By Barb Arland-Fye
Editorial
Iowa Economic Development Director Debi Durham pointed with pride to a 2024 WalletHub report that listed Iowa in first place for most affordable housing for the second year in a row. She shared that information back in August in a news release announcing more than $37 million in workforce housing tax credits to develop housing across the state — some 2,000 residential units. The Workforce Housing Tax Credit program provides tax benefits to developers to provide housing focused especially on projects using abandoned, empty or dilapidated properties. While that is good news, what is our state doing to ensure all Iowans have access to affordable housing, particularly those who cannot afford market-rate homes or apartments?
In Iowa, 101,442 (27%) of renter households have extremely low incomes (0 to 30% of the median income) while facing a shortage of 58,377 rental homes affordable and available to them, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reports. “Affordable housing remains a challenge in every state in the nation, especially for people working minimum-wage jobs,” the coalition states. “There is no state in the country where a renter working full-time at minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment” (nlihc.org/explore-issues/why-we-care/problem).
Advocates in communities such as Clinton and the Quad Cities, for example, have underscored an affordable housing crisis in their communities. Over the past two years, “the Clinton/Jackson (counties) intake service waiting list has 100-250 applications representing one to eight people seeking housing assistance,” the YWCA Clinton Empowerment Center stated in a July 2024 report to the Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care. The agency’s Coordinated Entry intake hotline for the two counties “has averaged 600 calls per quarter from those seeking services to help address homelessness.” In response, the YWCA Clinton Empowerment Center will break ground Dec. 13 on a supportive housing project that will create 24 units of affordable housing apartments in downtown Clinton. The project had to overcome stiff opposition to make it happen.
The Iowa Catholic Conference (ICC), the public policy voice of Iowa’s bishops, recently released its 2025 lists of legislative principles and concerns for the 91st session of the Iowa General Assembly, which convenes Jan. 13 in Des Moines. The ICC states that “Every person has basic human rights and is entitled to basic human necessities, such as food, housing, clean water and air, education, health care, and productive work for fair wages. The ICC calls for “Measures to promote healthy families such as increasing the state’s minimum wage, increasing the availability of affordable housing and addressing food insecurity.” Furthermore, the ICC believes it is necessary to maintain a “progressive tax code and revenues sufficient to meet the basic needs of the poor and the vulnerable.”
Some of Iowa’s laws and practices seem to send mixed signals regarding affordable housing, and its accessibility. The Iowa Legislature a couple of years ago enhanced clarity and fairness for both tenants and landlords regarding security deposit regulations and updated eviction protocols to simplify the process and protect tenant rights. However, Iowa law also prohibits Iowa’s counties from requiring landlords to accept Section 8 Housing vouchers, according to O’Flaherty Law website (https://tinyurl.com/7m2j4tcd). Some households depend on Section 8 Housing vouchers to obtain and maintain affordable housing.
Factorialhr.com reports that Iowa has maintained its minimum wage of $7.25 per hour since 2008, one year before the federal minimum wage adopted the same rate. Initially, Iowa’s adoption of $7.25 per hour highlighted its commitment to ensure fair wages, but it has retained that rate longer than any state in the nation (https://tinyurl.com/4wtzkmzy). The cost of living and inflation in the 16 years since have led to households with the lowest incomes struggling to obtain and maintain affordable housing.
As Catholics, and as Iowa citizens, we have an obligation to advocate for our brothers and sisters struggling to obtain and maintain affordable housing. Among the ways to do so:
- Follow action alerts on the ICC website (iowacatholicconference.org).
- Follow the issue in The Catholic Messenger.
- Visit the Iowa Legal Aid website, an excellent resource for information about landlord and tenant issues (https://tinyurl.com/2kta8t6j).
- Monitor legislation moving through the Iowa Legislature and contact your legislators regarding affordable, accessible housing (legis.iowa.gov/legislation).
- Support measures in your community regarding zoning and diverse housing options for affordable, accessible housing.
- Support organizations in your community that work to create affordable housing opportunities for people in need.
- Keep in your prayers all people who struggle to obtain and maintain affordable housing.
Then we can ensure that all Iowans have access to affordable housing.
Barb Arland-Fye, Editor
arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org
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