Northwest Iowa — A local housing trust fund has received nearly a half a million dollars to support local housing incentives.
The Northwest Iowa Regional Housing Trust Fund received $498,250 as part of a total of more than $11 million in grants to 26 Local Housing Trust Funds to support local housing initiatives. The funding was announced this week by the Iowa Finance Authority Board of Directors. The grant awards are made available through the Local Housing Trust Fund program and are expected to assist 2,390 families in Iowa.
Iowa Finance Authority Executive Director Debi Durham says that the 2023 Local Housing Trust Fund awards represent the largest amount allocated through the program for local housing initiatives since the program’s inception. She says that thanks to the funding increase supported by Governor Reynolds and the Iowa Legislature, the program is able to serve as an “invaluable and flexible resource for meeting the important and unique housing needs of each region of the state.”
The grant funds will be used for initiatives such as preserving aging housing stock, subsidizing local rental and down payment assistance programs, providing low-interest loans or grants to assist Iowans with home rehabilitation, financing construction of new single-family housing for low-income Iowans, and supporting housing for persons with disabilities and homeless assistance programs.
The State Housing Trust Fund was created by the Iowa Legislature in 2003. The awards announced today will leverage an additional $3.2 million in other financing or $.28 for every dollar of Local Housing Trust Fund program funding. Since its inception, the State Housing Trust Fund has provided $112.2 million in affordable housing assistance to benefit more than 35,200 Iowa families, leveraging more than $175 million in other funding resources.
The State Housing Trust Fund helps ensure decent, safe, and affordable housing for Iowans through two programs. The Local Housing Trust Fund Program receives at least 60 percent of the SHTF allocation to provide grants for organizations certified by the Iowa Finance Authority as a Local Housing Trust Fund.
The remaining funding goes to the Project-Based Housing Program, which aids in the development of affordable single-family and multifamily housing. The Iowa Finance Authority administers both programs and provides technical assistance to housing-related organizations.
