Omaha is one of up to 30 cities selected for a new nationwide housing initiative, Mayor John Ewing announced Monday.
The city is set to get between $450,000 and $750,000 in funding and technical expertise from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“We are committed to creating more affordable housing in Omaha,” Ewing said in the announcement. “This opportunity from Bloomberg Philanthropies offers our city another critical tool toward achieving that goal.”
Omaha’s efforts will be focused on the expansion of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.
ADUs are small, self-contained living spaces that share a property with a larger home — including a finished basement, an attached addition to a home, or a separate structure altogether.
The program in Omaha will be based on efforts in Austin, Texas, where city leaders allowed up to three homes to be built on a single-family lot and lowered the minimum size for a property from 5,750 to 1,800 square feet.
Researchers with the Pew Charitable Trusts wrote that ADUs helped expand affordable housing options in the city and noted that Austin is one of the few cities to see rents fall since the COVID-19 pandemic.
ADUs are not entirely new to Omaha — the city expanded potential development of the units in 2024 through zoning changes. However, Monday’s announcement said the city, “has not seen enough ADU production” due to financial obstacles and a lack of builders focused on building ADUs.
To improve things, the city aims to cut approval times in half and double production of ADUs, with the aim of seeing improvements in the housing supply within two years.