Affordable Housing and Urban Agriculture in Balance

The Hawley Hamlet is a real place, an agrihood located just a mile from downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. Over the past decade, this edible landscaping project has grown from one household to 20—all gardening together. Like the neighborhood it is nested in, the Hamlet is an unfolding story of what can happen in the built urban environment all across America when people start growing some of their own food and get to know their neighbors—something the “Hamleteers” believe will become increasingly important in the wake of a worsening climate crisis.

Hamlet founders and longtime supporters of NeighborWorks Lincoln, Tim Rinne and Kay Walter, approached organizational leadership in 2021 with an offer to redevelop a derelict home in the Hamlet’s northeast corner. That conversation sparked a dialogue that explored ways that the Hamlet and its new affordable housing units could leverage one-another to promulgate the Hamlet’s values of inclusion, equity, and agriculture-forward living. After several iterations with Tim and Kay, their neighbors, and the City’s Historic Preservation Commission, the parties landed on three contextually-sensitive single family homes to be built where one previously stood and a complex series of easements and landscape covenants that will ensure not a single blade of Bermuda grass crowds out any food or native flora.

“I hope that you’ll look back at this project as the best one you’ve ever done. What we have accomplished here is nothing short of remarkable and it’s all due to your creativity and patience with us and with this idea.” Tim Rinne, Hamlet Founder

As for the homes, the 3BR/2BA units are each designed with the gardens in mind. Their social spaces are stacked against the facades abutting the garden and there is nary a garage nor yard to be seen—all jettisoned in favor of grow space. When construction is completed by NeighborWorks this summer, three homebuyers (80% AMI) will not only join the ranks of first time homeowners, but they will instantly become Hamleteers and the newest members of the Prairie Roots Community Land Trust as well—stewarding both environmentally and economically sustainable living in an agrihood that gardens to its own beet.

More about the HAMLET
Project advanced with NeighborWorks Lincoln