Affordable Housing Plans in Action

The draft Regulating Plan for Iowa City’s South District Form Based Code envisions a mix of housing types and land uses.

The City of Iowa City’s Neighborhood and Development Services director just released an annual report on affordable housing activity in the past fiscal year. Iowa City has allocated $1 million in General Fund dollars (see p. 4) each year for the past few years, but that’s just a fraction of the overall City investment in affordable housing.

The City supports affordable housing in a lot of different ways: owning and managing public housing, administering a variety of housing vouchers, providing funds for security deposits, emergency rent and mortgage relief, contributing to permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless and disabled individuals, funding rehabilitation projects, requiring affordable housing in certain development areas, TIF agreements and annexations, and looking long-term at the comprehensive land use plans and zoning ordinances to facilitate affordable development.

The city council has committed to a renewed affordable housing plan in the context of focusing on racial inequity in our community. It’s worth being familiar with the status of current affordable housing initiatives as we undertake that work.

If you want a deeper dive into affordable housing funding sources, incentive programs, and partners, there is a lot of information online at icgov.org (spend some time browsing the Affordable Housing Action Plan, as well as “Community Development” and “Housing Authority” menus within Neighborhood Services).