Affordable housing partnership in Garden City

GARDEN CITY, Kan. (KWCH) – The City of Garden City and Western State Bank announced a partnership to expand affordable housing opportunities for homebuyers in southwest Kansas.

“Through the initiative, Western State Bank will provide financing for newly manufactured homes in the Prairie Wind mobile home community, with future plans that also include the East Garden Valley community,’ the Garden City-based bank explained.

Garden City, in turn, will provide financial backing, giving families affordable lending opportunities that they wouldn’t have been able to access.

Western State Bank describes the homes as being priced in a range from $75,000 to $150,000, “offering families a high-quality and cost-effective path to home ownership.”

The bank said rapid economic growth in Garden City has fueled a steady population increase and created heightened demand for housing across the city.

City leaders set a goal to add 4,000 new housing units by 2030. Western State Bank said that the Local Roots manufactured home loan program represents an initiative designed to help Garden City meet that target.

“The city’s aggressive housing goal requires the development of units across all price levels and targeting subsidized rental units, market rate rental units, workforce housing developments, new traditional owner-occupied homes, and higher-end owner-occupied homes,” Garden City City Manager Matt Allen said in a news release on the community-improvement effort between the city and the bank. “The partnership with Western State Bank helps target that first-time home buyer and workforce housing customer and helps remove some hurdles to ownership.”

Western State Bank President Tyler Whitham said the partnership “directly addresses a major need in [the] community.”

“At Western State Bank, we are always focused on ways to improve the quality of life in the places we call home, and this partnership is another way we can help make a lasting difference,” Whitham said.

The City of Garden City and Western State Bank tout the Local Roots Loan Program for offering “a streamlined and affordable way to purchase a home.”

Those interested in benefiting from the program and security an affordable housing loan are directed to apply for financing directly at Western State Bank, 1500 E. Kansas, in Garden City, or at the Prairie Wind mobile home community.