000-and-over range. This is not middle-class housing for young families -- or at least shouldn't be.

Our property tax system, which levies taxes based on valuations, offer no incentive for property owners to sell or renovate abandoned and/or neglected properties.

Many rural communities -- like Dorchester -- have no housing plan. How is a developer or home builder to know there's a demand for new homes or housing renovation if the community doesn't inform them? As a community banker in Lincoln wrote last year: "In many communities, a large portion of the housing stock is pre-1950. ... Proactive community leadership must become involved to solve this issue."

Anyway, here's an excerpt of what the Omaha World-Herald's March 21 editorial has to say about rural Nebraska's housing shortage:

It’s a lament found in rural communities across Nebraska: We’ve got the jobs to be filled — but not enough housing to meet workers’ needs. Courtney Dentlinger, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, calls the housing shortage “a critical economic development issue in rural areas of our state.” A Nebraska Bankers Association task force lists various factors behind the shortage, including too few contractors and tradespeople; limited lot availability; escalating costs of new construction; and down payment shortfalls.

The editorial spotlights Legislative Bill 518 that could help address rural Nebraska's housing shortage with a $10.3 million grant program.

LB 518 is intended to take a one-time withdrawal of unused funds to encourage housing for Nebraskans whose income is above the level considered for affordable housing assistance but who still run into roadblocks in trying to find housing.

The Dorchester Times staff is fully aware that an Omaha World-Herald editorial or $10 million grant program won't really do much for Dorchester's housing crunch. But they do help us continue this conversation.

Ultimately, if anything is to happen on housing in our community, it will take serious effort on everyone's part, from elected leaders, school officials, investors, developers, builders, businesses and lenders. Maybe a it will take a group of younger families and individuals who, together, just decide to build on spare lots or renovate dilapidated homes.

It will take hard work, some risk and dollars. Wishing and hoping won't get the job done.

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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."