About
The Iowa Thriving Communities initiative will provide communities that are leveraging innovative methods to attract housing opportunities for their workforce with a chance to be recognized for their efforts. A limited number of communities will be awarded the designation, which comes with highly sought after scoring points for the Federal Housing Tax Credit and/or Workforce Housing Tax Credit programs. The scoring points will be available through the end of the calendar year following the community’s designation as an Iowa Thriving Community. Contact thriving@iowafinance.com with questions.
Communities designated as Iowa Thriving Communities in 2024 are ineligible to apply for the 2025 designation cycle. However, communities may be granted one-year designation extensions, which will be considered on a limited, case-by-case basis.
What Does This Mean?
Developers will be highly incentivized to select a community that has been designated as an Iowa Thriving Community for a proposed development through the 2025 Federal Housing Tax Credit or Workforce Housing Tax Credit programs.
Both programs accept applications from developers for specific housing development proposals through an intensive and competitive scoring process. The extra points awarded to a development through the Iowa Thriving Communities designation increase the likelihood that a project may be awarded credits.
All cities in Iowa are eligible to apply for Iowa Thriving Community designation. IFA intends to award the designation to both rural and urban community applicants, so there is no minimum or maximum population limit. Because IFA intends to award more designations to rural communities than urban, we are providing the following definition of “rural” for informational purposes only: communities with a population of 20,000 or fewer and not contiguous to a city with a population of 40,000 or greater shall be considered “rural.” Both rural and urban cities are encouraged to apply!
Scoring
Applications will be scored on the following six categories:
Financial Support
Iowa Thriving Community Attributes
Planning and Assessment
Proposed Neighborhood or Site for Housing Development
Strategic Leadership and Partnerships
Workforce Attraction and Retention
For more information contact the Iowa Thriving Communities team at thriving@iowafinance.com
