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Prairie Gold Homes promises to ease housing shortage
McCOOK, Neb. -- Community leaders working to resolve what has been dubbed a critical housing shortage in McCook are beginning to see progress on a couple of fronts. City Council approved an essentially rent-free lease in recent weeks for non-profit Prairie Gold Homes, which specializes in new home construction, coupled with a groundbreaking ceremony at the Clary Village Senior Housing development last week.
Prairie Gold Homes has since hired two construction managers. Their first class has been selected as well and is scheduled to begin the week of April 13.
McCook's longest serving mayor, Dennis Berry, joined the non-profit after leaving office to pursue a bid for the District 44 Senate seat last fall. Berry visited with the Gazette recently and provided additional details related to his motivation for supporting the project, as well as information addressing various criticisms and questions he has heard.
Prairie Gold Homes is in the early stages of coordinating their first McCook based home construction class consisting of Department of Corrections inmates. The 6-10 student classes will initially focus on construction of in-fill homes and eventually incorporate modular home construction as well.
The program is primarily funded through grants, gifts and the subsequent sale of the homes they construct.
Class enrollees will largely come from the McCook Work Ethic Camp, which caught the attention of Prairie Gold Homes Lincoln-based program with the quality of inmate/students the WEC provided to the program. In the event an application is accepted for an inmate from another Department of Corrections' facility the inmate would be housed at the WEC while enrolled in the program, according to Berry.
The program will not take jobs away from locals, explained Berry, who said in-fill lots and modular homes have seen very little local activity in recent years. Berry indicated that even with the Prairie Gold Homes training program there is still plenty of opportunity for development of in-fill and modular homes in McCook, should a local developer show interest.
The inmate training class also has potential to provide a skilled labor pool for local construction companies, as a "shortage of trained help is now happening," said Berry. Berry believes the majority of inmates graduating the class will return to their original hometown though.
Prairie Gold Homes will initially hire two to four employees in some combination of full or part time positions and local contractors will most likely be contracted to help with the project as well, said Berry.
Berry also touted the benefit from sales tax receipts stemming from local purchases, including materials and equipment. Business accounts have been established with local lumber yards as well as five other equipment type stores in McCook. Berry said the search for a car and trailer from local dealers is also underway, as is the purchase of insurance.
In-fill homes built by the program are projected to have a sale price in the $150,000 range.
"Last week there were only 17 homes on the market and most were not in that price range," said Berry, pointing out any new construction would enhance what is a shortage of houses for sale in McCook.
Prairie Gold Homes plans to initially focus on constructing in-fill homes to assist with the McCook housing shortage and will eventually construct modular homes as well.
"Modulars will most likely be sent to neighboring communities requesting them, which some already have," said Berry.
Although the non-profit will not pay property tax on the city building they occupy, all new homes built will have property tax assessed against them and broaden the local tax base.
Berry said inmates will be supervised by trained individuals throughout the process, similar to Work Ethic Camp crews of the past, and safety should not be a concern for area residents.
"It will be much the same, as when the community already had inmates out doing work in the community or attending the welding training," said Berry.
"Is this a fly by night type company? No. It has a long history of working with the Nebraska Department of Corrections. No inmate that has taken the training has returned to prison. Only one inmate selected for the program has been removed, and none tried to escape," said Berry.
Berry points out that approximately 35 percent of released inmates, none of which have attended a Prairie Gold Homes training program, return to prison on a subsequent offense. This is indicative of the savings Nebraska taxpayers realize from such training programs, given the approximate $35,000 annual cost to house an inmate.
Berry said the program falls right in-line with Department of Corrections' goals, intending to put the focus on providing education and making corrections to individual's lives.
"It is better to make inmates productive, positive taxpaying citizens, than have them back committing crimes and back in prison at the taxpayers expense," said Berry.
Berry said he has received criticism that he was making "big dollars" working with the company and said that isn't the case at all. He works a maximum of 10-15 hours a week for Prairie Gold Homes and said he is compensated at approximately the same rate as a line-worker at Valmont or Parker Hannifin.
Berry said he took the position to help correct the local housing shortage, expand the local property tax base, foster expansion efforts at the Work Ethic Camp, "and to a large extent to give the inmates another chance at life."
Berry is excited about the potential the training program brings to the community and said he encourages folks with questions to contact him at 308-340-3293 or email: dennis@prairiegoldhomes.org