Lincoln is increasing its financial support for Hope Village as construction moves forward on an 18-home community designed primarily to provide affordable, permanent housing for people leaving incarceration.
The city’s contribution to the Bridges to Hope project has increased from $100,000 to nearly $137,000. Bridges to Hope Executive Director Rhonda Mattingly told KLIN News the city has also donated the property near North 27th Street and Leighton Avenue.
Mattingly said some of the city funding has helped cover unexpected costs discovered after work began at the site. Crews found cinder block, footings and other remnants of a previous structure buried beneath the property that had to be removed. The city also helped pay to pave a gravel alley running alongside the village, donation center and community center.
Construction of the homes themselves is beginning to take shape. “We have foundations poured for eight of the tiny homes,” Mattingly said. “We’ve got slabs and framing and trusses ready to go for the first two homes.” She expects work on those first two homes to begin within the next few weeks.
Hope Village is intended primarily for people transitioning out of incarceration, and some of the people within Nebraska’s correctional system are helping build it. Mattingly said incarcerated workers at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution are constructing frames that will be transported to Lincoln, while Bridges to Hope hopes to use a work-release crew for additional work at the site. “The people that are going to benefit from this project are actually helping to build this project,” Mattingly said.
Those partnerships, along with donated labor and materials, are also helping Bridges to Hope keep rents low. Fourteen of the homes will be about 300 square feet, two will be approximately 400-square-foot one-bedroom homes and two will have two bedrooms at roughly 500 square feet. Rent will be set at $1 per square foot. “The maximum at this village that anybody will pay is $500 a month, plus their utilities,” Mattingly said. “That is what I call affordable housing.”
The project is designed as permanent supportive housing rather than transitional housing, meaning residents will not face a deadline to move out. The accompanying community center is expected to host peer-support groups and connect residents with services including financial literacy and help building resumes. Bridges to Hope is also working with Lincoln Public Schools and local therapists on a prevention program for children who have loved ones who are incarcerated.
Mattingly said she hopes the idea behind Hope Village ultimately reaches well beyond the Lincoln project. “My prayer is that it will be contagious,” she said, adding that similar communities could potentially serve homeless veterans, the broader homeless population and even retirement communities.
Bridges to Hope is still raising money to complete the project. Mattingly said the organization has raised about $700,000 toward a $1 million capital campaign goal and continues to seek financial, material and labor donations from the community. More information about donations can be found here.