Cedar Rapids Today

The city council of Marion, Iowa continued their public hearing on a Housing Needs Assessment.

The Marion city council has been reviewing applications for disaster recovery housing funds. They started a public hearing on this issue early in December which was continued at the Dec. 22 meeting. The applications would be for Hoth Flats Housing Project, the Winslow House Senior Apartments Housing Project, The Ridge at Indian Creek 2nd Addition Townhouses Housing Project and Belltower Lofts Housing Project.

The need for housing development projected was determined by the city of Marion upon review of new housing issues and the lack of housing in the city. Marion has coordinated with local organizations that handle various community needs to determine the depth and width of different needs in the local population. A housing needs assessment report indicates a need for 300-375 Single Family and Multifamily Units, 158-200 shallow subsidy rental units, 55-80 active adult shallow subsidy rental units, and 70-80 independent living units.

East Central Iowa Council of Governments (ECICOG) representative Paula Mitchell presented the numbers from the assessment report. Numbers indicate that there are about 16,821 residential dwellings in Marion, of which 72% are owner-occupied, 20% are rental and 8% are mobile homes. The average cost of a single-family home in the region is $243,383, an increase of 27% from two years ago. Homes are currently averaging about 16 days on the market before they are sold. 

"36% of renters in the community are cost-burdened, which means that they're paying more than 30% of their income for housing costs. Of those, nearly half are severely cost burden, which means they're paying more than 50% of their income for housing costs," Mitchell said to the council. "The current homeowner vacancy rate is 0.6%, and rental vacancy rate is 1 to 2%. So both of those figures are below market equilibrium, which is considered to be about 5%. So it is indicative of a very tight housing market."

The Belltower Lofts Housing project is looking to save a historical church, and residents came out to say they were very grateful and supportive of these efforts. The rest of the housing developments were also supported by the council and the community, and the council voted to submit applications on behalf of all the developments mentioned for the recovery of the community.