HOUSING FOR ALL AMERICANS:
THE BEST AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS OF 2006-2007
PROFILE OF A RESIDENT
Rehab of Historic Landmark
Helps an Active Mother
BY GENEVIEVE RAJEWSKI
HOUSING FOR ALL AMERICANS • DECEMBER 2007
 OMAHA, NEB. - For more than half a century,
the Livestock Exchange
Building served as the center
of Omaha’s livestock
industry—before it fell
vacant as the stock pens stood empty.
Now the dramatic brick building is
the center of 34-year-old Blanca Ruiz’s
family life.
“It’s my castle. I feel like the queen
of the building, because everything is at
hand,” said Ruiz, who moved to the
Livestock with her two sons about 18
months ago.
Born in Durango, Mexico, Ruiz has
been a resident of the United States for
9 years. She lived in East Chicago and
Indiana for a while before moving to
Omaha. The Ruiz family lived in a onebedroom
apartment in a nearby complex
prior to the Livestock.
“It was hard living three people to
one room,” said Ruiz. “The difference is
huge between now and before. This is a
beautiful building. The price is wonderful
for all the room we have in the apartment:
two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a
living room, and a kitchen.”
“We have a washer and dryer in the
apartment,” she continues. “In the other
apartment, we had to go outside the
building and then come in a different
door to do laundry. And here, any problem
we have in the apartment, they try
to solve them right away. There’s great
security in this building. No one can
access my floor.”
The Livestock also has much to
offer Ruiz’s sons, 12-year-old Eloy and 6-
year-old Alejandro.
“Any time they want, they can play
outside in the park,” said Ruiz. She also
appreciates being able to keep an eye on
her boys at the school bus stop, which is
in view of her apartment.
Constructed on the Omaha Union
Stockyards site, the Livestock Exchange
Building dates to 1926. Architect George
Prinz designed it as an eclectic mix of
Romanesque and northern Italian
Renaissance revival styles. NuStyle
Development renovated the imposing
structure into 102 affordable rental units
and three floors of commercial space.
OneWorld Community Health
Center rented 40,000 square feet in the
building to provide medical and dental
care and pharmacy services to the surrounding
community.
And while the Livestock was being
redeveloped, a bank, community college,
and other businesses all moved into the
neighborhood.
The neighborhood’s rebirth benefits
Ruiz directly in numerous ways. She
works at the American GI Forum, a
nearby restaurant, and takes ESL
(English as a Second Language), customer
service, and keyboarding classes
at Metro Community College, across the
street from the Livestock.
Ruiz also cites the Livestock’s community
room as an important resource.
“Most of the people who live here
benefit from it,” said Ruiz, who belongs
to a weekly Al-Anon group that uses the
Livestock’s community room for free.
“Our group was paying so much for a
room at different places,” she said. “That
hour and a half [we have that space] is
nothing for the building, but it means a
lot for many, many families.”
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