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Announcing New Events for Affordable Housing Week!
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Mark your calendars for April 21-26! Our second annual Affordable Housing Week has something for everyone. Your favorite events from last year will be joined by new opportunities to learn about affordable housing and to get involved in the community. We will be adding several educational sessions featuring local and national experts throughout the week, including a presence at the 2014 Business Record Commercial Real Estate Trends and Issues Forum sponsored by The Tomorrow Plan. Along with Primary Health Care, we will kick off our local 100,000 Homes Campaign effort to help our homeless neighbors find new homes. On top of all that, your favorite events from last year will return. ASK Studio will again help us present the Design Challenge competition for local high school students, and we will lead our ninth community bus tour. All in all, it's a week of events you won't want to miss!
See our full calendar of events here, and watch out for new events as they are announced soon! |
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Metro Home Improvement Program Helping homeowners make much-needed repairs | |
Ten cities in Polk County have joined together to offer a housing rehabilitation program for their citizens. The cities of Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Grimes, Johnston, Pleasant Hill, Polk City, Urbandale, West Des Moines, and Windsor Heights entered into a cooperative agreement to preserve the existing affordable housing stock in their communities. Currently the cities, in cooperation, provide a program called the Metro Home Improvement Program (MHIP).
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The Results Are In! Board elections bring new faces, new leadership |
The Polk County Housing Trust Fund held its Annual Meeting on February 7, 2014, when the Board of Directors elected two new members, elected new leadership, and thanked three retiring members for their service. We'd like to introduce you to a new face on the board, Kathy Gray, Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and offer a special welcome back for a familiar face, Lt. Joe Gonzalez. Continue reading below to get to know our two new Board members and see who will be leading the PCHTF in 2014!
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Finding 100,000 Homes for the Homeless Program featured on "60 Minutes" comes to DSM |
To end homelessness, just give homeless people a place to live. It sounds too good to be true, but the national 100,000 Homes Campaign is doing just that. And it's working: local teams in over 230 cities have housed more than 83,000 people. Its success in tackling this difficult task led Anderson Cooper to profile the campaign this month on CBS' "60 Minutes." Now, a local team will work to bring the 100,000 Homes Campaign to Des Moines.
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Local Rents Continue to Rise
Annual survey illustrates need for low-cost rentals
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CBRE Hubbell's 2014 installment of the annual Apartment Survey, released last month, shows that rent in the Des Moines market continues to rise. Rent for the average 2-bedroom apartment in our region has risen to $781 per month, a 3% increase from $758 last year. Rents have risen more steeply for the smallest and largest units available: rent for efficiencies rose 5% and rent for 3-bedroom units rose 6%. While these increases are modest compared to skyrocketing rent in larger cities, rising housing cost remains a major problem for low- to moderate-income households in Central Iowa.
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Debbie Fisher Has the Floor A good time to be the new Board chair |
Timing is everything.
It's apparent in a great golf swing, the telling of a funny joke, the taking of a spectacular photo and the transformation of an organization to have the greatest impact ever.
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Come ride the bus with us as we explore affordable housing issues in our area! Our 2014 tours will be held April 25, July 18, and October 17. To register, click HERE.
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Read Past Issues of this eNewsletter
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To read past issues of our monthly eNewsletter, click HERE.
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Follow Us:
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Contact Us 108 3rd Street Ste. 350 Des Moines, IA 50309 Phone: (515) 282-3233 Fax: (515) 282-8444
Please make sure that you add info@pchtf.org to your address book to ensure delivery of email communications from Polk County Housing Trust Fund.
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