The grants aren't huge, but in a small Iowa town a $50,000 grant can be what finally gets a stalled housing project moving. On Oct. 13, Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Economic Development Authority announced $385,000 in Empower Rural Iowa grants for 15 rural communities.
According to the state's announcement, the money will help expand housing, strengthen child care and encourage business and community growth. For contractors, the housing awards are the ones to watch.
Housing 2.0 awards
The biggest piece is the Rural Innovation: Housing 2.0 program, which supports creative ways to increase and improve rural Iowa's housing supply. After reviewing 12 applications, the state awarded $50,000 each to Atlantic, Eldora, Greenfield and Knoxville. Elkader received $25,000.
Eldora plans to remove six to eight vacant, dilapidated homes that can't be rehabbed and turn them into lots ready for new housing. Working with local partners, the city will handle property acquisition, environmental reviews, asbestos inspections and demolition, then package the cleared sites to attract a developer. Eldora hopes to fill a gap in homes priced around $150,000 to $250,000 while cleaning up its neighborhoods.
Greenfield is still dealing with the housing shortage made worse by the 2024 tornado. Paramount Development of Clive will keep and relocate 10 federally assisted senior cottages to a 1-acre site in town. Six modular homes now in storage will be rehabbed and set on permanent foundations. Four occupied cottages will be rehabbed and moved as they become vacant. The project will provide 10 affordable, accessible rental homes for seniors earning 30% or less of the area median income.
Elkader will create a housing development tool kit for 11 residential lots in its Breezy Summit subdivision. Several of the lots are suited to Homes for Iowa, a nonprofit that trains incarcerated Iowans in the building trades. Others will need different home designs. The project will develop site-specific concepts, including floor plans, exterior designs and 3D visuals, and gather financing options from local lenders to help builders and buyers move toward construction.
The state's announcement didn't describe the Atlantic and Knoxville projects.
Five more towns are starting earlier in the process. The cities of Alta, Avoca, Bellevue, Washington and Winterset each received a $20,000 Rural Housing Readiness Assessment Grant. They'll work with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach to assess housing needs and guide local development plans.
The Algona Growth Alliance received a $20,000 Rural Child Care Planning grant. It will work with the national nonprofit First Children's Finance to analyze local data and find ways to meet the area's child care needs.
Four cities, Bloomfield, Centerville, Sheldon and Sidney, each received $10,000 through the Rural BOOST program, which pairs community and business leaders with a team of experts to plan their next steps for growth.
In Centerville, the state noted that despite more than $13 million in private downtown investment since 2014, first-floor commercial vacancies are at their highest level in about a decade. A BOOST team will help the local chamber, which does business as Promoting Appanoose & Centerville Together (PACT Iowa), support entrepreneurs, plan for business transitions and put vacant spaces to use.
In Bloomfield, Fairfield-based Pathfinders Resource Conservation & Development Inc. will bring local partners together on a shared communications strategy for the city and Davis County.
Who can apply
The grants are run by IEDA's Center for Rural Revitalization and funded by the Iowa Legislature for the Governor's Empower Rural Iowa Initiative. They're for Iowa communities with fewer than 20,000 residents that aren't next to cities of 40,000 or more.
Applicants have to provide matching funds. They're judged on economic need, partnerships, project readiness and how well they fit the state's goals. The state points interested communities to the Center for Rural Revitalization's webpage for eligibility rules and upcoming grant rounds.
Why it matters for Contractors
These are small grants, but they're aimed at work contractors do. Eldora's plan calls for asbestos inspections and demolition of six to eight homes, and the cleared lots are meant to draw a developer to build homes in the $150,000 to $250,000 range. Greenfield's project needs crews to rehab modular homes and cottages, pour permanent foundations and relocate occupied units. Elkader is putting together plans and lender options to make it easier for builders to start on its 11 Breezy Summit lots. And the five readiness assessments could lead to housing projects down the road. Contractors in or near these towns should reach out to city hall and, in Greenfield, to Paramount Development about upcoming bids.