Rural Missouri - February 2025 - 10

photos courtesy NEMO RPC
Top left: Foundation work is just beginning on the first Housing Enhancement Northeast (HEN) home in Lancaster. Top right: The second
round of construction as part of HEN was a pair of homes in Memphis. Above left: The first house in Lancaster is framed as progress continues.
The houses take about five months to build. Above right: The finished home in Lancaster, which was purchased by the Antals.
by Paul Newton | pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop
his past Christmas marked a new chapter for Linden
and Damian Antal. The young couple hosted
their family in a brand-new home in Lancaster.
Their 2-year-old daughter, Ellie, will grow up in this
house - one of only a few new homes built in the northeastern
Missouri town in 16 years.
" We were living in a house that was 135 years old before
we bought this one, and it was not energy-efficient at all, "
Linden says. " Our new house is so nice, has a big yard and
is so efficient. It's a good home to grow a family in. "
The home was not only one of the first built in Lancaster
T
in more than a decade, but it was the first built as part
of the Housing Enhancement Northeast (HEN) program.
With the support of electric cooperatives, HEN is bringing
workforce housing - single-family homes aimed at working
families - to a six-county area in northeast Missouri.
Damian owns a trucking company and Linden is a
medical assistant at the Scotland County Hospital. They've
been married for 10 years and had been looking for a new
home. When they saw the Lancaster home, they knew it
was perfect for their family. They love the open floor plan,
three bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, walk-in closet and
attached garage. Linden says they feel blessed to continue
living in a rural community. " Jobs and homes, that's what
small towns need, " she says.
HEN is administered by the Memphis-based Northeast
10 RURAL MISSOURI | FEBRUARY 2025
Missouri Regional Planning Commission (NEMO RPC). The
commission has played a role in housing for decades -
primarily low-income housing - but thought they could do
more. A 2022 study conducted in Kirksville showed 65% of
the housing market was built before 1960 with a median
price of $90,000 and 25% of the market was built after
2008 with a median price of $380,000.
" That means there was only about 10% of the market
geared toward teachers, nurses and other middle-income
jobs, " says NEMO RPC Executive Director Derek Weber.
Lancaster-based Tri-County Electric Cooperative then
funded a three-county housing needs assessment that
showed Schuyler, Scotland and Adair counties combined
were 420 housing units short of what was needed based
on the available jobs.
" We have a lot of people living in Iowa and driving to
Kirksville for work or vice versa, " says Michael Scheib,
CEO/general manager of Lancaster-based Tri-County
Electric. " We knew our area could be a great place to live
for families, especially post-COVID when more folks are
looking to get out of the big cities and one spouse might
work from home. We have great fiber internet and our
rural schools have small class sizes. "
With the needs in front of them NEMO RPC started to
look for funds to make the projects possible. Their goal
was to secure enough capital to build modest homes and
sell those at cost to create a revolving fund ensuring the
program's solvency into the future.

Rural Missouri - February 2025

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