Omaha Mayor John Ewing and representatives from Front Porch Investments last week announced a proposed plan for the City of Omaha to enable the use of $40 million in bonds to build and preserve affordable housing in the city’s urban core as soon as 2026, a decade sooner than Tax Increment Financing revenue would be available to support it.
An anonymous funder is prepared to purchase $40 million in bonds, which the city would grant to Front Porch Investments to distribute to stimulate affordable housing development and preservation in the urban core.
Front Porch Investments, a non-profit that helps connect affordable and workforce housing developers and available public and private funding, will leverage these bond funds as part of the Urban Core Housing and Mobility Redevelopment Plan.
“My parents didn’t have the ability to purchase their first home until I was 15, so I understand the challenges families face when they’re not able to find stable, affordable housing,” Ewing said. “By partnering with Front Porch Investments to incentivize affordable housing development, we will begin to address a critical shortage in Omaha’s urban core. We have the opportunity to ensure families can meet their basic needs while setting them on a course toward financial stability.”
This opportunity will utilize funds from the city council-authorized bonds capacity in the Urban Core Housing and Mobility Redevelopment Plan. The previously approved plan allows for the use of tax-increment financing to pay for the Omaha streetcar, in addition to affordable housing and other mobility improvements.
In 2022, the City Council approved a total bond amount of $490 million, authorizing $440 million of that figure to be used for the streetcar project. This amendment updates the total plan budget to match the already authorized bond capacity and allows the additional $50 million not needed for the streetcar to be used for affordable housing and other mobility projects. When the private funder purchases $40 million in bonds, it will generate immediate funding to distribute for affordable housing development in the urban core. The remaining $10 million could then be made available for future housing or mobility projects.
The $440 million streetcar project is more than fully funded by projected TIF revenue and will not receive additional bond funding. As has been the case with streetcar funding, there will be no city-wide property tax rate increase, no money diverted from other city projects, and no money used from properties outside the streetcar corridor. Only revenue from new or redeveloped income-producing, commercial and multi-family properties within the corridor will be used to fund the streetcar, affordable housing, bikeways or other mobility improvements.
The $40 million funding will be distributed through Front Porch Investments to projects in the urban core, which spans an approximately 770-block area bounded by Cuming Street to the north, Woolworth/William streets to the south, the Missouri River to the east and as far as 50th Avenue to the west.
In 2022, Front Porch Investments worked with the City of Omaha to distribute $20 million in ARPA funds, matched by $20 million from funders, to support projects like affordable rental housing, workforce for-sale housing and mixed-income housing developments. As of July 2025, the organization has supported the development or preservation of 2,359 homes across rental, ownership and mixed-use developments, 1,690 of which are affordable.
