About
The initiative will provide communities that are leveraging innovative methods to attract housing opportunities for their workforce with a chance to be recognized for their efforts. A limited number of communities will be awarded the designation, which comes with highly sought after and lucrative scoring points for the Federal Housing Tax Credit and/or Workforce Housing Tax Credit programs. The scoring points will be available through the end of the calendar year following the community’s designation as an Iowa Thriving Community.
What Does This Mean?
Developers will be highly incentivized to select a community that has been designated as an Iowa Thriving Community for a proposed development through the 2024 Federal Housing Tax Credit or Workforce Housing Tax Credit programs. Both programs accept applications from developers for specific housing development proposals through an intensive and competitive scoring process. The extra points awarded to a development through the Iowa Thriving Communities designation increase the likelihood that a project may be awarded credits.
Iowa Thriving Communities Definition of Rural
Communities with a population of 20,000 or fewer and not contiguous to a city with a population of 40,000 or greater.
Scoring
Applications will be scored on the following six categories:
Financial Support
Iowa Thriving Community Attributes
Planning and Assessment
Proposed Neighborhood or Site for Housing Development
Strategic Leadership and Partnerships
Workforce Attraction and Retention
APPLICATION TIMELINE
May 15: Application Period Opens
July 17: Application Deadline
Week of August 7: In-person finalist pitches at IFA | IEDA office in Des Moines
Week of August 14: Selection announcement to winners
Sept. 6-7: Iowa Thriving Community representatives attend Housing Iowa Conference in Cedar Rapids to present their pitches to developers and other stakeholders.
For more information contact the Iowa Thriving Communities team at thriving@iowafinance.com.
