City's Housing Authority dedicated to affordable quality

Affordable housing is in high demand in Sidney.

The city's housing authority works to provide quality affordable housing for Cheyenne county residents with limited incomes.

The housing authority is responsible for the administration of Sioux Villa and Western Heritage apartment complexes in Sidney. Sioux Villa, located on the north side of town has very low rent, but no income restrictions. Western Heritage, located on the south side of town, is income restricted.

The housing authority is responsible for making sure those managing these two complexes are taking care of the needs of residents. At yesterday's housing authority board meeting, board members discussed the abundance of applications the complexes receive from potential residents.

"We have lots of applications coming in for Western Heritage," said Nancy Bentley, executive director. Some of the units at Western Heritage have been remodeled.

Sioux Villa is also in high demand.

"It's a very popular place to live," Bentley said.

Around 25 percent of the applicants are denied, she said. The housing authority doesn't do credit checks.

"We believe that everyone deserves a second chance, perhaps on that credit," Bentley said.

The housing authority does check with former landlords and completes home visits if applicants don't have a rental history. Most of the people who apply are already living in Sidney. Some of those searching for low income housing are currently living with other families in Sidney. Some people are denied because of criminal background and some are denied because of their rental history.

The board is always working to improve their low income housing, but sometimes funding is an issue. They're currently working to weatherize some of the buildings at Western Heritage.

Bentley brought before the board the possibility of applying for a housing preservation grant to take a certain number of buildings or units and rehabilitate them. There were some concerns from other board members that since it's a preservation grant, there would be problems if they want to tear down the buildings in the future.

"I think it's worth exploring, that's why I brought it to the board today," Bentley said.

She'd like to be able to put in electric furnaces and new plumbing. Another option would be to do a complete rehabilitation of a certain number of buildings. If they used the grant, the housing would have to be reserved for low and very low income individuals. One person making $11,000 or less per year is considered very low income. The housing authority does have residents who would qualify for this.

"The most bothersome thing to me is, once you do preservation how do you get out of it if you need to," said board member Tamara Nelsen.

Board member, Scott McDaniel agreed that a preservation grant deserved some additional research.

"If we can spruce them up and make the whole area more presentable and not handcuff ourselves, I think it's worth exploring," McDaniel said.