Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition discusses challenges

IOWA CITY - In a county where tenants are paying more for rent and renting at a higher rate than the state average, Sally Scott, executive director of the Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition, explains the work her organization is doing to promote affordable housing.

Q: What is affordable housing and why is it important?

A: We rely on the definition that housing should not cost more than 30 percent of a household's income and that includes utilities and insurance, if one is an owner and needs insurance. That's the generally used federal definition and while it's not perfect, studies have shown that it does capture the percentage of people who are having trouble affording a place to live.

The focus of our work is folks who are lower income, under the median income generally, well under the median income, because if they're paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing, they have very limited funds left for other vital expenses: medicine, food, educational costs for their kids ...

So we realize that folks are going to commute. But it's a question of if they are choosing. Do they want to live far away? Would they rather be closer? And would they be able to be more productive, more happy, less stressed if they could live closer to school? And if the answer is yes, then it really makes sense to provide a balanced mix of housing: housing that‘s affordable to people on a low income as well as all the wonderful housing that's available to people at higher incomes.

Q: What is the need for affordable housing like in Johnson County?

A: Well, what we know is that close to 60 percent of our renters are paying more than 30 percent of their income. We call that being housing-cost burdened and some of that is because we have a high percentage of students, but we know that number has been going up steadily …

It's really accounted for by working people for the most part, also elderly and disabled folks whose incomes are static while housing costs are going up.

So we've focused more in our data gathering on the rental population because that's where the most intense need is, but there's also a shortage of starter homes, smaller homes, simpler homes for people who are making that transition from being a renter to a homeowner.

Q: What kind of work is the coalition doing to support affordable housing?

A: 'We have two main fields of activity. ... We work to educate and to advocate. ... We work hard to let the general public know why affordable housing is an asset to a community. ...

It's a benefit to kids in school if their family has (an) affordable, stable place to live. They're more likely to do better in school.

Adults with health issues, they're much more likely to be able to treat their health issues successfully if they are not living in substandard conditions and they're not facing high levels of stress because of a lack of affordable housing.

So that's the education side. The advocacy work is where we speak with, work with local governments, to the council, Board of Supervisors, to advocate for funding for affordable housing, ordinances that will make it easier to build affordable housing or will require it in some cases, and we've seen a lot of progress on that front ...

Q: How can the community support affordable housing?

A: I think one is simply kind of take a new look at affordable housing. A lot of people think they know what it is, what it looks like, who lives there. And we would encourage them to take a fresh look, to realize that the majority of people who get some kind of assistance with their housing are folks who work and on whom our community really relies.

And some other folks are disabled or elderly and those are important people in our community as well. We don't want to push people away simply because of their economic status.

I think it's being open to learning about affordable housing and as the issue comes up in their community, in city council elections, Board of Supervisors elections, a specific piece of legislation, to speak up, to support the inclusion of affordable housing throughout the community ...

Our affordable housing coalition has community meetings once a month, usually the fourth Friday of the month, and we welcome anyone to attend those meetings to learn more, to participate.

I would just advise folks before they come to double check the schedule on our website, jcaffordablehomes.org.

l Comments: (319) 339-3172; maddy.arnold@thegazette.com