LINCOLN — Nebraska U.S. Rep. Mike Flood held his first hearing Tuesday as chair of a Housing & Insurance Subcommittee, and introduced as one of the group’s testifiers a local face: Columbus city administrator Tara Vasicek.

Flood, a Norfolk Republican, earlier this year was tapped to lead the subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, pledging to try to find solutions to America’s housing crisis and provide more access to reliable insurance products.

In opening the Capitol Hill hearing, Flood described himself as a “straight shooter” who doesn’t “hide the ball” and who would try to be fair to all, regardless of political affiliation. He discussed a subject that he said touches the lives of every person, both on coasts and Midwest rural communities: the cost of housing.

In the hearing titled: Building Our Future: Increasing Housing Supply in America, Vasicek said she wanted to provide a local perspective.

She said Columbus has recognized that lack of affordable housing affects economic growth, workforce attraction and quality of life.

Despite what Vasicek called a “proactive approach” to increase housing, new production was not meeting demand in the town of about 24,500 in Platte County about 75 miles northwest of Lincoln.

She said the city has tried to remove local regulatory barriers, uses available incentives and has invested directly in housing development.

“Many cities have regulations that limit housing density. Columbus does not,” Vasicek said, and it welcomes such housing types as mixed-use and accessory dwelling units.

Columbus has tried to simplify infill development, she said, and is leading construction of a workforce housing subdivision with 325 units of various styles.

Vasicek credited tax-increment financing as “the most efficient tool available to Nebraska communities for housing development.”

TIF, she told the subcommittee, allows for the capture of up to 15 years of property taxes paid on the project’s improvements to use as funding to help build out the project.

The city also allocates a portion of local sales tax for economic development and in Columbus, she said, that primarily goes to housing.

Despite its efforts, Vasicek said, her city faces barriers to development that include rising land and infrastructure costs and complex state and federal regulations.

Vasicek said the federal regulations Columbus officials hear the most cost complaints about are EPA stormwater management policies.

She asked the subcommittee to consider more funding opportunities for cities that have embraced proactive housing policies.

“I strongly believe today housing is one of the greatest limiting factors to continued economic prosperity for our nation,” Vasicek said in her five-minute talk.

Citing the National Association of Realtors, Flood told the subcommittee that the median home price for an existing home last year, adjusted for inflation, was up 69% compared to 1995.

“The reason for high housing costs is simple: We are not building enough homes in this country to meet the demand,” Flood said. He said, however, the root of the housing supply problem is “trickier to pin down to just one cause.”

Among the causes, he said, are regulatory barriers at the state and local levels, including zoning and land uses policies, and the costs of materials and labor.

“For projects that use federal dollars, either through Low Income Housing Tax Credits or funds from a federal program like the HOME Investment Partnership, those dollars aren’t free — they come with regulatory requirements at the federal level that can make it more challenging to actually give taxpayers the best bang for their buck.”

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/briefs/columbus-official-talks-housing-cris...