Too much vacancy
Lack of tenants hurts rural housing projectsBy JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer, jschramm@minotdailynews.com
Article Photos
While the oil boom is creating a critical shortage of housing in many northwestern North Dakota towns, a different type of housing crisis exists in some other Minot-area communities.
Two four-plexes owned by Upham's community housing board are for sale because of lack of tenants. Since November, only one of the eight, low-income housing units has been rented.
Doris Holen, housing manager, said without income to make mortgage payments, the Upham housing board has no choice but to sell.
"We are basically out of money right now," she said.
In Towner, the city's 48 low-income apartments are operating in the black but had a vacancy rate of about 40 percent earlier this month.
"We could use some tenants," said Mary Meyer, manager for Towner's housing board. "We are getting filled up. It's getting better, but we still have some issues."
The vacancy signs in the small towns stand in contrast to Minot, where homeless and low-income populations have had difficulty finding affordable housing.
Louis "Mac" McLeod, executive director of the Minot Area Homeless Coalition, said placements have been especially tough with an apartment vacancy rate reported to be about 1 percent. Although houses and condominiums are available, the prices are out of the range of the coalition's clients.
Area communities as far away as Devils Lake have let the coalition know of openings in their low-income housing. Upham has even offered to waive deposit fees to get tenants. But placing clients in rural areas isn't so easy.
"It's not just housing. It's transportation. It's childcare. There's other issues," McLeod said. "The majority of the people that we have been dealing with do not have transportation so putting them outside when they are working in Minot, transportation is an issue."
The coalition did place one family into housing in Max. Because of the distance from medical facilities and a grocery, they ended up moving back to Minot, said Karrie Libke, assistant director for the coalition.
Another issue is the size of units because many situations involve homeless families. Typically, low-income apartments in rural communities are one- or two-bedroom.
"It's very frustrating. I have lots of people that are looking for places, and unfortunately, most of them are families," Libke said.
The situation also has been frustrating for Upham, which doesn't want to accelerate the town's decline by eliminating housing. Holen said it appears from interested bidders that the buildings likely will be moved out of town.
"There's just no interest in anybody living in them," she said.
The lone resident of the four-plexes, Myrtle Sampson, has lived in the housing since 1997 and in the community for many years. If the building moves, she will have to find other accommodations out of town.
"To me, it doesn't really make any difference," she said. "Sure, I will miss the people."
Two years ago, five of the Upham units were rented to elderly residents. Not only are most of the residents now gone, but the school, cafe and grocery store also are gone.
"There's nothing here in Upham," said Sherman Brandt, head of the community housing board. "If Upham had a grocery store and cafe and a few other things, it would be no problem, but we don't have any of that anymore."
Upham is not unique, according to the USDA Rural Deveopment Office, which has financed low-income housing in communities of 20,000 or less.
Many rural communities built low-income housing in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, the towns have lost population and their need for housing has declined, the agency reported.
Under USDA rules, if no low-income applicants show interest, a community can rent units to people whose incomes would otherwise make them ineligible. Low-income applicants have priority, however, and can force out higher-income tenants.
Holen said people without income eligibility have shown interest in renting Upham's units for a few months. However, government rules require year-long leases.
Bowbells finally filled its 12 low-income units about six months ago. It opened its housing to tenants of any income two years ago when the vacancy rate was 50 percent, said Ron Freed, who recently stepped down as housing manager.
Some current tenants qualify as low-income, but many tenants are higher-income retirees or customs and border protection employees.
Freed recalled years ago when there was a long waiting list of low-income people. The waiting list evaporated with the drop in county population and the increase in services to keep elderly people in their homes longer, he said.
Fred Ruoff of Upham, who has worked with the City of Upham on grant projects, said the solutions to the problems of rural communities require creativity.
"If you let a town die, it's going to die," said Ruoff, who notes there are efforts to revive a cafe and convenience store in Upham.
"It's sad when there are so many people in the United States, not just North Dakota, that can't find housing," he said. "I still think it's a matter of looking outside the box."
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concerned
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08-28-08 10:07 AM
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I agree with SanDiego Mark to some point on having smaller towns with more industries, but he obviously doens't see what progress is going on in Velva, Underwood, and so on to name a few. The real problem with North Dakota is that what they bring to the stateis non-degree needed jobs and those who have degrees have to leave the state to get higher pay. There is no difference between wages at a fast food restaurant and a call center so more people are flocking to the call center. As a result, there is no difference between different classes in North Dakota.
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SanDiegoMark
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08-28-08 5:52 AM
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This is a good article and something that DESPERATELY needs to be discussed in ND. I think ND is one of the FEW states who is actually experiencing negative population growth and it's especially affecting the rural communties. As a person who grew up in Maxbass, it's almost painful now to go back there. No school, no grocery store, no gas stations, and just one church left out of 3 when I was there 30 years ago. It's downright depressing! People are leaving these communities because there is nothing to keep them there career-wise except the family farm and those are getting bigger and bigger and employing fewer and fewer people because of technology. So I would think the solution would be to somehow diversify the economy, i.e. bring new jobs/industry into these smaller communities so that people have something to keep them there. I spent 15 years in Minnesota and many of the small towns have some factory or industry so rural MN is in much better shape than ND.
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