Financing Des Moines' affordable homeownership dream

Neighborhood Finance Corporation has been lending in Des Moines since 1991. NFC provides unique lending programs and related services to help revitalize designated neighborhoods in Polk County and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. NFC has served 8,000 households in Des Moines making over $400 million in investments.

NFC’s lending helps people purchase homes, refinance existing mortgages, and secure home improvement renovation loans. They do this in partnership with Polk County and the cities of Des Moines, West Des Moines, Windsor Heights and Urbandale along with capital for lending raised from local financial institutions.

The lending areas where NFC operates were created in response to the impact of redlining and historic and discriminatory restrictions on access to capital. Those disparities are still quite apparent today as large racial and ethnic homeownership gaps exist in our community. While still providing lending to the community at large, NFC has been developing specific strategies to close these longstanding gaps.

In 2017, NFC was awarded funds that allowed the organization to offer down payment assistance and found that offering this benefit increased its lending to communities of color by 35%.

NFC has built on that progress by offering its Journey to Homeownership program which in its first year has nearly doubled the percentage of its loans to Black and African American homebuyers.

This year, NFC has just announced a new down payment assistance program that can provide up to a $30,000 deferred loan to eligible homebuyers purchasing in Polk County with an approved lender. This program will further expand the organization’s ability to help more people and families realize their dream of owning a home. Learn more about Neighborhood Finance Corporation at www.neighborhoodfinance.org.

This week, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund is sharing stories about some of our provider partners working to ensure housing opportunity for all. Make sure you sign up for e-mail updates to stay in touch when we share more stories like these.

What community in Des Moines looks like

Oakridge Neighborhood provides affordable, quality housing coupled with supportive service programs for residents and others in the community.

Located in the heart of the city just north of Methodist Hospital, the community is home to 1,000 residents, 72% of whom are immigrants and refugees. In total the Oakridge Neighborhood brings together people from 22 countries speaking 21 languages in Des Moines’ urban core.

Oakridge is unique in its ability to provide for the needs of low-income and refugee families through government-assisted permanent housing in conjunction with human services, making it an integral part of the Greater Des Moines housing and human services continuum.

Oakridge has been called a jewel in the heart of the community in part because of its wrap-around supportive services that help residents build community and thrive.

Many of those services focus on kids as shown in this video:

At Oakridge, people are engaged in programs from morning to night. On any given day at the 17-acre campus, you will find kids attending preschool, people participating in workforce programs to boost their household wealth, families receiving needed medical care, and a thriving, close knit community.

Through these services, Oakridge is helping some of Greater Des Moines’ most vulnerable people succeed and thrive.

Learn more about Oakridge Neighborhood at www.oakridgeneighborhood.org.

This week, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund is sharing stories about some of our provider partners working to ensure housing opportunity for all. Make sure you sign up for e-mail updates to stay in touch when we share more stories like these.

We won't let housing opportunity slip away

This is a tough economy for housing progress, but Greater Des Moines has the skills and capability to respond.

It’s going to take continued innovation and investment - and your support - to make things happen.

The challenges facing housing production today can be absolutely daunting.

• Prices have spiked and supply chain and workforce issues continue to roil the industry, leaving housing finance agencies tasked with supporting affordable housing development to scramble to keep projects moving.

• While a majority of Iowans support housing our neighbors need, just a few skeptical neighbors can derail projects.

But providers are innovating to overcome these challenges, with inspirational results. The Polk County Housing Trust Fund provides advocacy and funding to to keep projects on track.

Developers Michael Kiernan and Jack Hatch recently opened Sixth Avenue Flats which offers badly needed workforce housing and unique programs to serve youth experiencing homelessness.

The Trust Fund was able to allocate funds to this project that filled the gap between the project's main source of funding (federal housing tax credits administered by the Iowa Finance Authority) and the cost of construction. The role of "filling the gap" is one we are often called upon to play.

YSS/Iowa Homeless Youth Centers will provide supportive services to youth in the program, who will also benefit from educational opportunities at DMACC’s Urban Campus, across the street.

Speaking to PCHTF for our video tour of the property, DMACC president Rob Denson called the partnership behind the project “the who’s who of helping people.” He is right, and looking inside the property is a reminder that at the end of the day housing is about helping improve the lives of real people in the community.

Check out the video tour below, and sign up if you'd like to stay involved in this work. Your voice in your community to call for continued housing progress can make a huge difference.