The North Dakota Industrial Commission has approved an initiative to support workforce housing.
The Rural Workforce Initiative to Support Rural Housing -- "R-WISH" -- is a pilot program though the state-owned Bank of North Dakota to help support communities of 20,000 or fewer people with building market-rate housing for workforce, where a company is locating or expanding. The program will use bank capital to help communities provide housing for those workers, Prairie Public reported.
"We have the Grafton example, where Marvin Windows is wanting to expand significantly," Bank Chief Development Officer Kelvin Hullet told the Industrial Commission, which oversees the bank. "And look at Ellendale, which now has the Applied Digital (data center) development going on, which is over a $1 billion investment and 50 permanent jobs."
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Housing is an issue in those cities, according to Hullet.
"Construction costs in these communities are very similar to Bismarck or Fargo," he said. "But we don't have the rent capability or history that we see in those communities. So how do we bridge that gap?"
The Industrial Commission approved up to $10 million for the pilot program. Under it, cities of less than 20,000 population can access up to $3.5 million for those housing needs.
"This is really a rifle shot on the housing issue," Hullet said. "We're really trying to address a specific issue."
The Industrial Commission is composed of Gov. Doug Burgum, Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring.
“Tackling the issue of workforce housing requires unique and creative approaches from a variety of avenues,” they said in a joint statement. “R-WISH will enable rural communities experiencing a rapid period of growth to partner with the company and the state to address employee housing needs.”
To qualify, a community must be experiencing a period of rapid growth due to a new company coming in or a local company expanding by more than 10 full-time equivalent employees. Funds may be used for new multifamily and 1-4 family housing projects or the rehabilitation of existing multifamily and 1-4 family housing if it is more cost-effective than new construction. A local financial institution must be involved in the financing.
“The R-WISH program is a good example of a private-public partnership to maximize the use of state dollars,” BND President Todd Steinwand said.