{"id":88015,"date":"2025-07-25T08:24:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T13:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=88015"},"modified":"2025-07-25T08:25:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T13:25:03","slug":"city-commission-reviews-housing-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=88015","title":{"rendered":"City Commission reviews housing study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stock image<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By ALICIA FEYERHERM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hays City Commission reviewed a recently conducted Hays Housing Study during Thursday\u2019s commission meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of assumptions that go into this,\u201d Bielser said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of the low-income housing comes with long-term federal obligations and federal requirements,\u201d City Manager Toby Dougherty said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of an onerous process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruder applauded the work that has been done despite the funding challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get sometimes railroaded by state and federal cuts that are unnecessary for programs that are supposed to solve some of these problems,\u201cCommissioner Mason Ruder said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, incentives only go so far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore than incentives are needed in order to make that (building low-income housing) work,\u201d Bielser said. \u201cIt would probably be a cash infusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Sandy Jacobs noted this is not a problem unique to Hays, and Commissioner Shaun Musil said the commission is open to suggestions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf anybody in the community has a way to do it (provide more low-income housing), let us know, because I don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s any other way without us raising mills to subsidize,\u201d Musil said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruder was hesitant to consider a cash infusion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t 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\u2019t think is the right way to do things,\u201d Ruder said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we should raise taxes to throw cash at private projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how you open up affordable housing, whatever that is,\u201d Williams said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to build it without significant subsidy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioner Alaina Cunningham acknowledged that while there is work to be done, there has still been significant development and improvement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a community, as a whole, we are really trying to hit all of the needs and all the different options,\u201d Cunningham said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next City Commission meeting will be at 4 p.m. on August 14 at City Hall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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