Updated: Apr 1
In just a month, housing advocates from Central Iowa and beyond will gather in the Iowa Event Center's junior ballroom for the Polk County Housing Trust Fund's annual Housing Matters Symposium.
We've been so excited by the community response to our keynote speaker Charles Marohn, author and founder of Strong Towns. Now, we can't wait to share with you the rest of the line-up for this half day session, made possible by presenting sponsors AARP Iowa and the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).
The event is filling up fast - be sure to reserve your spot now! Register online at https://hms26.eventbrite.com.
Housing Sites of Opportunity
Throughout our neighborhoods and communities, there are numerous, non-traditional opportunity sites for housing development to explore. To help investigate the characteristics of these sites of opportunity, PCHTF teamed with Confluence to complete an analysis of underutilized, underperforming, or vacant land in Polk County that would be suitable for Missing Middle housing development. Our team identified ten site typologies and created 3-D development graphics to illustrate different scenarios. Cost estimates were produced to serve as a springboard to further conversations about how Central Iowa can develop housing to serve residents at all income levels through all phases of life. The analysis was made possible with support from Wells Fargo. This session is presented by Capital Crossroads.
With Johnny Alcivar, PCHTF; Abbey Eckberg, Confluence; and Jane Reasoner, Confluence
Develop the Developer Launchpad
Expanding housing is a priority, but small-scale projects in established neighborhoods are challenging for emerging developers to build. In December, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund graduated its first Develop the Developer Launchpad cohort after a rigorous two-week bootcamp using Freddie Mac’s national multifamily curriculum. A small group of those graduates will next take part in a multifamily, multi-month fellowship involving a joint venture with DEV Partners and equity investment, while simultaneously working toward their own missing middle development. Learn what’s next for these fellows and how to get involved in a future round of this exciting new program.
With Julian Neely, PCHTF, and Danny Heggen, DEV Partners
Incremental Development Showcase
Housing developers are using a range of innovative strategies to deliver new homes that complement the character of existing neighborhoods. This showcase brings together local leaders behind new infill projects to share insights on both the challenges and opportunities of this approach. We’ll explore how these efforts are addressing rising housing costs while preserving the qualities that make neighborhoods vibrant and livable.
Hosted by Toby O’Berry, PCHTF with
Scott Cutler, Cutler Development
Dan Drendel, Slingshot Architecture
Mike Stuart, Tiny Homes of Iowa
Carrie Woerdeman, Central Iowa Community Land Trust/HOME, Inc.
- PCHTF
- Mar 27
- 2 min read
The Polk County Housing Trust Fund (PCHTF) has launched a new regional affordable housing dashboard to share data about relevant housing trends for Polk County communities.
A centerpiece of the new dashboard is a display of federally backed housing properties in Central Iowa drawn from the PCHTF’s report on this topic last summer. The dashboard expands on that report by including new properties known to be in development around the region which will be updated over time.
To encourage discussion of how production of affordable housing stacks up against a community’s growth, the dashboard also displays information about projected housing growth in metro communities. The dashboard displays a housing goal equal to 10% of a community’s projected 5-year housing unit growth in the “Mobilizing Tomorrow” long-range plan by the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The dashboard highlights extensive US Census data showing cost burdened households – defined as a household paying more than 30% of its gross income on housing costs – are much higher among lower income households. In response, PCHTF encourages communities to set rental housing program goals to serve communities at or below 60% of the median family income (MFI) and homeownership programs at or below 80% of MFI.
The Trust Fund has partnered with CBRE Des Moines to publish the organization’s rental housing statistics. While Census figures are known to be highly comprehensive, industry estimates like the CBRE figures are often collected and released more quickly, providing a recent view of rent and vacancy trends.
PCHTF will utilize the dashboard in housing planning conversations with communities and encourages community members to explore it. PCHTF will continue to update the dashboard as new information becomes available and based on community feedback.
The new dashboard uses the Microsoft Power BI platform, which allows greater interactivity and the ability to update and expand the data over time in response to conversations with local communities about data they find most useful for local housing planning.
View the new resource at PCHTF.org/dashboard.
If a community would like to schedule a meeting with Trust Fund staff to review the affordable housing dashboard specific to their community, please reach out to Johnny Alcivar, at jalcivar@pchtf.org.