A program in its 15th year is now offering grants of up to $5,000 to Ames and Story County homeowners who want to make mechanical, plumbing, electrical or structural improvements and repairs to their homes.

Although the money is available annually on a first-come, first-serve basis, interest for a program that would cover rental houses, like the ones many students live in, has been low.

Vanessa Baker-Latimer, housing coordinator for the Ames Planning and Housing Department, said the program was a continuation of housing and renewal programs that started in the 1980s.

“Our data showed that Iowa was one of those states that had an older housing stock, and we wanted to maintain our existing neighborhoods,” Baker-Latimer said.

The Ames/Story County Partnership administers the program, along with other housing programs.

It was founded by a $400,000 grant from the state of Iowa, money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and matching money from cities in the partnership. Approximately $100,000 has been budgeted for the repairs this year.

Rental properties, like the ones many students live in in Campustown, are not covered by the program. Baker-Latimer said the partnership had offered a program for rental housing in the past, but low interest from rental property owners and the low amount of rental properties through the rest of Story County caused the rental repair program’s end.

“Back several years ago, we tried [a program] because some communities had done it,” Baker-Latimer said. “There aren’t that many rentals in Story County, because most of them are in Ames, and in the city, landlords are required to maintain a certain standard already.”

Ryan McNair, junior in management information systems, rents a house in Campustown and said he feels the city putting money into homeowner’s properties would have a better impact than if it put the money into rental housing.

“A lot of people don’t treat a rental property as well as they would a house,” McNair said. “When’s the last time you heard someone say, ‘Oh, I’m proud of my rental home?'”

McNair said he and other students made improvements to their properties, but some people would feel left out when they learned of the program.

“There are going to be some people, probably students, who will feel like they’ve been excluded, but I think that number will be pretty small,” he said.

Baker-Latimer said if students and other residents in the Partnership’s area are interested in a housing program, Ames would consider it.

“We’d look into it, but whenever we use federal and state dollars, they go to certain income levels and have other strings attached,” she said.