Participants in a panel discussion on housing subsidies at last week’s Affordable Housing Week Symposium included (left to right) Steve Eggleston, Abbey Gillroy, Lisa Crabbs, Jennifer Cooper and Terri Rosonke. Photo courtesy Polk County Housing Trust Fund

Last week’s Affordable Housing Week Symposium, sponsored by the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, included a panel discussion on issues related to housing subsidies. Jennifer Cooper, Bankers Trust’s senior vice president and manager of commercial real estate, moderated the discussion. She asked the panelists to share an idea they had for improving housing subsidies for families in Central Iowa. The following are the panelists’ responses:

Abbey Gilroy, executive director, Neighborhood Development Corp.: “Projects are seeing bigger [financial] gaps than we’ve ever seen. We used to be able to pull a few things together and fill these gaps. It’s now getting to the point that we can’t. We’re going to have to reduce costs, but costs are going up. Interest rates are going up. It’s just this awful cycle that we’re in right now. I think there is a way to, hopefully, work with our local governments to address the zoning and the code compliance issues that are driving up costs. … I’m hopeful we can find a way to have alternative zoning or some type of zoning that will allow a project to fast-track … and have deferral agreements or something in place with these municipalities that says not right now, but in five years, in 10 years, we will be able to meet these codes, but let’s just get this housing stabilized and in the market.”

Lisa Crabbs, federal funds administrator for the city of Des Moines: “[Providing] more direct homebuyer assistance could be one way to buy down a mortgage so that someone who might not be able to afford it otherwise [can live] in a school district [of their choice]. [It could be] providing more upfront subsidy to the construction aspects.”

Terri Rosonke, housing programs manager for Iowa Finance Authority: “Don’t let a vocal minority of housing opposition impede affordable housing progress in your communities. [The Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Economic Development Authority] recently completed some research in the state that found that 72% of Iowans support housing development in their communities. I’m guessing a lot of you who’ve attended some city council meetings would not have guessed that 72% of the residents actually would say that they support housing development. Despite a majority of Iowans being supportive, the research also found that housing opposition has stopped nearly 1 in 3 Housing Tax Credit developments across [Iowa] and significantly changes another 1 in 4 projects.” Rosonke urged people to log onto IFA’s Welcome Home, Iowa website to register support for various types of housing.

Steve Eggleston, field office director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Iowa office: “In general across [Iowa], I would ask that community leaders consider mixed income as a positive step in producing reasonably priced housing. When you take an entire building and you say this is low-income, right there you have a stigma. … There are stacks of literature about this and an especially nice book out of New Jersey that talks about how they integrated mixed income into properties. The end result was … you couldn’t tell the difference [between the residence of] somebody who made $600,000 or somebody who made $50,000. I would suggest across the state that the mixed-income concept be considered.”

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