- Omaha sees significant growth in 2024.
- Key infrastructure projects completed, boosting local job market.
- Community initiatives improve quality of life for residents.
- City officials optimistic about future development prospects.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It has been a pleasure to cover this area and get to share so many impactful stories with the community. This year we’ve seen a boom of infrastructure, from UNMC’s expansion, new apartment complexes, and community members working together to achieve a common goal.
We gave students a first look at the future of their campus and they were pleased with what they got to see:
“Is it going to be done in the next 5 years when I am here?” said Ph.D. student Arjun Subrramanya.
The new development will add student housing, an innovative hub called the “Catalyst,” and “The edge” district which will include a wet lab for drug recovery and oncology research.
“I think that’s the big, really good initiative that UNMC is taking to take care of the international students,” said Subrramanya.
Holland Basham Architects
And peace of mind that neighborhood staples wouldn’t be torn down for the new infrastructure:
UNMC crews have torn down multiple on leavenworth properties this month creating a stir of emotions in this neighborhood. Two of the properties were on each side of the bar and grill, fueling the confusion.
“We have not sold anything to the hospital and we are here alive and well, I think it’s funny that it’s just kind of the rumor around the streets, you know, and I can understand why because of, you know, the major transition of Leavenworth,”
Communities uniting to achieve common goal was popular this year and heading into the election. Grass roots movement ‘Blue Dot’ took the Dundee neighborhood by storm:
“It’s not about creating arguments or strife.It’s really, we have found is taken on a whole life and that’s about education,” said Jason Brown.
These are signs 412, 413,and 414. Jason painted them for supporters who lined up during our interview,
“We are people who don’t normally put signs in our yard. But this is so important that we didn’t feel that we could back out of this. So we decided to sort of jump on the bandwagon as it were and come. And if, if the last sign is taken as we’re talking to you, I’m mad at you,” said a neighbor.
Hannah McIlree
However, blue dot wasn’t the only group to emerge, Omaha Tenants United worked with neighbors that were struggling to get answers from their landlords:
“They came in, they would come in and say they did, but a couple of days later leak would show up back up. Our dryer, we had tape keeping the door closed. They would charge us $10 a month to clean the common areas,
Issues with landlords not making repairs in a timely manner and rent increases were top of mind for many community members:
Johnson set up camp in his living room and has been sleeping on an air mattress, he said management had failed to fix the problem for almost a month. Text messages with his landlord show he did report the leak on September 7th, and then again on the 8th and 21st.
“They were gonna replace it or we’ll come in and just add more dry. What! You tell me you gonna put some molded drywall, some some good drywall on top of molded,” said Johnson.
Hannah McIlree
In fact, concerns over affordable housing and renting conditions made their way to the city:
According to Zumper the average one-bedroom apartment in Omaha is about $1,100 a month up 9% since this time last year. And for a two-bedroom it’s about $1,500 a month that’s a 5.8% increase.
“The goal is not to house people, the goal is to make money and make money at a certain rate of profit that enables landlords to continue expropriating massive amounts of wealth from people,” said Seth Cope.
“I wouldn’t even call that affordable housing. I think that kind of sounds more like kind of like a, a joke. Don’t label it something and then be, be the other thing,” said Wilcox.
According to the City of Omaha’s 2023 affordable housing report for individuals making $25,000 to $50,000 a year, an affordable apartment is between $500-$1,000 a month.
Hannah McIlree
The majority of one bedroom apartments in these locations wouldn’t qualify as affordable under that report. However, every studio apartment in the buildings do fall in that range.
“One of our biggest challenges right now throughout the city, people are struggling to find affordable housing, whether that’s a single family home and a mortgage or whether that’s a rental unit or an apartment” said Festersen.
Thank for allowing me to tell your stories this year, I can’t wait to see what 2025 holds for Downtown and Central Omaha.