Hunter
04/20/22
Iowa City’s City Council unanimously approved a relief package for residents of the Forest View Manufactured Housing Community.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting, the members approved an allocation of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to give residents enough money to move out of their current residences and find a new place to live ahead of the park’s closing.
The park has become dilapidated over the years, with mobile homes roofs covered with tarps, mismatched siding repairs, and some vacant homes rotting away. Back in June 2019, a developer planned to re-imagine the property with mixed-use residential and commercial construction, and relocating the residents into rent-to-own affordable housing.
Blackbird, based out of Des Moines, told KWWL in November 2020 that the project had bogged down due to a lack of commercial tenant interest and issues with nailing down an affordable housing agreement with the city.
The relocation package would allow $15,750 per household to support moving expenses and paying increased rent for a two-year-period. The funding is available for anyone who lived at Forest View at the time the conditional zoning agreement was signed in June 2019 and have a household income less than $40,626. The TV station reports that the city is exploring ways to get funding to the five families still at the trailer park who don’t meet that threshold.
The Rescue Act Plan funds can be used back to March 2020. Payments to those who moved out between June 2019 and March 2020 will come from the city’s General Fund.
The Council made the decision to move forward with the relocation funding because of fears that the park would close on short notice and leave residents there with no place to live and no assistance.
The initial date for move-out was proposed to be December 9th. Future development plans at the site will be discussed after residents move out.