Rural Housing Assessment Grant Program

Empower Rural Iowa

Helping Rural Communities with Housing Development

The Rural Housing Assessment Grant program supports the use of publicly available, online information and rural community efforts to interpret publicly available hard data to implement changes through development codes, local ordinances, and housing incentives specific to individual community needs.

View the Rural Housing Readiness Assessment Informational Webinar from July 18, 2024.

In partnership with Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach’s Rural Housing Readiness Assessment workshops, program funding will empower communities to assess the current development environment and enact changes resulting in the creation of policies and procedures attractive to potential developers.

The program is administered by the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s (IEDA) Center for Rural Revitalization in consultation with the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative Task Forces and ISU Extension and Outreach.

  • Local city and county governments, or federally recognized tribal governments physically located in Iowa.
  • Projects/programs must exist in and benefit a community in Iowa with a population of 20,000 or fewer and not contiguous to a city with a population of 40,000 or greater. If a countywide project, must be in one of the 88 least populous counties.
  • Application window opens July 1, 2024 on IowaGrants.gov
  • Please review the Grant Guidelines found in the Resources area below for additional information on eligibility requirements, use of funding, reporting requirements and the review process. A copy of the scoring rubric is included.
  • The deadline to apply for funding is 4:00pm CST, August 30, 2024. Applicants must apply via IowaGrants.gov, the online application portal. Applications will not be accepted in any other format. Late, incomplete, or ineligible applications will not be considered. Applicants must create an IowaGrants.gov login to view the full application for the program.
For more information, contact:

Robin Bostrom

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