(Spencer)– The Spencer City Council Tuesday evening approved a Main Street 2nd Floor Apartment Disaster Housing Grant program. City Manager Kevin Robinson says it’s being made possible in part through disaster funding from the state and the Iowa Economic Development Authority…
“So the state of Iowa has $400,000 earmarked for Spencer, Iowa, to match dollar for dollar renovations of second floor apartments. They’ll go up to $50,000 per apartment for a total of eight units that can come back on line. So Nancy (Naive) did her work for a couple of months contacting business owners, found some who are interested. One of the requirements to receive the eligibility for the $400,000 from the state of Iowa is that the local government needs to participate. Unlike most programs where there’s a specific designated match in the program because this is disaster-related, it’s very flexible. So we presented some ideas to the council, the council gave staff some feedback, we massaged that. So the local match will be a maximum of $5,000; it will be a 25 percent match per dollar of private investment into the apartment. So for example, if the building owner puts a thousand dollars in, they’re eligible for 25 dollars of city funding to come into that. The city will not match any state funding that comes in, it will only match the private side.”
Robinson says the total exposure to the city of Spencer, should the program max out, would be $40,000…
“I would anticipate we’ll end up spending less than the $40 but that’s our total exposure on this, so it’s a good project for the downtown, it opens up apartments. These are not renovations of existing rental spaces downtown; the state requires that these are currently places that are not rented out, so they’re not available to be on line, this is a rehab project. So we’re excited to partner with IEDA and we thank the council for their willingness to partner in it as well.”
Robinson says the city’s share of the funds will come from the city’s Substandard Housing Fund.
