Charles City housing task force set to educate landlords and tenants

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@CharlesCityPress.com

A committee of involved community members is working to address Charles City’s housing needs by supporting housing improvements at all levels.

While the Charles City Housing Task Force has long been a part of the Charles City Area Development Corp., the group has been reinvigorated with a new surge of activity under co-chairs Emily Garden and Mayor Dean Andrews to address the city’s housing shortage.

“In the last six months the committee has become a lot more active,” said Andrews.

Charles City has identified housing needs across the board, with a prediction of needing 414 new units of housing, from apartments to starter homes to high-end family units, by 2025. While Garden says reaching that goal is not likely, they are still committed to taking a multi-pronged approach to address the issue.

“It’s a very real reality for a lot of people,” said Garden. “To actually do something about it is what we’re aiming to do.”

There are three areas of housing that the task force is honed in on to address the city’s housing needs: new construction in undeveloped portions of the city, in-fill construction on vacant lots where a house used to be, and the preservation and improvement of the existing housing stock.

On the first two areas, the task force is meeting with a range of potential developers, from those interested in building new high-end homes to those who keep their costs low by building uniform starter homes on vacant lots.

“We’re looking at different entities that could make new housing at different levels,” said Andrews.

Each area has its own challenges to overcome and those various challenges will have to be handled in their own way in order to increase the housing stock for residents of all income levels.

“We understand and are aware that new construction is expensive and isn’t a feasible option for a lot of people,” said Garden. “We have to have something down the middle.”

With a third of Charles City residents renting their home, landlords also have a big role to play in improving the community’s housing situation.

Recently, the task force hosted an informational meeting with area landlords, educating them on changes to the city code and connecting them with services and resources they may not have been aware of.

“They were really engaged and inquisitive,” said Garden.

From standardized leasing agreements to information on how to manage water billing between tenants, the group hopes to help landlords in the community with some of the complexities of renting.

“This would help give them some opportunities,” said Andrews. “Just to give them some resources that maybe they’re not aware of.”

The meeting was so well received that additional meetings are in the works Garden said. The group is already planning another meeting for June where they will bring in somebody from the Sheriff’s Office to detail the eviction process, informing them of how eviction does and doesn’t work.

“It’s important that landlords understand the process behind eviction,” said Garden.

Along with meeting with landlords, the task force is also looking at setting up informational programs for tenants, providing information about their own resources and responsibilities, such as how to handle day-to-day home maintenance.

“Not everybody has experience in cleaning a home,” said Garden. “Landlords need tenants to be caring for their properties.”

From supporting new developments to helping protect the city’s existing housing stock, Garden hopes that the task force can chip away at the city’s housing shortage and facilitate the growth that the city is seeing from its industrial expansions.

“We’re in a great spot in the community and we need to be able to support that in the future,” said Garden.