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Notre Dame Housing
3439 State Street, Omaha, NE 68112
3439 State Street
www.notredamehousing.org
https://www.facebook.com/ndhomaha
Sandra Koch
Vice President Advancement
skoch@notredamesisters.org
+1 (402) 455-2994
Yes
The leadership team for this project includes our executive committee and finance committee of the board, project manager, property management representative, maintenance staff, consultant, and Notre Dame Housing (NDH) Leadership. The finance committee is made up of accounting and finance professionals who have decades of experience in banking, finance and accounting. In addition, some have experience in overseeing construction management projects. Members include Cindy LaPole, Jay Sudbeck, Sandra Koch, and John Griffith. The committee will be responsible for the overall project, ensuring project expenses and variances are within board approval parameters. We have engaged a designer Lisa Collingsworth with The Interior Design Firm to ensure design meets with best practices for our community. Our property management company, Dial Properties Management (DP Management), has been in the property management and development business in the Midwest for more than four decades-managing dozens of properties and hundreds of units. They have the staff and expertise to assist in the overall design and construction of the project and will have staff on site as needed. Our property maintenance staffs have been involved with the property for over 30 years and have been involved with all the aspects of converting the building to senior affordable housing. Rene Ramirez, who is now part of the Dial property management team, has extensive knowledge of this historic building, having worked on every mechanical system in the buildings.
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Notre Dame Housing has grown physically and internally since it was established in 1997. Twenty-five years ago, the Notre Dame Sisters, as sponsors of the project, converted their Motherhouse and former school into apartments, forming its own nonprofit. NDH was established to meet a critical need for affordable housing for older adults in this part of the community. The residents pay their rent with either tax credits or HUD subsidies. Two years later, a second HUD building was completed which included a kitchen and dining room. Four years later, the property was fully converted so that today it has a total of 107 units. All apartments are currently occupied by 120 residents, and there is a long waiting list of future tenants. The property is well-known for its welcoming reputation and well-maintained campus. 100 percent of our resident’s income is below $10,000 annually, well below poverty. Between 2012 and 2022 there has been a focus on programming and transportation. NDH partnered with the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (ENOA) to provide low-cost hot lunches in the senior center. A food pantry was established on site and is open to the larger community, so anyone in North Omaha could access free food, no questions asked. During the COVID-19 shutdown of the senior center, staff and the board with residents began envisioning new ways to serve seniors and the overall local community. The Life Enrichment Center began to take shape so more programming could be offered to suit more individuals. This came out of a need to fight senior isolation, especially since the pandemic left people isolated for two years, and to fight food insecurity which has impacted more people since the pandemic. In 2020, NDH partnered with DP Management and Kimball Management Inc. to realize a new future. While DP and Kimball took over management of the apartments, NDH retained the service coordination and life enrichment aspects. DP Management, a Midwestern leasing and property management company since 1958, is a perfect fit for NDH because of its experience in senior living properties financed with low-income housing tax-credits. Kimball Management, Inc. is a small family-owned business specializing in managing affordable housing projects for senior citizens where financing was provided through specific Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding. President Richard Kimball has been managing HUD-assisted senior housing since 1978. Kimball said he is proud to join the Notre Dame Housing team for a second time. As a volunteer he assisted with the initial opening and occupancy 25 years ago. In the past year, NDH established a hair salon with everything a professional hairstylist might need – chairs, hair washing sink, blow-dryer chairs, etc. There was a need for people to have affordable haircare available regardless of mobility issues or weather, which may have kept them from receiving the hair care they wanted in the past. This is another effort to promote dignity and fight isolation after the pandemic. Most importantly, from 2021-2022, a large space dedicated to growing popular programs was envisioned. This is the Life Enrichment Center we hope to complete with this grant.
Notre Dame Housing - Life Enrichment Center
500000.0
500000.0
Combination of capital project and service/program
We are seeking $500,000 to complete our Life Enrichment Center, which will allow more free public programming for seniors in North East Omaha. We at Notre Dame Housing seek to bring more education and food security specifically to North Omaha’s seniors, combating isolation and allowing people to age at home longer while being part of a thriving community of peers. NDH currently serves residents and local seniors and wants to expand those efforts. The Life Enrichment Center is ready for construction– drawings have been completed, costs have been calculated, and plans for its use are in place. The Life Enrichment Center attached to the NDH senior center is more than 5,000 square feet. We will utilize it for an expanded food pantry, an exercise room, a meeting room for programs, and an entertainment room. We envision having the largest, most accessible, and modern food pantry area NDH has ever maintained in its 25 years. This space will contain dry, cold, and frozen storage and an easy flow for people to get their food. The food pantry is available to anyone in the community, no questions asked. The exercise area will be open to allow for group classes, next to the current exercise equipment space. The meeting area will allow programs to go on simultaneously in the senior center and the Life Enrichment Center, so we can expand our offerings to bring more people education and entertainment. Lastly, the entertainment center will have screens for movies and TV along with games and puzzles. The project is ready to begin. We have board approval, finalized drawings, and have met with contractors. Once construction begins, we expect the space to be ready within three months to serve the community in North East Omaha.
The timeline for this project is 3 months. We are shovel ready, board approved, and have begun the bid process.
1.0
Transformational (i.e., a proposal that will help energize, recharge, or spur significant and favorable advancements in North or South Omaha's function or appearance)
Quality of Life (i.e., create or enhance natural spaces, mixed uses, parks, safety, etc.) Sustainable Community (i.e., create or enhance housing, services, education, civic uses, recreation, etc.)
Notre Dame Housing presents a sustainable model for the senior community. As NDH has grown over the years, the staff take into account the difference between what seniors need to survive, and what they are requesting in order to thrive. This includes entertainment, education, volunteer opportunities, a dignified food pantry, and more. NDH continues to grow and change as the needs and wants of seniors grow and change. A senior center has grown from a place for seniors to eat and do puzzles to a space that includes computers, iPads, Nintendo Wii competitions, current events guided discussions with projector, movie nights on LCD screens, and so much more. While we have the staff and institutional knowledge of how to grow with seniors, our space needs to grow physically to accommodate the vast interests seniors have today; the more we can offer, the more we can fight isolation in older age. NDH also provides programs that celebrate diversity including: Black History Month programs Women's History Current Events Wellness Initiative for Senior Education (WISE) program, which has a section specifically on diversity and inclusion. These events provide a safe place for residents to learn and discuss.
The summary noted that North Omaha needs to develop sustainable communities - not just housing amenities, stores, churches, schools. It also mentioned that North Omaha needs specific uses for their spaces. NDH is already sustainable in that it has been operating for 25 years and has grown every decade since it began. In this proposal, we are not looking at adding housing or amenities; we are looking at how to serve the community that lives beyond this property, while enriching the lives of the seniors already on campus. We are designing a space for the specific use of public programming for North Omaha’s seniors from the food pantry, to exercise classes, to educational and entertainment options.
Notre Dame Housing is a safe place that already offers so much to North Omaha’s seniors – low-cost lunches, a food pantry, free programming, free Wi-Fi access on campus, affordable haircare, a campus that stretches 1/3 of a mile for indoor or outdoor walking. One opportunity from the Prioritized SWOT Comments is that North Omaha needs to nurture and support what already exists with funding and technical support. With our solid, maintained infrastructure we have the capacity to remodel existing space. Rather than building a new senior Center in North East Omaha, we can revamp our current facilities to serve more people. With our food pantry partners at Saving Grace and Foodbank for the Heartland, we will be able offer more food and more variety with meat, eggs, milk, and fresh produce. While NDH continues to serve more food every year, the food pantry runs out of food every time it is open. The need for food is there, and we need to open a space where no one would get turned away. With our long relationships with volunteers in Omaha we can bring in more programming from entertainment like music, to education like current event lectures, to exercise like aerobics and Thai Chi.
Based on the bids for construction the labor force on this project would be between 20-50 workers over three months. This will be a community space, with much of the programming performed by volunteers.
0
25-50
Based on the bids for construction the labor force on this project would be between 20-50 workers over three months. This will be a community space, with much of the programming performed by volunteers.
Having a dedicated space to serve seniors benefits the community in several areas. Providing a community for seniors to come and enjoy programming, hot lunches, groceries from the food pantry, hair care, and more allows seniors to live in their homes longer, avoiding the costly move to assisted living or nursing homes. With the rate of inflation and the economic averages in North Omaha, aging in place is crucial for seniors. The local neighborhood improves when seniors are cared for, and income does not need to dictate how well a senior gets to live. The food pantry is one of the only programs that is not specifically for seniors. Building this pantry will impact the larger North Omaha community, as we are one of only a few pantries that does not have restrictions as to who/how often it can be utilized. According to the USDA, food costs have already risen 5% in 2022, making even the essentials in life difficult to acquire. The higher food costs have also impacted the food we are able to offer from the pantry. The small amount of fresh food that we receive is depleted within an hour. "We are still very much in an emergency situation. Nearly 207,000 heartland neighbors are struggling with food insecurity right now and one in six are children," said Stephanie Sullivan with Food Bank for the Heartland. Currently, our pantry does not have a designated space to serve food; weather permitting, we serve food outdoors, and other times we squeeze our pantry into the building wherever we can. Moreover, with the limited space we can only bring in a limited amount of food. Currently, the pantry is emptied within an hour of opening. Our goal is to consistently provide fresh meat, produce, and milk that will not expire within a week, when the next food pantry is available on campus. NDH is working to purchase more fresh food and advertise the new offerings across North Omaha. We are building a designated space for the pantry which includes cold storage, a staging and receiving area, shelves that double as storage and shoppable areas, all of which increase accessibility and storage.
NDH is already a cornerstone of the North Omaha community, and can contribute more to the quality of life for North Omaha’s seniors by combatting isolation and food insecurity while promoting education, volunteerism, and engagement
While designing this project a consultant toured local food pantries to understand best practices for serving food in North Omaha. The needs of the population and best practices were incorporated into the design of this new pantry. This design reflects the goal for dignity and service – shoppers can pick items just as they would at a grocery store while allowing room for volunteers to unpack and restock any time.
We currently track all of our programs from the pounds of food served at the pantry, to hot lunches served, to program attendance.
Staff and volunteers track these programs on paper and it is converted to overall data with software.
Tracking progress serving more seniors will not require further investment as NDH already tracks this
Yes
This year, NDH created monthly partnership programs with Methodist College, American National Bank, and locally-owned restaurants which provided a unique dinner for residents. NDH maintained relationships with Saving Grace and the Food Bank for the Heartland to bolster the weekly food pantry. NDH also maintains relationships with groups like the No More Empty Pots, Merry Makers, Fontenelle Forest, the Humane Society, Florence Elementary School, Saint Philip Neri Elementary School, UNMC, and many others to bring in unique programs. Participation in programs grew rapidly and has maintained since the COVID-19 mandated shut down, proving the interest in senior programming. Since July of 2021, participation in programming began at 76 participants per month, which you can see in the attached chart. By August, that number had doubled. The winter months saw an average of 386 participants. These programs are offered free to any senior in the community, not only NDH residents.
No
No
3439 State Street houses the HUD and tax-credit apartments, the senior center (which is also the area where ENOA hot lunches are served), and the proposed Life Enrichment Center. Below is what the campus consists of: 107 apartments 2.5 acres including the buildings and green spaces 1 senior center open to the community 3 buildings with each one having a community room Hair salon Library Chapel Future enrichment center - approximately 5000 square feet Dedicated Food Pantry space - approximately 2500 square feet 4 laundry facilities on the campus 2 outdoor gathering spaces The campus is fitted with free Wi-Fi 2 free computer labs Dedicated van for transportation for outings Building security at every entrance Outdoor space: There are two dedicated outdoor gathering spaces. Activities include planting groups to add flowers and vegetables to garden boxes that can be enjoyed all summer, and events like National Night Out where residents grilled on the patio bringing neighbors, police officers, and others to meet and enjoy an evening together. Accessibility: NDH is always innovating with accessibility in mind. All of the buildings are connected by accessible ramps, hallways, and elevators. That means one could travel from one end of the complex to the other (nearly ⅓ of a mile) all by wheelchair or power chair with ease; regardless of weather, everything at NDH is accessible without having to travel outdoors. Moreover, the outdoor gathering spaces, the excursion transportation, and the parking lots are all accessible as well. As we continue to innovate, accessibility remains a priority. We added a hair salon this year, the salon was wheelchair accessible. Similarly, the new food pantry in the Life Enrichment Center will be both centrally located and fully accessible. Anyone on campus can also enjoy free wi-fi and can rent tablets to use in their rooms, or use computers in two areas. NDH recently partnered with Get Setup who work with people over 55 to learn new skills, connect with others and unlock new life experiences.
Within one or more QCTs
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
NDH has engaged with 2 local contractors on the project. We are looking to obtain a third bid and then will select a general contractor. Both bids have been roughly $500,000 to complete the project.
All the funds from LB1024 will be used to complete the project
Yes
If awarded the funding, the project will not require any additional funding. NDH has been operational for 25 years, we are finically strong, and our board is engaged and committed to the overall success of NDH. The Notre Dame Sisters are also committed to ensuring the success of NDH. As their largest sponsored ministry, the Sisters provides over $90,000 annually in “in kind” salary support for NDH. The food pantry partners with local nonprofits that have been a staple in Omaha for many years allowing everyone to benefit.
Our hope is to use the funds from LB1024 to complete this project. We have not engaged in other funding opportunities at this time.
The proposal currently is not scalable. Our hope is that we can complete our project quickly and make an immediate impact in the community. We hope to be a model for the community on how state and local agencies can work together to make a direct difference for North Omaha.
The Notre Dame Housing Executive Committee is writing to Omaha Economic Recovery Act Coordination Plan Grant indicating that we will be applying for a grant $500,000. Notre Dame Housing has been serving seniors in North Omaha for 25 years. It is the ONLY senior housing nonprofit to offer both HUD and tax credit housing, employs a full time Life Enrichment Coordinator and Service Coordinator, and operates a free, on-site senior center. Over the years the services to non-residents have grown. We offer to the public a food pantry, low-cost hot lunches, and free programming. We are expanding our efforts in serving North Omaha’s seniors and the public by constructing a Life Enrichment Center, effectively doubling the space and the programming. We are requesting $500,000 to complete the Life Enrichment Center which will include a fully accessible food pantry with plenty of storage, an exercise space, a meeting area, and an entertainment room. This space will improve the lives of the community by offering more food staples and fresh food with the cold and frozen storage. It will be a space that hosts more programs. So, for the first-time, multiple programs can be offered at once. Both efforts combat isolation and food insecurity that has impacted low-income seniors drastically since the COVID-19 pandemic. With funding, we hope to complete this project in three months as the drawings and construction bids are complete. We thank you for this opportunity to serve more people in Northeast Omaha with this space. We look forward to educating you about this project and its impact. Scott Bear CFO Immanuel Cindy LaPole Assistant Controller First National Bank of Omaha Sr. Margaret Hickey Notre Dame Sisters LOIS JORDAN President and CEO, Midwest Geriatrics, Inc. Florence Home Healthcare Royale Oaks Assisted Living House of Hope Assisted Living and Alzheimer’s Care Unimed and Gerimed Pharmacies Senior Health Foundation
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
Additional Location Documents (see application for list) Data table of uses (breakdown of how the requested funds will be used for your proposal) Documentation of site control (proof of ownership, option, purchase contract, or long-term lease agreement) Environmental assessment of subject site. Is the property a brownfield site? Organizational Chart Plans and detailed descriptions, including pictures and a map of the site location/surrounding area Proposal Budget/Sources and Uses Request Rationale Documentation Schedule