An Omaha nonprofit fills a unique need for people transitioning from a multitude of difficult situations.

The Furniture Project has grown from serving roughly 80 families a year to 728 last year, its first year with paid employees. Executive Director Matt Hoppe said that in partnership with another nonprofit, Restoring Dignity, they receive referrals from nearly 90 social-service agencies. This way, he said, they know the people have a genuine need and are getting other assistance as well.

In addition to others, Hoppe said, they hear from groups serving immigrants, refugees and survivors of domestic violence or human trafficking.

"They're fleeing, they don't have anything," he said, "and so what we are trying to become here - and what we've done a pretty good job of - is to become the one-stop shop for all of those types of items that make a space a home."

Omaha firefighter Drew Gerken founded The Furniture Project nearly nine years ago after meeting a family with literally no furniture while on a call. Gerken ran it until last year with help from colleagues and friends. Hoppe said although they don't yet have the trucks or manpower to deliver great distances, they'd work with interested Greater Nebraska agencies that could pick items up from their warehouse.

Hoppe said they typically can provide most of the basics to furnish a small apartment or house, including housewares and small appliances.

"If there are four in the family, we'll provide them four seats," he said, "so whether that's a couch and a chair, two loveseats, a loveseat and two chairs."

Hoppe stressed that The Furniture Project also serves as a support group for the other agencies from which it gets referrals.

"We're able to provide all of those items, we're able to go set it up," he said. "So, the social workers can focus on what their job is, rather than to focus on this other thing, which is, it's a basic human need."

The Furniture Project accepts furniture in good condition from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Hoppe said they especially need couches, dressers and mattresses, and will pick items up when they can.


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A coalition of advocates is using a novel approach to address the housing shortage in Missoula, helping renters become owners.

Prices and availability continue to be a problem in Montana.

Neighborworks Montana and the North Missoula Community Development Corporation are expanding the co-op concept in Missoula, notorious for its housing shortage.

Neigborworks Montana Executive Director Kaia Peterson said co-ops are successful because they hire the property management company that works for them.

"So, these are existing apartment buildings, and what we're doing is instead of an individual investor owning that building, we're helping the residents form a cooperative," said Peterson. "So, the residents are creating a business together - in the business form of a cooperative - and that cooperative buys and owns and operates the building."

Co-op ownership eliminates the possibility of an investor buying the building and increasing rent if the property value increases. The group hopes to replicate the model across Montana.

North Missoula Community Development Corporation's Executive Director Brittany Palmer said the co-op model also keeps the property in local hands and allows residents to decide, collectively, how to best use the money people are paying to live there.

"Them hiring the property management company that works for them, rather than for a landlord," said Palmer. "It goes towards also things like maintenance which they get to decide when and what maintenance and repairs are made."

The corporation owns the land underneath the buildings, so even if the co-op dissolves in the future, the corporation still decides what happens with the property. They've produced a documentary about Missoula's first co-op called Wolf Avenue Collective.

The Utah Foundation polled municipal officials across the state to gain their insights into affordable housing. The report found many officials feel they face barriers when attempting to introduce more affordable housing into their communities - and they say those barriers often come from residents.

Shawn Teigen, president of the Utah Foundation, said anxieties people may have around affordable housing may not be accurate.

"When we think about affordable housing, we think about more density. And that comes along with perhaps more traffic. And that may not be reality, but that's what a lot of people are thinking about," Teigen said.

However, those anxieties can create restrictions for those who advocate for more diverse housing options. In the survey, 79% of respondents said municipal officials pursuing affordable housing over residents' concerns face political consequences. Teigen added some officials must choose between fighting for their beliefs in the need to make housing more affordable - and remaining in office to help their constituents with other matters.

The Foundation says its report was not designed to offer specific solutions, but to illuminate the issues Utah residents face today.

Drew Maggelet, director of housing for the Call to Action Foundation, one of the report's sponsors, said affordable housing is something everyone believes in. It's the placement, standards and implementation they may disagree on.

"There is not really a coherent or clear path forward as it concerns the best way to do this. There's a very large discrepancy between what people consider 'affordable.' There is a very large discrepancy about how to fix it," he explained.

The report polled officials in communities of at least 5,000 residents and examined populations across the state. One option being discussed is making changes to zoning policies for so-called "middle housing" - a strategy that includes allowing multifamily housing in established single-family neighborhoods.

A new design competition is looking to find better housing for Fargo's aging population.

Like many other states, North Dakota has a growing number of people increasingly burdened by their own homes. Oftentimes, they want to stay in their communities but their properties might be too large, too expensive to maintain or too unsafe to occupy.

Janelle Moos, associate state director of advocacy for AARP North Dakota, said there are not enough options for people looking to downsize.

"A lot of housing and zoning has really promoted single family homes or very large scale apartments," Moos explained. "We've kind of lost that middle ground to say, 'There are other types of housing that exist and can coexist and what people want, right?'"

AARP is asking interested architects, designers, builders and students to submit designs for those midlevel units, including a duplex, triplex or cluster subdivision. Moos pointed out the goal is to show off the viability of age-friendly homes and hopefully come away with some plans for future development.

More than 65% of North Dakota residents named housing as the state's biggest overall need in a survey last year.

The competition closes in early October and the winner is eligible for a cash prize. Moos noted people can then hire the designer, obtain a building permit and begin construction.

"The hope is that it's not just a conversation and it's not just a hypothetical," Moos emphasized. "We want to come away with several really viable, buildable, missing middle housing plans with universal divine design elements. So, by that I mean truly age-friendly."

Judges and advisers include government officials, design experts and architects from across the state. Nationwide, one group estimates a need for more than 800,000 senior housing units by 2030.