Resources for
Affordable
Housing
Using HOME
Des Moines Street Village,
Des Moines, Iowa
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| Des Moines Street Village offers affordable units for low-income families in a previously blighted area. |
Through the process of developing a comprehensive housing affordability strategy in the early 1990s, the city of Des Moines identified a shortage of affordable rental housing for low-income and very low-income families. A primary goal of the city's Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy was "to create a housing supply that attracts people to the close-in residential neighborhoods." Accordingly, when a redevelopment site was offered in the Capitol East Urban Revitalization area, creation of affordable housing was a priority.
The city assembled the site by purchasing and demolishing the deteriorated single-family housing that had occupied it and preparing the site for redevelopment. The city then selected Newbury Development Company, an experienced housing developer with several other projects in the area, to redevelop the site by building 42 units of affordable rental housing.
Newbury Development had strong ties to the area and had received the endorsement of the active neighborhood association for the Capitol East area. Moreover, it assembled the financing necessary to keep the units affordable and achieved a site plan and streetscape that met the city's standards for redevelopment.
Des Moines Street Village, completed in the spring of 1995, comprises 24 two-bedroom apartments, 12 three-bedroom units, and 6 three-bedroom townhouses. All 42 units are occupied by families with incomes less than 60 percent of median. In fact, about half the families living at Des Moines Street Village have incomes less than 30 percent of median. Slightly more than half the households receive Section 8 rental assistance through the Des Moines Public Housing Authority, which allocated a portion of its project-based assistance to the development. The project was completely leased before construction was complete.
The development includes outdoor seating areas and a tot lot. A resident manager is available to assist tenants in caring for their units and ensuring that the entire property remains well maintained.
Clearly, Des Moines Street Village accomplished the goals of increasing the supply of affordable family rental housing and drawing families back to a downtown neighborhood that had been losing population. By drawing on a wide variety of funding sources, the developers were able to ensure that the units are affordable to very low-income households, those who are often most difficult to serve. Indeed, the project has been so successful that since its completion, the developer has been involved in creating additional affordable housing on an adjacent site.
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Copyright 2000
Affordable Housing and HOME
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO)
630 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001-3736
Telephone: (202) 289-3500
Fax: (202) 289-4949