More upper-story housing coming to Mt. Pleasant

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Mt. Pleasant will be receiving some more additional upper-story development (housing) as a result of the July 21 meeting of the Great River Housing Trust (GRHT), in Burlington.

Henry County Supervisor Greg Moeller, also a member of the GRHT Board of Directors, reported during Tuesday?s supervisor meeting that GRHT had approved an application from a Mt. Pleasant developer for the project. The project includes four units ? a pair of two-bedroom apartments and two three-bedroom apartments.

Mt. Pleasant City Administrator Brent Schleisman, who is president of the GRHT board, said the development would be located on the west side of the city square.

Total project cost was listed at $390,000. The GRHT contributed $100,000 toward the project in the form of a forgivable loan (grant) and the developer said he is putting $100,000 into the project.

Moeller also said the spec house being built by GRHT on the corner of Pine and Henry streets in Mt. Pleasant should be completed by Labor Day.

The house will sell for around $140,000, Moeller said and three parties have submitted an interest in the house. Spec houses are a new GRHT project and the trust hopes to build two houses annually in the four-county (Henry, Des Moines, Lee and Louisa) area it serves.

GRHT board members were also told that the trust has applied to the Federal Home Loan Bank for $200,000 to rehab 20 homes for property owners who are below 50 percent of the low- to moderate-income threshold.

The grant money will be matched by $50,000 from GRHT. The maximum amount a homeowner can receive through the forgivable loan (grant) program is $12,500 and a zero percent interest loan from the trust. Two Rivers Bank is the participating bank for the program. GRHT will know if it received the grant in early November.

?I really wish there were more applications for housing rehabilitation and down-payment assistance (another GRHT program),? Moeller said. ?This is a good program but not marketed very well.?

Maximum household incomes to qualify for the housing rehabilitation program include the following ? one person, $22,200; two people, $25,350; three people, $28,500; four people, $31,650; five people, $34,200; six people, $36,750; and seven people, $39,250.

Supervisors will meet again in regular session on Thursday, July 28, at 9 a.m., in the Henry County Courthouse.