Affordable housing still hard to come by

CEDAR RAPIDS - Michael and Kathy Moser were looking for a way out.

They had outgrown the house on Park Avenue in Cedar Rapids they were renting with four other people. It was crowded, and they wanted a place with more privacy, but with their credit as it was, there was no way they would qualify for a loan to buy their own place.

Sarah Celichowski, a single-mother of four, had been moving around, from transitional housing to a friend's house to the Catholic Worker House and then to the Waypoint Madge Phillips Center Shelter.

Affordable housing is a critical part of any community's array of housing options.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, affordable housing is generally needed for families 'who pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.” HUD estimates that nationwide some 12 million renter and homeowner households pay more than 50 percent of their annual income for housing.

But despite the number of programs and organizations tackling the problem in the Corridor, there are only 11 affordable units per 100 extremely low-income households in Johnson County and 38 per 100 in Linn County, according to figures complied by the Urban Institute.

Few developers want to build affordable units because of the difficulty in securing funding and land to build such units. Neighborhoods frequently resist having affordable houses in their backyards.

And qualifying households sometimes can have a hard time navigating the patchwork of agencies and not-for-profits to connect with needed resources.

'It's important for Cedar Rapids,” said Joe Lock, executive director of the Affordable Housing Network. 'There's a lot of emphasis on more high-end, especially high-end downtown housing, and that is an important component for a city to progress.

'But there's also an affordable housing component that's necessary. It takes all strata of incomes and skill sets to help a city thrive.”

Supply and demand

Throughout Eastern Iowa, the demand for affordable housing is far greater than the supply, and the shortage is only growing worse.

Take the Affordable Housing Network, which placed 1,338 residents in homes in February, up from 1,158 residents in the same month last year.

Ninety-eight percent of the Affordable Housing Network's 800 units are occupied. When a unit does become available, the vacancy often is filled in a matter of hours, Lock said.

In Johnson County, demand also outpaces supply. In Iowa City alone, there are 400 applicants in the city's primary preference category - households headed by a person with disabilities or who is older than age 62, or households with children - who are waiting for affordable housing, said Steven Rackis, housing administrator for the City of Iowa City.

All told, there are 7,000 applicants on the waiting list, Rackis said. The city will not be able to meet demand through its voucher program alone, Rackis said.

There is a significant need for both extremely low income families - those below the thirty percent poverty line - and for working class families, officials in both counties said.

According to the Out of Reach 2014 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, today, one out of every four renter households is an extremely low income (ELI) household. There are a total of 10.2 million extremely low income households across the country, and three out of four ELI renters spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs, according to the report.

Barriers for development

What's keeping developers from building more affordable housing to meet the growing need? Cost, paperwork and public perception, local experts said.

The high cost of land prevents many potential developers from building affordable housing units, said Tracey Achenbach, executive director of the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County. By the time developers successfully purchase land and take on the cost of building units, they need to raise rent to be able to make a profit.

'If you're going to try to make the housing more affordable, you've got to be able to have lower costs in creating it,” Achenbach said.

There are some programs to help lower those upfront costs - developers can pool existing funding resources such as the state's low income tax program, federal Home dollars, Community Development Block grants and housing trust fund dollars, for example - but patching together limited resources from a number of sources can be a challenge.

'It's all about the willingness to go through the hoops you need to go through …

with the purpose of mind of making housing available,” Achenbach said.

Not only do developers struggle to find funding and affordable land, but they must also overcome misconceptions about affordable housing and what it means for neighborhoods and communities.

'Those of us that work in affordable housing …

we are constantly fighting the misconceptions that people have,” Achenbach said. 'We're trying to work at the issue of educating the public on who it is we are talking about.”

That begins with the understanding that affordable housing usually means affordable for people who are low to moderate income. In Johnson County, a single person with $44,550 in annual income would be considered low to moderate income.

In Linn County, that number is $41,750 for a single person.

Some people link affordable housing with a certain type of undesirable person or family, Achenbach said.

But in reality, many of us have family members, friends or co-workers that would be considered low to moderate income, she said.

In March 2010, a majority of Iowa City Council members denied a housing project, saying there was 'too much subsidized housing in east and southeast Iowa City and felt the concentration had a negative effect on nearby schools.”

These barriers, combined with the low number of players in affordable housing to begin with, make it challenging to meet the growing demand. In Iowa City, there are just two developers working on building affordable housing units.

'Quite honestly, the incentive isn't (there),” Achenbach said. 'When you can just build market rate and get market amounts, why build necessarily affordable housing?”

‘This is the one'

Even before she saw inside the house, Kathy Moser knew 1531 Fifth Ave. SE was going to be the right place for her and husband, Michael.

That's because 1531 is the address of her grandmother's house in Phoenix.

'I was like, ‘That's the one! This is it,' and I hadn't even seen the inside yet,” Kathy said. 'Then we came in and I was like …

‘I love it, it's beautiful.'”

The three-bedroom, one-bathroom house has a fully furnished kitchen, basement and fenced backyard - all theirs after she and Michael, 47, a team leader at Klein Tools, are now part of the Affordable Housing Networks's Homeownership Incubator Program.

The incubator program is a single-family housing rental program. Every month, residents in the program who are current on rent with no outstanding fees or fines will receive $100 in an escrow account to use as a down payment on the house in which they're living.

As part of the lease agreement, renters are required to participate in a Homeownership Program offered by Horizons Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

Kathy has decorated their new space with, as she calls it, 'butterflies and Jesus.” In the family room, there are two framed butterflies by the entryway.

Moving into their own home has been 'night and day” different from living in the group home, Michael said.

'It's nice to have your own place,” he said. 'Nobody living above you or underneath you.”

Meanwhile, Celichowski, the mother of four, quickly realized that $7.75 an hour was not going to support her family, she recalled. To help her make ends meet, she enrolled in a program called Total Child through Four Oaks.

Total Child is a comprehensive and long-term approach to help children and families.

'They helped me with job leads, they helped pay my deposit so I could move in,” she said. 'Housing …

if we need anything, we could call them. They're great people to work with.

'Always there if you need them, even if it's just to talk to somebody.”

In January, she got a job at TaxACT in Cedar Rapids. Last month, Celichowski received the keys to a three-bedroom, one-bathroom rental house on the southeast side of Cedar Rapids.

'Finally,” she said with a laugh.

Celichowski said there is a direct link between finding employment and her ability to afford housing.

'I could have been moved into a place, but then, what's going to happen if I don't have a job in a month?” she said. 'You pay my rent and my deposit, what's going to happen in a month when I can't pay rent again because I'm not working?”

Solutions

People who struggle to find housing say the problem is much greater than simply finding a place to rest your head - it throws lives into chaos in every aspect, making everything from school attendance to work performance to social relationships, motivation and parenting that much more difficult.

'When you're in and out, it doesn't flow. It doesn't go well,” as one recently homeless woman said. The single mother said finally landing in affordable housing makes it easier for her to wake up and get to work every morning. She feels better about being able to get her children to school and support her family.

So what's the solution to the region's affordable housing shortage?

'Adding units, adding dwellings and adding homes,” said Maryann Dennis, executive director of the Housing Fellowship, a community-based housing organization based in Iowa City.

Dennis said ideally she would like to see not-for-profit housing developers and for-profit developers work together to 'engage as many partners as possible to create additional homes that are affordable.”

'The non-profit has the capability and expertise to assemble the necessary financing to produce dwellings that would be affordable,” Dennis said.

There are sources of financing that offer very low cost or zero or no-percent debt. The less debt a project can have, the lower rent can be. A non-profit developer could build exactly the same thing, Dennis said.

To her knowledge, no such partnerships yet exist in the area, Dennis said.

Stakeholders note the lack of a single individual or office responsible for assessing and measuring the entire community's success when it comes to meeting affordable housing needs. Such a resource could help coordinate efforts between offices and prevent duplication of resources.

In addition, community members said they would like to provide access to supportive services for families in need before they are forced to use emergency shelter services. Better access to resources and diversion opportunities will hopefully keep more families in houses and apartments and out of shelters.

More permanent supportive housing also will help keep families away from transitional housing. In addition, existing buildings in the community could be converted into permanent supportive housing.

Fair housing will be a major focus of the upcoming Building an Inclusive Community, One Neighborhood at a Time summit on Wednesday, April 23, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Cedar Rapids. The event is organized by the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission.

Those interested can register at http://smgs.us/3jgp.

Comments: (319) 398-8330; kiran.sood@sourcemedia.net

Considering solutions: Residential real estate

Those who struggle to find housing say the problem is much greater than simply finding a place to rest your head - it throws lives into chaos in every aspect, making everything from school attendance to work performance to social relationships, motivation and parenting that much more difficult.

'When you're in and out, it doesn't flow. It doesn't go well,” as one recently homeless woman said.

The single mother said finally landing in affordable housing makes it easier for her to wake up and get to work every morning. She feels better about being able to get her children to school and support her family.

So what's the solution to the region's affordable housing shortage?

'Adding units, adding dwellings and adding homes,” said Maryann Dennis, executive director of the Housing Fellowship, a community-based housing organization based in Iowa City.

Dennis said ideally she would like to see not-for-profit housing developers and for-profit developers work together to 'engage as many partners as possible to create additional homes that are affordable.

'The non-profit has the capability and expertise to assemble the necessary financing to produce dwellings that would be affordable,” Dennis said.

There are sources of financing that offer very low cost or zero or no-percent debt. The less debt a project can have, the lower rent can be. A non-profit developer could build exactly the same thing, Dennis said.

To her knowledge, no such partnerships yet exist in the area, Dennis said.

Stakeholders note the lack of a single individual or office responsible for assessing and measuring the entire community's success when it comes to meeting affordable housing needs. Such a resource could help coordinate efforts between offices and prevent duplication of resources.

In addition, community members said they would like to provide access to supportive services for families in need before they are forced to use emergency shelter services. Better access to resources and diversion opportunities will hopefully keep more families in houses and apartments and out of shelters.

More permanent supportive housing also will help keep families away from transitional housing. In addition, existing buildings in the community could be converted into permanent supportive housing.

Housing summit

What

: Fair housing will be a major focus of the upcoming Building an Inclusive Community, One Neighborhood at a Time summit.

When

: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday

Where

: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Cedar Rapids

Register

: http://smgs.us/3jgp