It was nearly two years ago that we addressed housing as an economic development issue in the IDM newsletter. Housing remains a major issue today for many Iowa communities and has become a barrier to economic development. In that article we talked about four steps economic developers should consider as housing became “their problem.” The steps are still worth considering today:

Step One:  Know your issues.  Learn about the exact issues your community faces. Is it affordability? Is it the condition of existing housing? The style of housing? Rental housing?

Step Two:  Determine your organization’s role. Will you be an advocate, liaison or developer? What is your organization’s capacity and expertise?

Step Three:  Identify helpful partners and programs. Once you know what you need and what you can do about it, pull together necessary resources.

Step Four:  Seek out best practices.

We are revisiting the four steps to provide you with additional best practices we have found that can offer ideas and insights to housing projects that are occurring across the state:

Chariton (pop. 4,219): Hy-Vee, which employs 1,300 people at a distribution center, is funding the purchase and renovation of at least four homes there. Hy-Vee and its subsidiary Midwest Heritage Bank has given $250,000 to the Chariton Valley Regional Housing Trust Fund to renovate homes in the city.  The Trust Fund plans to use the proceeds from the home sales to refurbish more homes and keep the program self-sufficient.  Read the article.

Eagle Grove (pop. 3,468) and Wright County: A Prestage pork plant is being built near Eagle Grove that could attract 1,000 or more workers. Eagle Grove has been rehabilitating dilapidated homes and tearing down those beyond repair. It also offers a 20 percent rebate of new home construction costs, up to $40,000.  Read an article on Eagle Grove.  Wright County incentives.

Spencer (pop. 11,172), Woodbine (pop. 1,645), Bloomfield (pop. 2,622), Burlington (pop. 25,492) and Elkader (pop 1,325) are featured in a white paper produced for the Iowa Economic Development Authority and Main Street Iowa, “Upper Story Housing Case Studies.” The report includes documentation of adaptive reuse projects in each community and offers lessons learned from the projects. Read the report.

Mount Pleasant (pop 8,491): Hobart Historic Restoration (HHR) rehabilitated the Brazelton Hotel, built in 1856, to create the Brazelton Lofts.  The project followed sustainable and preservation construction practices to create 19 upper-story apartments with commercial space on the ground floor. Ten of the 19 units must be rented/leased to applicants who meet certain income limits. Read more about HHR and the Lofts.

Newton (pop 15,090): The Newton Housing Development Corporation has a housing initiative that offers $10,000 to new home buyers in Newton. They also offer incentives to builders and developers.  Read about Newton’s housing incentives.