Could a low-income housing tax credit, other initiatives, fix Iowa’s affordable housing woes?

It’s estimated Iowa needs another 24,617 homes to support a growing population, and a statewide coalition is encouraging state lawmakers to act on six priorities that would expand affordable and workforce housing in the state.

Dan Garrett, acting executive director of the nonprofit Iowa Housing Partnership, said it’s a critical time for state and local leaders to invest in housing initiatives as the state struggles to recruit and retain new workers.

“The reality is we don't have places for people to call home,” Garrett said. “Why would you expect them to stay here?”

Garrett, who’s worked more than two decades in the affordable housing sector, said the level of need for affordable housing in Iowa and across the U.S. is at “a level that's unprecedented.”

“When you give somebody a home, they want to stay,” Garrett said. “When they want to stay, their kids do better in school, and then they start moving up that housing ladder. They start making investments in those communities. And we want to protect our rural communities.”

Here’s what Garrett has to say about the partnership’s advocacy efforts this legislative session. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Q: What progress have the partnership’s priorities seen this legislative session?

A: Our No. 1 focus was to get the allocation of money for housing trust funds. We have a lobbyist, and they have worked so hard to try to get this bill passed and currently it's in the line to be debated at the House. …

For the state to grow, we need to put some concentrated efforts in the affordable housing area. That's either from homelessness supportive housing to a state affordable housing credit to the workforce housing credit to single-family homeownership. Costs are not going to go down, and people will talk about interest rates. … We can do it with these interest rates.

But it's really, really difficult when it's such a struggle to get $2 million to $5 million. To give you the state affordable housing credit, we figured that we could generate — if we had one — probably the first year between 250 to 500 units. And we could probably get it up to about 1,000 units in two or three years.

Q: Iowa Finance Authority and Iowa Economic Development Authority Director Debi Durham has been asking for an increase in workforce housing tax credits from $35 million to $50 million a year. What is the status of this conversation?

A: It’s stuck in the Ways and Means Committee, so I don’t think it’s going to move, which is unfortunate because they typically have a three-to-one demand for those credits. ...

When you have that strong of demand, … that shows you that these things work, it shows you that people are using them. It shows that we are getting stuff that we would not have gotten before.

So raising $50 million, chances are we'll get $120 million to $130 million of projects being submitted. With these projects, for every $1 spent, they’re creating $5 in economic development activity. So you get $50 million of credit, those are going to create about $150 million of total development cost, times that by five — that's over $500 million in economic development activities.

This isn't a deduct against the state budget. If anything, it's a plus because of increased sales tax that you're getting from the economic development activity. The workforce housing credits, we think, are probably one of the best ways to get money into rural communities. I think it's worked, and it's a shame that the state Legislature didn't see that.

Q: What do you think are the biggest barriers to making progress on these legislative priorities? Is it mostly misconceptions of the people who live in affordable housing?

A: For sure, I think that's the biggest. Most state legislators, they go into their jobs with how they feel things are and you have people who think, “Well, people should be out there working.” I totally agree. But let me show you how it's affordable for somebody to go out and work an $11-an-hour job or a $15-an-hour job and work 40 hours a week and pay for day care, and then also try to find an apartment they can afford. It’s not that easy.

It's having those discussions where numbers don’t lie, and then you can sit there and say, “OK, here’s why this is a good fit for our community. Here’s why this makes total sense for you.”

… There are not buses from Chicago moving people in our community so they can live in Section 8 housing. These are people who are working in a Casey's when you go get your coffee and doughnut every morning. These are people who are taking your checks when you're depositing it at your bank. And when people see that, then their mindset changes a lot.

Q: What do you see as the role of cities versus the state in addressing affordable housing needs?

The city of Cedar Rapids is a great example. Because when we had the groundbreaking for developer Jack Hatch’s property in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Rapids Brickstone, the city manager was there, at least five members of the (Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance) were there, you had a majority of the city council there.

What that shows is that everybody gets it, and they support it. When you have that level of support, what people do is they problem-solve instead of problem-create.

… That's the exciting thing about affordable housing, where we can sit there and adapt to whatever that community needs.

But we need more resources. We need more support, and support doesn't necessarily translate into money. We need players at the local and state level to understand the value of this and the value overall. It makes the state a better place to live.

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

  Buy Photo