Affordable housing, some for youths too old for foster care, opens on Des Moines' Sixth Avenue
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Young people who have aged out of foster care will now have an affordable place to call home — plus the services they need — with the opening of the Sixth Avenue Flats in Des Moines on Thursday.
Five of the 42 units at 1230 Sixth Ave. will be reserved for homeless youths who are 18 or more — too old to remain in foster care. Twelve units are for tenants with Section 8 housing vouchers, and the remainder are for renters of any background who either earn no more than 60% of the area median income, which in 2021 was $38,346 for a single person, or 30%, which was $19,200 a year.
"We have a group of citizens that don't have any parents. They have nobody to go to," said Jack Hatch, owner of Hatch Development and a former state senator. He partnered on the project with Michael Kiernan, head of Kiernan Development, and Youth & Shelter Services, a nonprofit organization that serves youth through mentorship programs, addiction recovery and crisis housing
YSS also serves as the lead agency of the Iowa Aftercare Services Network, a statewide program that provides support to young people from ages of 18 to 23 who are too old to remain in foster care.
The flats project will "help kids who have no parents continue to dream and to have a future," Hatch said.
Young people who live at Sixth Avenue Flats will have a case manager from YSS — which will have an office on the first floor — to help with job searches and other services, as well as rental assistance from Primary Healthcare. In addition, Des Moines Area Community College has committed to giving youth who live at the Sixth Avenue Flats a free college and career counseling course, said President Rob Denson. The building is about a half mile from DMACC and also is on a major bus route.
GreenState Credit Union also will have an office there to help all tenants — and neighbors — with financial management.
Debi Durham, executive director of the Iowa Finance Authority, which awarded the developers $826,000 in low-income housing tax credits, attended the celebration and praised them for opening doors to young people in need while at the same time setting a standard for affordable housing in the state.
A recent Iowa Finance Authority study found the state needs 47,000 new homes in the next decade to accommodate population growth. Nearly 40% of those units need to have rents or mortgages that are affordable to Iowans earning 80% or less of the area median income, which in Iowa is a maximum of $47,964 a year.
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"They not only built the doors to the new homes we see today, but they built much more than that," Durham said. "They built doors of opportunity, education, jobs and a support system for big dreams and aspirations for youth who will soon call the Sixth Avenue Flats home."
The units are a mix of one-, two- and three-bedrooms apartments with 677 to 1,300 square feet of floor space. Rent is $600 a month for a one-bedroom unit, $800 for a two-bedroom and $900 for a three-bedroom.
In addition to YSS' office, the first floor has six live-work lofts on the street level. The units have street-level access, serving as commercial storefronts for tenants living live in the unit's upper-story loft, and continuing a renaissance along the 6th Avenue Corridor business district.
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Every unit comes with a washer and dryer, tall ceilings, updated appliances and spacious closets and bedrooms.
"This is what the future of affordable housing looks like," Hatch said. "And we are happy that it begins right here in Des Moines, Iowa."
Kim Norvell covers growth and development for the Register. Reach her at knorvell@dmreg.com or 515-284-8259. Follow her on Twitter @KimNorvellDMR.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Affordable housing on Des Moines' Sixth Avenue corridor opens
