KILLDEER -- According to a recent housing study projection, about 68 new single-family homes and about 36 rental units will need to be built within Dunn County to satisfy a growing population over the next 10 years.
About 40 county residents attended a meeting Wednesday at the Buckskin Bar & Grill to discuss housing concerns throughout the county and to ask questions of state housing officials regarding available programs.
"We certainly aren't coming here with the answers, we are coming here to present those programs that are out there that might help your communities with housing," said Jolene Kline of the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency. "I would suspect that some things have changed since the study was completed. It's now a little over a year old."
From the conclusions of the study, Kline said homes in the southwest region should consist of "a blend of entry-level to upper-income single-family units."
"The single most critical housing issue in the southwest North Dakota counties and communities is the development of affordable housing for existing and projected workforce households," Kline said. "They (those doing the study) didn't so much focus on the oilfield worker as they did the current residents."
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Meeting attendees agreed that impact from energy-related fields has driven rent up.
"We have people coming to our auditor looking for places to move to and rent," said Dunn Center City Commissioner Ed Danks.
Kline said there are contractors available ready to build homes.
"You'd be surprised how many there really are," Kline said. "They are willing to come out to this part of the country and put up single-family homes.
"There are builders out of Bismarck; we're working with builders out of Idaho, builders out of Montana and Michigan. They're hungry out there, especially if they can come in and do two homes in this community and three over here."
A home priced in the $160,000 range would attract interest, said Deb Harsche, real estate agent and Dunn County resident.
Kline discussed some of the programs the NDHFA offers, including the construction loan guarantees, which provide loan guarantees to lenders on construction for affordable single-family housing in rural communities.
Killdeer resident and business owner Denise Sandvick said she thinks there are many looking for affordable homes for rent.
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"These families are coming in with mortgages in other states, the economy is shot there and they cannot re-sell and they cannot get a second finance on a home because the banks are really strict now," Sandvick said. "The families want to put down roots, starting as renting and then buying. They want to eat our food and shop our grocery stores, but there's no rentals available."
Sandvick said she hears two or three times a day there needs to be more rentals in the area.
"Some way or another, we need to get the state to play a role in housing, because there are just too many risks to the city if you have to finance 100 percent of it," Kline said. "It starts with the community, what do you invest in yourself to grow your own community?"
For more information on available programs, visit www.ndhfa.org .
