According to the Walton Family Foundation, Northwest Arkansas is in need of more affordable housing. At this point, just about all ideas are good ideas. Two nonprofits in the region are coming up with some creative options in Springdale and Bentonville to alleviate the burden. Ozarks at Large’s Andreah Gratol has more.
In downtown Springdale, Sophie McAdara gives us a tour of a newly constructed home.
“So yes, this is the living room and the kitchen. They are newly built by a developer who did the entire community and pocket neighborhood. It’s a total of 14 homes, and we purchased 10 of them for the community land trust.”
She’s the program and operations manager for Bring It Home Inc., a new organization in Northwest Arkansas that’s working to advance affordable housing nationally, but found a calling for this region.
Bring It Home bought 10 one-and-a-half-bedroom units at The Hideaway, a neighborhood in Springdale, and they’ll be part of an Arkansas community land trust. Sophie says each unit will be sold at an affordable rate.
“We purchased these at market rate, and through some great investments and subsidies, we’ll be able to sell them to individuals and families in the community at a rate that will be affordable for them. So what that means is that it will be about 30% of their income is what those mortgages will be priced at — what they’ll be able to afford each month will be 30% of their income.”
A community land trust is a method of homeownership that is a partnership between a community organization, like a nonprofit. The nonprofit buys the land and the home but then resells the home to a qualified individual in a certain income range. Sophie says they then lease the land under a 99-year ground lease.
“It is essentially ownership. However, the land still stays with the nonprofit, and the nonprofit is able to control that when the home is resold in the future — whether that’s after five or 30 years, whenever the homeowner is ready to sell or move on to a new property. They will have to resell their home to another individual or family that meets the same income restrictions.”
It doesn’t just provide an individual with housing they can afford — it also fosters the opportunity to grow financially.
“It allows some appreciation to occur and allows for equity building for the homeowner so that they’re not just renting each month and not able to build equity through mortgage buy-down. It allows the homeowner to exit that home with the stability of owning the home and also some equity to move on and purchase — hopefully maybe a market-rate home or a home in another city or state or whatever they’re planning on doing.”
Sophie says Bring It Home is focusing on missing middle housing — not just multifamily homes and apartment complexes.
“Our target will be things like this. While these are single-family homes in this development, they’re also on a common lot. So it’s taking one lot that could have just been one single-family home and putting 10 homes on it in a way that promotes community and neighborhood interaction and has smaller lots and makes better use of the land. So while they are single-family homes, it’s more of that, ‘How do we infill in places where there’s existing infrastructure and be able to get more units on a piece of land without overcrowding?’”
Sophie says in the future, their organization hopes to have more opportunities for affordable housing, like duplexes, single-family attached, and maybe some small multifamily units.
“We’re really focusing on how we build in a smarter way that can take advantage of existing infrastructure and help offset the high cost of land we’re seeing in this region.”
Bring It Home’s goal is to help house 10 individuals in Springdale but aspires to continue working on more initiatives in the area. Even though it’s a work in progress, they hope to have the houses ready to go in early 2026.
But the housing crisis in Northwest Arkansas is so prominent that other organizations, like the Excellerate Foundation, are stepping up to take initiative to help members of the community afford housing, especially teachers in the Bentonville School District.
Tim Black is the vice president of finance and housing for Excellerate Foundation. He says education is one of the main drivers of Bentonville’s growth, and the school district has some of the highest salaries in the state.
“Even recruiting teachers, you can get them to apply. But then once they understand what housing is like, they can’t afford to live in Bentonville.”
Housing prices have increased dramatically over the past six years.
“Median list prices in Bentonville have grown almost 140% from 2019 to current day. So the median-priced house back in 2019 was right around $250,000, and today it’s almost $600,000.”
McAuley Place is Excellerate Foundation’s first effort to address affordable housing for teachers — consisting of 120 multifamily units and 40 single-family cottages. The development will be next to the Bentonville Community Center, Mercy Medical and trail access. Plus, it’s centrally located to the school district.
Tim says this project was funded by private and public dollars, which helps keep the housing affordable.
“The 120 units — that big chunk of that was funded by public dollars through tax credits. That’s the LIHTC program the government provides, and that typically helps pay for those units. It helps contribute to the building of those about 75% of the cost.”
The families eligible to live in the multifamily homes include firefighters, restaurant workers, and any of those who fit the income range. The rent for these units will range from $350 to $850 a month.
The cottages are privately funded and will be leased through the Homes Program, a program designed to help individuals prepare for homeownership, and will be leased to district employees only. The goal is to emulate homeownership.
“Once they move in, they can live in them for five years. They won’t own the homes, but they’ll get to participate in the equity appreciation of those homes. There’s no down payment like you would have if you were to purchase a home — no PMI costs. We’re picking up the property taxes, so they’re not going to have that cost. There’s no closing cost. We’ll handle all the maintenance costs, the typical mowing the yard, replacing air conditioners, fixing air conditioners, anything that needs maintenance. We will pick up that cost. We will pay for the insurance of the property. And obviously, we pay all the costs associated with the interest on the property. So think about it as you're putting folks in a home for five years, at the end of five years, these folks are going to possibly get back principal. They're going to get possibly they're going to get back the equity appreciation. And our modeling today says that's that could be a check from anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000 at the end of four to five years.”
There will also be an early learning center on-site for McAuley residents during the school day.
“That early learning center will be made up of two pre-K classrooms. There’s going to be 20 ABC pre-K slots– 15 of those will be reduced rates and five will be market rate. There will also be two infant-toddler classrooms. Ten of those will be federally funded. Five will be reduced rate, and five will be market rate.”
Affordable housing is one problem, but sometimes the real issue is the affordability of living. Affordable daycare options are hard to find in Bentonville, so providing one close to home can relieve some strain on families.
“Having that right next door, right on the same property, is a big advantage and a creative way for us to say, ‘How do you make a community that has everything they need within the community?’ So housing, Mercy Medical, the community center — and then you think about daycare being right close. It’s kind of a concept that, if we could do that everywhere on all new housing developments, that would immensely help our workforce within each community.”
McAuley Place has an interesting approach. The early learning center is roamed by toddlers and infants during the day, but at night, the halls are full of adults and teens learning more about certain programs and services.
“Program offerings like budgeting, preparing for homeownership, tutoring, parenting — we can help do those in the evenings. That will be on-site as well.”
Tim Black says having affordable housing doesn’t just help those who are being pushed out — it actually helps the local community.
“When you think about building — we probably have $40 million in the McAuley Place complex’s cost — those dollars are all staying within Bentonville. You’ve got folks who build them earning wages that help support the local area. The vendors you’re buying your materials from are helping. The folks who will eventually mow the lawns — all of that is incremental dollars being brought into the community as part of these large projects. These projects not only help the workforce or the employers; they’re also helping the area grow and the economics of the area.”
It might seem impossible to keep up with the rising costs of living in Northwest Arkansas, but organizations like Bring It Home and Excellerate Foundation are taking unique approaches to tackle affordable housing. For Bring It Home, it’s creatively utilizing a community land trust. And for Excellerate, it’s combining private and public funds to house workers who are essential to the fabric of their local community.
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