C.R. receives additional funds for construction of replacement housing

A third round of disaster subsidies to support the private-sector construction of owner-occupied, replacement housing is ready for the city, though the city has yet to use half of what the state of Iowa has made available from a second round of funding, according to city figures.

The city's Single-Family New Construction Program, to date, has secured a total of $21.35 million in funding from the Iowa Department of Economic Development that has been used to lower the cost to owners of new residential housing units. Some of the units have been purchased by households that earn the area median income and others have gone to those at or below 80 percent of the area median income.

In a first round, owners were found for 184 newly built residential units, though contracts have been signed for only 127 or the 254 residential units in the second-round of funding, according to city figures. Another 73 households have applied and are qualified to participate in the program, the city said.

Up to another $11.13 million is available now to the city in a third round of funding to support the construction of an additional 235 housing units.

Nearly all the construction in the first two funding rounds has come on the periphery of the city, and the City Council now wants to use the third round of funds to build new housing units on vacant lots in neighborhoods that were hit by the 2008 flood. This area is called the Neighborhood Revitalization Area, which is outside the 100-year flood plain and outside the construction area for a new flood-protection system.

At its meeting on Tuesday evening, the council will decide if it wants to restrict the use of third-round funding to the revitalization area and if its preference is to build on lots that are or will be owned by the city as part of the city's buyout program.

The new units must have a price tag no greater than $180,000. First-round subsidies for owners in the form of forgivable loans topped out at 30 percent of the purchase price and 25 percent of price in the second round.

In the third round of funding, half of the units must cost $150,000 or less before the owner subsidy, though the city notes that the biggest need is for homes priced below $135,000 before the owner subsidy is applied.