COUNTY NEWS

County commits again to Great River Housing Trust

Supervisors OK $12.5K spend to help with housing efforts

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LEE COUNTY - The Lee County Supervisors are once again putting money into housing efforts locally.

At Monday's regular meeting of the board, they approved unanimously a request from Mike Norris, the President of the Great River Housing Authority, for another $12,500 annual contribution to the fund.

"Looking at our fiscal year 2024 grant, Great River Housing is looking to bring down $433,000 from the local housing trust fund grant, which will require a $93,000 match," Norris said.

The match comes from the housing trusts four-county region and would give the group $526,000 to work with that year.

The Great River Housing Trust provides several housing intiatives including down payment assistance, general owner occupied rehabilitation funding assistance, commercial upper story conversion, and single-family housing assistance.

All the programs have income eligibility restrictions based upon county median family income levels.

The downpayment assistance is up to $7,500 in down payment and closing assistance, that's offered as a deferred loan and gets reimbursed at the next sale of the property. Homeowners must be at 60% of the Iowa Finance Authorities income limits which is $74,900 for a family of three.

Rehabilitation projects assistance ranges from $10,000 to $15,000 in the form of a 5-year forgivable loan. Applicants must be at 30% of the IFA income limits which is $37,475 for families of three or more.

Commercial upper story conversion assistance is capped at $25,000 per unit with a maximum award of $100,000. The units must be affordable for at least five years and tenants must be below the 60% IFA guidelines.

"It's a really efficient way to add new units and tax base to our older downtowns, or in our upper story portion of commercial buildings you can create new residential units and we support that with grants," Norris said.

Since 2011 the trust has awarded more than $7.1 million in funding in the four-county area, including Lee, Louisa, Des Moines, and Henry counties. Those funds come from $3.73 million from the Iowa Finance Authority and $890,000 in local match funds.

The trust has used those funds to leverage an additional $2.5 million from other funding streams.

The trust functions under the direction of the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission and is a 501c3 organization.

Great River Housing Trust, Lee County, Mike Norris, housing assistance, down payments, Pen City Current, news, Lee County Supervisors,

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