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By ALICIA FEYERHERM
Tiger Media Network
The Hays City Commission reviewed a recently conducted Hays Housing Study during Thursday’s commission meeting.
Assistant City Manager Collin Bielser said there are several reasons a city might undertake a housing study. A housing study is required if the city plans on implementing a Rural Housing Incentive District (RHID) and Hays currently has five or six RHIDs. City policy also dictates that the housing study should be updated every three years.
Contractor RDG performed the housing study in 2022 and was also contracted for the study this year. Bielser said one of the challenges of these studies is that Hays is a college town and while most college students leave after four years, it’s hard to predict that churn rate. He also pointed out that several of the statistics are based on Census data and the last Census was in April of 2020, when most universities were shut down for COVID.
“There are a lot of assumptions that go into this,” Bielser said.
One of the biggest areas of need identified was low-income housing, but it is difficult to entice developers to invest in low-income housing.
“A lot of the low-income housing comes with long-term federal obligations and federal requirements,” City Manager Toby Dougherty said. “It’s kind of an onerous process.”
Bielser said Kansas used to have a matching component for low-income housing developers, but that was scaled back significantly. Only one project in Hays that applied for low-income housing incentives received state funding. Two other projects were denied.
Ruder applauded the work that has been done despite the funding challenges.
“We get sometimes railroaded by state and federal cuts that are unnecessary for programs that are supposed to solve some of these problems,“Commissioner Mason Ruder said.
However, incentives only go so far.
“More than incentives are needed in order to make that (building low-income housing) work,” Bielser said. “It would probably be a cash infusion.”
Mayor Sandy Jacobs noted this is not a problem unique to Hays, and Commissioner Shaun Musil said the commission is open to suggestions.
“If anybody in the community has a way to do it (provide more low-income housing), let us know, because I don’t feel like there’s any other way without us raising mills to subsidize,” Musil said.
Ruder was hesitant to consider a cash infusion.
“I just don’t see incentive-wise, or what we can do from this area (as a commission), to incentivize it any more without throwing cash at it, which I don’t think is the right way to do things,” Ruder said. “I don’t think we should raise taxes to throw cash at private projects.”
Executive Director of Grow Hays Doug Williams explained that addressing the affordable housing shortage actually starts with building more mid- to higher-end units. This would allow current residents of affordable housing to move up, freeing those units for others.
“That’s how you open up affordable housing, whatever that is,” Williams said. “You’re not going to build it without significant subsidy.”
Commissioner Alaina Cunningham acknowledged that while there is work to be done, there has still been significant development and improvement.
“As a community, as a whole, we are really trying to hit all of the needs and all the different options,” Cunningham said.
During the meeting, the commission also hosted a public hearing for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) request by One Twenty Seven Investments LLC. The developer wants to renovate the second floor of 1012 Main Street into three Airbnb units.
The next City Commission meeting will be at 4 p.m. on August 14 at City Hall.