City prioritizes quality over quantify, rehabbing 4 houses

While there were originally nine homes included in the rehabilitation part of the Community Neighborhood Revitalization grant, a variety of factors have brought that number down to four homes. The Creston City Council approved this change Tuesday due to a lack of qualifying applicants and possible purchase restrictions.

In July 2024, Creston was awarded the CNRG, providing a total of $1.75 million from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. In order to apply, the city had to put forward a complete plan of how the money would be spent and how it would help the city. Creston competed against three other Iowa towns for this award.

Part of this project includes rehabilitating housing in the Uptown area. Buildings eligible for the rehab project span from Division Street to Birch Street and from the railroad to Howard Street. Homes must be inside this box on the map; buildings on the east side of Birch Street, west side of Division Street and north side of Howard Street are not included.

Southwest Iowa Planning Council Executive Director John McCurdy said despite having applications open for several months, the project’s housing committee were only able to forward three approvable units to the council.

“We applied for nine and would love to help nine, but we’ve had the application process open now for several months and we’ve had over 30 inquiries. Of those, many were outside the target area and could not be helped,” McCurdy said. “Then we had three who completed the application who were over income, and we had another three that for whatever reason withdrew, so in the end, we had three approvable applicants.”

Due to grant requirements, if five or more housing units are included, each unit would be required to abide by the Buy America Build America Act. This would mean all construction materials must have been made in the United States.

McCurdy said that while supporting American manufacturers is always good, many companies are less likely to bid on the project due to the added work.

“It’s one thing if you’re doing a sewer project to get all the pipes made in the U.S., but this is literally, contractors are going to go to Akins and buy all that stuff,” McCurdy said. “The paperwork involved in that? It’s already difficult sometimes to get folks to bid on these government projects, and then to tell them they need to bring all the receipts for everything they bought is tough.”

Bringing the total number of units in the project down to four would leave room for one more application while also removing the need to abide by BABA.

McCurdy said that while this would mean less grant money is being spent on housing, that doesn’t mean extra money could be reallocated to the approved homes.

“Unfortunately, you’re not dividing the same amount of money from nine for four,” McCurdy said. “There’s a per unit max, which is about $32,000. That will stay the same, the max.”

The remaining funds would be moved to another part of the grant, the location yet to be decided.

The council approved moving from nine to four units to be rehabbed in the project. They also approved the three homes suggested by the project’s housing committee for the project. These homes are 302 1/2 N. Walnut St., 304 N. Walnut St. and 306 1/2 N. Elm St.