Iowa City is in the early stages of constructing around 30 affordable housing units on North Summit Street.
Tracy Hightshoe, the city’s director of neighborhood and development services, said these properties — which are currently empty lots — are in a prime location lacking affordable housing. The lots are also close to essential services, such as a park and public transit, she said.
The Iowa City City Council approved a $750,000 purchase of 1002 and 1006 N Summit St. at its Oct. 1 meeting. According to meeting documents, the city will officially possess the properties on Oct. 18.
The purchase is funded by federal COVID-19 relief dollars, which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act, Hightshoe said. Iowa City received a total of $18.3 million as part of this act, according to the city’s website.
The city does not yet have any architects or builders hired for the construction of the units, Hightshoe said, and the next steps for this project are to assemble funding for construction costs.
Once the units are built, the Iowa City Housing Authority will manage the properties, Hightshoe said.
This is not the first project of its kind in Iowa City. According to meeting documents, the city bought three condominiums on Herbert Hoover Highway earlier this month that will also be operated by the city’s housing authority.
The addition of the affordable units will give those with a lower income more choice on where they would like to live, Jessica Andino, the executive director of the Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition, said.
“Everybody is welcome within every single neighborhood of Iowa City or Johnson County,” Andino said. “We should not have to just create affordable housing in one area. It should be in the neighborhood of their choice.”
These projects can also give organizations that rehouse homeless individuals more options available to those they serve. Christine Hayes, the director of development and communications at Shelter House, said increased affordable housing is beneficial to everyone in the community, including Shelter House.
Hayes said the nonprofit is always at full capacity and often has a waitlist ranging from 30 to 50 people for the shelter’s 70 beds. A new state law that went into effect in 2023 no longer allows cities to prohibit landlords from turning away tenants with housing choice vouchers, which Hayes said has also impacted Shelter House.
Before 2023, Shelter House was able to relocate individuals from their shelters to permanent housing in about a month, Hayes said. Since the law went into effect, that time has now increased to nearly three months, she said.
Hightshoe said the city will accept those with housing choice vouchers in the North Summit Street properties, but it will not be a requirement to live there.
Having the city in the position of a landlord can also be more consistent and institutional than individual landlords in some cases, Hayes said.
Adding more affordable housing options to the area is the only way to help the unhoused community in Iowa City, Hayes said.
“Homelessness is really an issue connected, not just intimately but causally, with the availability of affordable housing,” Hayes said. “And unless and until we solve the affordable housing issue in our community, we will not solve homelessness in our community.”