When Gary Nunnally, a retired history teacher who owns rental properties throughout Lincoln, Neb., bought the troubled Regent apartments in 2021, his main concern was the quality of life.
The Regent was nearly a century old and had sunk into squalor. Drug dealing and prostitution plagued the building, and the address was the subject of hundreds of 911 calls. Mr. Nunnally also owned the Palisades apartments next door, and crime was spilling over. So he applied to a special city program that provides grants to help pay for building improvements, in exchange for his promise to keep rents affordable.
The Regent got new plumbing and sewer lines, among other repairs, and the 911 calls plummeted.
Its makeover also helped the climate. Fifty-three electric heat pumps, the most energy-efficient way to heat and cool homes, were recently installed, replacing energy-hungry electric window heating and cooling units that often failed.
“It’s a complete turnaround of the neighborhood, honestly,” Mr. Nunnally said.
The Regent is among the dozens of buildings that the city of Lincoln has helped weatherize and repair since 2023, as part of a program to rehabilitate decrepit buildings and improve their energy efficiency without pricing out tenants.
Mr. Nunnally also used the program for upgrades at the Palisades next door, which now has 40 heat pumps, one for each apartment. According to Marc Shkolnick, energy services manager at the Lincoln Electric System, the heat pumps cut the Palisades’ annual carbon emissions by 176,000 pounds thanks to reduced energy use, and electric bills at the building dropped by an average of $260 per unit a year.
Beth Snyder, a certified nursing assistant and emergency medical worker, moved into a one-bedroom apartment at the Palisades with her cat, Baby, earlier this year, after a divorce.
“I did a lot of research before I chose this place,” she said.
50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. A few more to come this year.
Ms. Snyder, who currently receives disability benefits, pays $720 monthly in rent and said similar apartments elsewhere in Lincoln cost $1,100. Her monthly electric bill is $60. “It was a very good price, and they’re renovating, and everything was brand-new,” she said.
The rental rehab program, part of the city’s climate action plan, covers buildings in a historic, low-income neighborhood, called South of Downtown. About 96 percent of residents there are renters, often living in substandard housing. The city wanted to save the buildings, reduce their energy consumption and lower tenants’ utility bills. Tenants were worried that fixes would lead to unaffordable rents, yet both they and their landlords shared many of the same complaints.
“Tenants were telling us their units were not airtight,” said Kim Morrow, Lincoln’s chief sustainability officer. “They weren’t insulated well enough. They were cold, they were hot. And the landlords were telling us that they didn’t have the money to upgrade the units.”
Dan Marvin, the city’s director of urban development, devised a plan. The city could use a tool, tax increment financing, to put future tax payments from building owners into a special fund that would help pay for repairs. Landlords would get grants of up to $15,000 per unit for things like new windows, insulation, foundation repairs and roofs, along with access to incentives for heat pumps.
In exchange for the grants, landlords had to accept federal Section 8 housing vouchers. And while rents could be raised after the repairs, they had to be kept below the federal government’s fair market rate for a number of years, currently 20.
When the program began, city officials weren’t sure if there would be any interest.
But within the first year, 300 applications from landlords poured in, requiring officials to create a wait list, said Stephanie Rouse, the city’s urban development manager. The city said it was on track to meet its goal of rehabilitating 1,000 units within a decade. And, as part of the program, Mr. Shkolnick said, 180 heat pumps have so far been installed, along with other energy efficiency upgrades including heat pump water heaters.
At several rehabbed buildings in the area, residents said they now had reliable air-conditioning and heat, and new windows that kept out icy air and snow.
“It’s much more comfortable in the building,” said Shawn Spies, a housekeeper, who lives in a building where city funds helped pay for new heating and cooling units, as well as new windows, doors and water heaters.
Charlie Wesche, executive director of NeighborWorks Lincoln, a nonprofit that helps administer the program, said he had initially feared that the program would result in much higher rents, but his concerns soon subsided. Tenants were in updated, more efficient apartments. Property owners were making improvements that otherwise wouldn’t have been made. And the city was making a huge investment in the area. “I’ve talked to a lot of people, and what I’ve heard on the ground is their rents are staying fairly consistent,” he said. “I’ve described it publicly as a win-win-win.”
According to the city, rents for units rehabilitated during the program’s first year were, on average, $250 below the federally set fair market rent. Last year, the city added a requirement that rents below the fair market rate cannot be raised more than 5 percent. “We make refinements as we learn,” Mr. Marvin said. Some tenants in low-rent units that were rehabilitated before that requirement was in a place experienced significant increases.
Among them is Bob Sabacky, a soft-spoken retiree who spent his working life doing manual labor and moved into an old building on F Street in South of Downtown in 1978. It steadily deteriorated, with needles in the hallways, crime and trespassers.
One day a few years ago, Mr. Sabacky heard someone violently slamming his front door, and the deadlock gave way, before the intruder thundered down the stairs. “Oh, it scared me,” said Mr. Sabacky, 73.
In 2022, Case Maranville, a former touring musician, bought the building on F Street. The units had to be renovated down to the studs, and Mr. Maranville used the city program to supplement repair costs, replacing old cast-iron plumbing, installing new drywall and upgrading the electrical wiring to code.
Mr. Sabacky was one of just two residents who stayed on. The first new tenant was Danny Alvarado, 27, who moved in a few weeks ago, drawn by the $750 rent.
Mr. Sabacky’s rent had been $450 for years, until last summer when he moved to a renovated apartment across the hall. He now pays $750, which is below fair market rent but still a big jump.
Mr. Sabacky, who lives on Social Security payments, said the price increase was worth it. The building was peaceful now, and the apartment renovated and clean. Heat pumps were set to be up and running in the coming weeks.
“It’s home,” Mr. Sabacky said. “I thought things would get better, and they did.”
Cara Buckley is a reporter on the climate team at The Times who focuses on people working toward climate solutions.
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