Council approves consultant to help Housing Authority set up development arm, pilot affordable rental project

The Iowa City Council on a 6-0 vote approved a resolution authorizing the Housing Authority to procure a consultant to help the authority establish a housing development arm and to support a pilot affordable rental housing project.

The consultant will produce a strategic plan and staffing plan, advise on legal and organizational structure and financial capacity, and act as the developer-advisor for design, construction and closeout of a pilot project the Housing Authority proposed under a HUD pro‑housing grant.

Rachel Carter, housing administrator for the Housing Authority, said the consultant will “essentially develop a strategic plan and a staffing plan, and [look at] legal, organizational structure, our financial capacity” and will “serve as our advisor and essentially our developer in helping us with the development project that we wrote we would complete in our pro housing grant that we were awarded last summer.”

Carter told council the pilot project is expected to include roughly 18 to 36 affordable rental units and that funds for the consultant contract will come from the Housing Authority’s pro‑housing grant from HUD. She said the Housing Authority currently owns and manages about 16 properties, roughly 10 of which operate as affordable housing, and that there are “over a thousand households on our Housing Choice Voucher Program waitlist living or working in our jurisdiction that need subsidized and affordable rental housing.”

Councilors asked about procurement and timeline. Carter said staff issued an RFP, received three responses, interviewed candidates, checked references and selected a firm with national experience helping housing authorities establish development capacity. She said the consultant’s work on the development arm and strategic plan is expected to take about six to nine months, and that the pilot project work must be completed within the timeframe required by the pro‑housing grant.

The resolution was moved and seconded, and passed on roll call with council recording unanimous support (6-0). The council did not change funding sources; Carter said the contract will be paid from awarded HUD pro‑housing grant funds.

The vote authorizes procurement only; council did not commit additional city general fund dollars at this meeting. Carter said the consultant’s work will inform any future staffing or city funding needs, and that the Housing Authority expects to return with clearer recommendations for staffing and fiscal requirements after the consultant completes the plan.