Study: Rural Linn County needs 661 more units by 2040

• Linn County partnered with the East Central Iowa Council of Governments to study housing needs outside the Cedar Rapids metro area.
• The 14 communities studied were Alburnett, Center Point, Central City, Coggon, Ely, Fairfax, Robins, Springville, Walker, Lisbon, Mount Vernon, Palo, Bertram and Prairieburg.
• The study found these communities collectively need 661 more housing units by 2040 to keep up with population growth.
• ECICOG recommends promoting new construction of affordable housing and focusing on targeted rehabilitation to improve older housing stock.

CEDAR RAPIDS — The first-ever assessment of Linn County’s housing needs beyond the Cedar Rapids metro shows smaller, more rural communities within the county need nearly 700 more housing units by 2040 and an investment in rehabilitation initiatives to keep up with population growth.

The 14 communities studied, according to a presentation to the Linn County Board of Supervisors Monday, included Alburnett, Center Point, Central City, Coggon, Ely, Fairfax, Robins, Springville, Walker, Lisbon, Mount Vernon, Palo, Bertram and Prairieburg.

A housing analysis is done annually within the metro — Cedar Rapids, Marion and Hiawatha — so that’s why this study focused on the other Linn County communities. The supervisors in 2022 awarded $70,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to complete the housing study assessing rural needs and a forthcoming equity analysis.

“They’re very useful for future planning purposes and for securing things like grants and tax credits,” Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols said of housing needs assessments. “We’ve also seen a lot of growth in our smaller communities. We know there’s housing, challenges, struggles — just some opportunities there as well.”

The county partnered with the East Central Iowa Council of Governments for the study. ECICOG Housing Planner Deanna Robinson said three key themes emerged from the assessment:

Fairfax Mayor Jo Ann Beer told The Gazette her sense is the city needs more workforce housing that would allow an average family or young family just starting out to purchase their own home or rent at an affordable rate.

Most of Fairfax’s growth is due to new homes in the Heartland Heights development, Beer said. The 171-lot development has come online in recent years, adding a mix of single- and multifamily housing.

The Logistics Park from Travero — the logistics company affiliated with Alliant Energy — operates on a 101-acre site inside Fairfax city limits and within the Big Cedar Industrial Center, and will hopefully attract new jobs, Beer said. That means the city must be able to offer the housing these workers desire “so they don't have to live outside of Fairfax,” she said.

“A study of this nature would be very welcome to look at and see if my gut instinct is true,” Beer said of the need for more workforce housing. “... I think it will be helpful to us in our smart growth planning in the future.”

Rural areas need hundreds more units

The study area is projected to grow only slightly from 25,006 in 2025 to 27,762 in 2040, with population growing an estimated 0.7 percent a year. The projected number of units needed by 2025 is 10,819, rising to 13,130 by 2040.

Factoring in the number of units currently available, the study estimates the gap of additional units needed to rise from 150 in 2025 to 305 in 2030, 489 in 2035 and 661 in 2040.

“It’s very hard to predict what a population will do in a rural community,” Robinson said. “It could drastically go up or down depending on many factors.”

ECICOG recommended the proportion of new multifamily rental development be slightly higher than the existing ratios of owner-occupied versus rental units in each municipality.

Demographics shaping housing needs

Changes in demographics such as household sizes becoming smaller and the number of older Iowans growing will influence demand for certain types of housing.

Fairfax, Palo, Robins and Ely have seen the highest growth in Linn County outside the metro, approximately doubling their populations from 2000 to 2020. Overall, the study area’s population growth is expected to decline in the next 20 years with the exception of the growing population of Iowans over age 65.

There are an estimated 330 independent senior housing units in the study area, falling 164 senior housing units short of anticipated need.

Central City, Coggon, Ely, Lisbon, Springville and Walker already have populations with more than 20 percent being Iowans aged 65 and over.

“Those communities should really be focusing resources toward that age group now in preparation for that to jump,” Robinson said.

Home rehabilitation needed

The age of housing stock is the largest indicator of homes in need of rehabilitation, Robinson said, and the age of some housing within Linn County calls for a greater investment in rehabilitation initiatives and energy-efficiency upgrades.

According to the National Association of Homebuilders, Iowa has the oldest housing stock in the Midwest and is among the oldest in the nation. Over 40 percent of the county’s housing stock is more than 50 years old.

ECICOG conducted a windshield study — or drive-by assessment — of housing conditions, where staff looked at 2,472 housing units to examine their exterior quality and overall condition.

One-third — 33 percent — were in need of major rehabilitation, where the units showed issues such as porches being in disrepair, paint was peeling, or cracks were evident in the foundation, walls or roof.

Communities may focus on targeted rehabilitation programs, Robinson said. She said a senior rehabilitation program could help seniors age in place and make health modifications to their homes such as nonslip flooring or handrails in hazardous areas. With 41 percent of rental units also over 50 years old, Robinson said rental rehabilitation also could be a priority.

In Alburnett, Center Point, Central City, Coggon, Lisbon, Mount Vernon and Walker, anywhere from 12 percent to 30 percent of rental households are aged 65 and older, so they should “consider the intersection” between those two areas, Robinson said.

Affordability a challenge

In the study area, 14 percent of homeowners and 38 percent of renters were determined to be cost-burdened.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers a household cost-burdened when housing costs exceed 30 percent of a person’s income. This often results in households forgoing health care, education and nutrition and spending less in the community on goods and services.

Over time, Robinson said job loss, birth of a child, disability, stagnant wages and inflation may affect a home’s affordability.

Tools to help communities boost housing

ECICOG looked to develop housing policy tools to address the area’s housing needs, creating a housing toolbox with targeted initiatives to reach these goals.

Robinson said the organization is looking to promote:

Some of ECICOG’s tools are geared toward the county, while others are specific to the 14 communities studied. The report includes one-page community profiles for each city including an affordability analysis of area homes and opportunities for initiatives to introduce specifically in a certain community.

Each of the 14 communities will get copies of the report and ECICOG will present to some city councils with the greatest needs, Robinson said. The study also will be posted on the ECICOG website, ecicog.org, and Linn County’s website, linncountyiowa.gov.

Robinson said the Housing Fund for Linn County will provide some funding and other grant sources, and also can guide how communities use or establish tax increment financing districts to fuel housing development.

The assessment’s strategic housing goals include preserving existing housing stock, expanding lot supply, boosting senior housing options, increasing “missing middle” housing and addressing a lack of capacity and community buy-in for affordable housing.

Supervisor Chair Kirsten Running-Marquardt said this study will “help guide some of our work here in Linn County.”

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com