Iowa City Housing Authority adds North Liberty town homes to affordability efforts

IOWA CITY — The Iowa City Council on Tuesday approved $927,000 for the purchase of three town homes in North Liberty to be used by the Iowa City Housing Authority for affordable housing.

The housing authority was awarded $368,000 from the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County after North Liberty directed some of its American Rescue Plan Act funds toward affordable housing efforts within the city. The other $559,000 comes for the housing authority accounts.

The three attached town homes are all three-bedroom units located in North Liberty, south of Centennial Park.

“This opportunity allows us to better serve residents throughout our whole jurisdiction, to strengthen access to housing where people live and work. … These are new construction, so we anticipate maintenance needs to be low for the first five to 10 years,” Tracy Hightshoe, neighborhood and development services director, said at a city council meeting.

The Iowa City Housing Authority serves all of Johnson and Iowa counties as well as part of Washington County. Currently there are around 220 housing choice voucher recipients living in North Liberty.

Affordability requirements

The housing authority will look to use the units for housing choice voucher recipients upon acquisition of the units, slated for December of this year.

As terms of the Housing Trust Fund agreement, two of the units will need to be leased to tenants making less than 50 percent of the area median income for 40 years.

Should the Housing Authority look to sell the properties, it must get approval from the Housing Trust Fund or repay the funds.

“When the housing authority owns and manages property, we consider that permanent affordability. So even if we sold it, we'd invest that back into the community,” Hightshoe told the city council.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

Get a weekly roundup of Johnson County news by signing up for my Johnson County Update newsletter.