HUMBOLDT — Folks will have an opportunity Tuesday to see how the Humboldt Affordable Housing program is upgrading the town’s housing stock.
Tours are from 4:30 to 7 p.m. through the program’s first project, a house at 1317 Neosho St.
The house was thoroughly remodeled and reconfigured; everything to make it a “good starter home for people in the work force,” said Cole Herder, city administrator and member of HAF.
A $100,000 grant from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation helps provide “gap financing,” Herder said. “It’s not uncommon for the cost of a house plus rehab to be more than the appraised value,” he said.
Humboldt Affordable Housing lowers that hurdle by providing “forgivable” financing.
The group, with private investment, purchased the house and then went about modernizing it. When all was completed, HAF had about $62,000 in the house, which is its sale price. Potential buyers likely will have to put up about 20 percent of the cost for a down payment, with HAF stepping in to fill the gap between cost and appraisal. If the purchaser stays on board, HAF’s contribution will be forgiven, at 20 percent a year.
Once the house is sold members of the Humboldt group will use the proceeds, and additional investments if necessary, to purchase another home to remodel and put on the market. The hope is to do a home every six to eight months.
Over time investors expect to recoup some or all of what they put into the project, to provide more affordable housing and stoke the local economy.
THE HOUSE was built in the late 1880s and has had numerous changes and upgrades over the years.
When the housing group purchased the house it had three bedrooms and one bath and needed substantial improvements in utility systems, as well as cosmetic tweaking.
“We decided to make it two bedrooms and two baths, with the master bath really nice,” Herder said. “It looks like a different house now, with the enhancements making it much more usable. The detached two-car garage also was given attention.
“It’s a milestone for Humboldt” in efforts to increase housing stock and give the several hundred people working at its two major industries, B&W Trailer Hitches and Monarch Cement, another option for modernized homes, he said.
