Phase three of Shot in the Arm Program underway

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - For the last seven years, the North Platte Area Chamber and Development Corporation has taken steps to address the need for more housing.

“ The anticipation of the wonderful projects that are in the pipeline moving forward and all of the jobs that I know that are going to get created in two to five years down the road, we really need to be better prepared as a community to do everything we can on housing from A to Z,” said chamber president Gary Person.

More than 200 new housing units were built during the first two phases of the Shot in the Arm program, but Person said this only scratches the surface.

“A community of this size ought to have a healthy housing market,” said Person. “You need about a 120 to 150 houses on the market at all times to give people choices and we’re down to 22. Realtors tell me they’ve never, ever seen it that low.

The chamber hopes more developers will take advantage of the program before times runs out.

“The legislature has concluded their session and the new programs coming forward in the future have raised that threshold for single family housing to $325,000, which a lot of developers I talked to said, if it was there then it would become an attractive program for them again,” Person said. “So we are becoming increasingly closer to the deadline, which is still a year away, April 1, 2023.”

The funds are on a first come, first serve basis.

Applications can be found on the Chamber website at http://www.nparea.com/shot-in-the-arm-housing-incentive.

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