The city of Cedar Rapids showed off a new single-family housing development Thursday designed to help ease a housing shortage. The development used state block grant funding and provides 94 homes and 83 condominiums. City Manager Jim Prosser calls it a "signature project" showing city and state cooperation.
Prosser says it’s a good investment because they take the funds and turn them around into results very, very quickly. "And results that directly meet the targets of the state, including helping people with housing, but also helping create jobs," Prosser says. Ben Bush, his wife Jenna and their two children are moving into one of the homes on the northwest side of Cedar Rapids.
Bush says the program offers a 30% down payment toward the home. The homes cannot cost more than $180,000 dollars. Twenty Cedar Rapids homebuilders helped build the homes. Those who are in the program must be at or below 100-percent of the area median income. The homebuyers must maintain the property as their primary residence for five years.