Topeka staff summarize three years of housing investment, highlight rehab and infill gains

City housing staff summarized the past three years of housing activity in Topeka on May 14, 2025, telling the Topeka City Committee the work encompassed income-based and location-based programs, private infill and economic-development incentives.

"We were asked to provide a summary overview of the past 3 years of housing investment in Topeka," said Carrie Higgins, housing services division director, who presented the report alongside Quinn Cole, senior management analyst. "We thought, well, hey, there's so many different angles of this. Let's talk about affordable housing as far as reinvestment that carries rehab and rehabilitation programs do. And then let's also talk about affordable through the economic development incentive side, and let's just talk about market rate while we're at it."

The nut graf: The presentation aimed to give committee members a single, cross-cutting view of multiple programs — including rehab and emergency repair, RHID (residential housing incentive districts), LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit) projects, and permit activity — and to show how those efforts were distributed across council districts and housing types.

Staff said the 2020 Topeka citywide housing study remains the foundation for local strategy and that a major finding is the need for rehabilitation of existing stock. Higgins said the city broke demand out by type using 20-year demand projections and emphasized that much of the locally affordable housing requires renovation. "There was a really heavy emphasis on rehab and renovation because a lot of the existing housing stock that we have that falls into the affordable, is under disrepair and it's in need of investment," Higgins said.

Examples highlighted by staff included Cornerstone's transitional housing for unsheltered individuals; a Riverstone subdivision by Gen 3 Construction that brought 15 workforce for-sale units to North Topeka; the Eastgate Subdivision (an early RHID that added 42 workforce rental units); and private infill on Seabrook Drive that produced eight homes that sold at workforce rates without incentives. Staff also noted CHODO (community housing development organization) projects such as Scent’s net-zero home funded in part with ARPA dollars, and multiple programs that helped first-time homeowners with repairs and down-payment support in several districts.

Staff presented summary numbers that showed roughly 400 properties affected by housing services programs in the review period and about 288 new-building permits, which they said represented close to 700 units because permits can cover multifamily buildings. Higgins said staff can provide interactive maps and district-specific breakdowns on request.

Committee members asked that staff return with an updated review of the 2020 housing study — including permitting numbers through 2024 — so members could see which study recommendations have been implemented and which remain outstanding. "It would be great if in the next couple months, maybe we could get a presentation here on just where we're at on that housing study," said a committee member.

Ending: Staff indicated an updated implementation plan is posted on the city's website and offered to provide the committee the interactive maps and a fuller permitting breakdown in the fall after 2024 permits are fully processed. The committee did not take formal action on the presentation; staff invited questions and said they would follow up with the data requested.