The Ames City Council will discuss a resolution selecting partners on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Development Proposal (LIHTC) and the Iowa State University Child Care task force final report as part of their Tuesday night agenda.

Back in July, the Council provided direction to staff to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a low-income housing project located at 321 State Ave. and asked the RFP address three main objectives.

These objectives include:

• Family-based affordable housing 

• Development of 15-50 housing units 

• Compatible design elements with the surrounding residential homes 

• A highly competitive project for the Iowa Finance Authority’s (IFA) scoring system

From the request, the city received seven proposals in response to requests. To meet the listed objectives and formulate a highly competitive LIHTC application, developers may propose housing types such as single family, townhomes, duplexes or multi-family apartment units.

The developer proposals received:

• MVAH Partners 

• Newbury Living 

• Hatch Development 

• Sand Companies 

• The Commonwealth Companies 

• Excel Development. 

The low-income housing will be developed on 2.78 acres of land on a site known as the Baker Subdivision.

The city obtained ownership of a 10+ acre tract of the Baker Subdivision from the use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. The land is located near the city’s first Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area (NRSA), allowing for flexibility in the development of mixed-income housing units to meet Community Development Block Grant requirements, according to the request for proposal.

In the nonagenda packet the Council will address the final report for Iowa State University’s Child Care Task Force. Back in 2019, to address the lack of high-quality, affordable child care available to the Iowa State University community, the task forces were charged with developing a set of recommendations.

As the university and city continue to navigate the impacts of the pandemic, COVID-19 has underscored the urgency of this issue, according to the report.

The task force concluded there was no single solution to the shortage of child care in the Ames community and compiled a list of short and long-term recommendations to prove direction going forward. 

Such steps include repurposing the current program space, suitable for infant and toddler program space, building off the result of the initial Iowa State University Student Experience Survey and lead efforts to outline a flexible work program for staff and to seek funding to support scholarships for student parents.

Long-term recommendations include increasing subsidy for student child care, leveraging partnerships with organizations such as United Way and the Chamber of Commerce and creating leadership committees to pursue a partnership for expanding child care accessibility.

The task force recognized the challenges COVID-19 has brought forth but states the access to affordable child care has never been so great, according to a memo from the task force.

The City Council meeting can be viewed from the Ames Channel 12 on YouTube.